Ricky Martin Gives Carol Burnett Lots of Hand Massages in Apple TV+’s Palm Royale

Carol Burnett, who recurred as Verla on All My Children, and Ricky Martin, who appeared as Miguel on General Hospital, share more in common than daytime soap operas. The two are in the new Apple TV+ series Palm Royale, which stars Kristen Wiig of Saturday Night Live fame as Maxine, who is angling to get into Palm Beach high society.

When Carol Met Ricky

Palm Royale, per the show’s press materials, tells the story of Maxine, who is trying to cross the “impermeable line between the haves and the have-nots. The show asks the question: “How much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to get what someone else has?” Set in the year 1969, Palm Royale is about outsiders fighting to belong.

Burnett stars as the secretive Norma D’ellacourt, Maxine’s mother-in-law, the grande dame of Palm Beach’s upper class. Martin is Robert Diaz, a Korean War vet and employee of the town’s premiere club. He resides in Norma’s pool house.

“All I had to do is hear who was going to be in it. Kristen, Laura [Dern, who plays Linda Shaw and is also an executive producer on the show; Big Little Lies], Ricky, it’s just an incredible cast,” Burnett shared with at the TV Critics Winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif. that Soap Hub attended. “I didn’t even have to read the script. I just wanted to work with these people and get to know them, and go out to dinner, and you know, and have some fun. Of course, in the first few episodes, I’m in a coma, and I still got paid. So, I mean, it was a slam dunk.”

The legendary funny lady, beloved for her variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, which ran from 1967 to 1978 and so much more, hastened to add, “Well, I did read the script. I was kidding before…[just] to know that I could have the fun.” Watch for Burnett and Martin’s characters to “play doctor.” “I know that sounds kind of lascivious, but they really did play doctor,” she adds. “To work with Ricky in some of those scenes was just heaven.”

Martin, who talked to Soap Hub back in 2018 about being in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, came to Palm Royale courtesy of attending an Oscar party. He made a connection there that led to his being cast in the show. “I was just fascinated by the opportunity to work with such incredible legends,” he says. “[Palm Royale] is a comedy, it’s a tear-jerker, it’s thought-provoking. It’s a very powerful show, and I’m very honored to be a part of it.”

Maxine may initially be in a coma but Burnett’s presence on set is nothing but lively, Martin says. “The energy that she brought on stage every day, it doesn’t matter if the call time was 5:00 in the morning, it was light, it was love,” the actor/singer says. “Even though she was in a coma, she was giving me so much as an actor. I will always be forever grateful just to have the opportunity to be with her on stage. I have her a lot of hand massages.”