'General Hospital's' Vanessa Marcil is daytime TV 'fanatic'

Vanessa Marcil is going back to daytime television, but she isn't sure if she's going to the Daytime Emmys.

Morning and afternoon stars and shows will be celebrated Sunday (June 27) in CBS' telecast of the 37th annual event from Las Vegas. If "Las Vegas" and "Beverly Hills, 90210" alum Marcil isn't there in person, she'll be watching at home.

She'll also be cheering her friends on -- especially those she'll soon rejoin on ABC's "General Hospital," since the lively 2003 Daytime Emmy winner reprises the part of Brenda Barrett beginning Wednesday, Aug. 11.

"I love a lot of the people in daytime," Marcil tells Zap2it. "I feel like I was raised by Oprah [Winfrey], just through watching her shows, then I got the joy of becoming friends with her. I've gotten some of the best advice ever from her. One thing she told me was, 'When everybody's talking about you, that just means you're doing well.' And the other thing she said was, 'Never let anybody else sign your checks!'

"I also adore Ellen [DeGeneres]," Marcil adds,  "and I love to do her show. If you can sit next to her for a few minutes, you are recharged for a year.'

And that's not all, Marcil says: "There are just a lot of great things going on in daytime. I'm a 'Dr. Phil' fanatic, then I became a 'Dr. Oz' fanatic, then I became a Nate [Berkus] fanatic. And my friend Jillian [Michaels, the fitness trainer] is on 'The Doctors,' which I would die to be on."

With all of that stated, Marcil maintains those are still "the least of the reasons I would be watching the Daytime Emmys. Then there are all the people I grew up with on 'General Hospital,' and all the people there who I think deserve an award every year. They would be Maurice Benard, Steve Burton, Sarah Brown, Kimberly McCullough and Jonathan Jackson, now that he's back.

"It's a special show, 'General Hospital.' To watch Tony Geary and Genie Francis (alias the serial's Luke and Laura) act ... when they came back on the show when I was there, I would sit on the set and watch those two and think, 'It doesn't get any better.'"

[UPDATE: Since Marcil talked to Zap2it, it has been announced that she will not only attend but be a presenter at the 2010 Daytime Emmys, held Sunday, June 27 in Las Vegas and airing at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.]

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Photo credit: ABC