Y&R’s Michelle Stafford Reveals the Secret Origin of the Ladies Who Lunch

Michelle Stafford, nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress at the Daytime Emmys this year for her role as Phyllis on Young and the Restless, gets to do more than attend the awards ceremony on Friday, June 7. For nearly 20 years, the nominees for best actress noms have gathered for a pre-awards luncheon. Stafford is sharing with Soap Hub how that tradition all came together.

Dining with Daytime Divas

There are six actresses nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress this year — not the usual five — but one year, 2005, there were a record eight nominees! That impressive list included Stafford, Susan Flannery (Stephanie, Bold and the Beautiful), One Life to Live‘s Erika Slezak (Viki) and Kassie DePaiva (Blair), Martha Byrne (Lily, As the World Turns), Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis, General Hospital), Juliet Mills (Tabitha, Passions), and Kim Zimmer (Reva, Guiding Light).

“Flannery took the women out to lunch every time she was nominated,” Stafford says. “She thought it would be a cool thing for all the gals to get together.”

One year, Stafford says, Flannery had left the lunch table, and paid the bill for everyone. When she returned the other nominees realized that she’d picked up the tab. “We were all like, ‘No, Susan, no!’ There were eight people. [Wryly] I believe there was alcohol [served], which makes it a more costly lunch. Flannery looked at the group of us and said, ‘Hey, whoever wins tomorrow pays next year.’ We said, ‘Okay!'”

The winner was Slezak, who thanked, among others, Michael Malone for writing the heart transplant story that won her the gold. Since then, the next year’s nominees in the Outstanding Lead Actress category have gotten together for lunch. “It started with Flannery,” Stafford recalls. “It’s a great story.”

Find out who takes him this year when the 51st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards air on Friday, June 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and on Paramount+.