Photo Credit: Courtney Berman

This past Saturday night at Bootsy Bellows Nightclub in West Hollywood, California, the stars of daytime came to celebrate with Days of our Lives Kate Mansi (Abigail) not only her birthday, but her amazing charitable efforts on behalf of the organization, Charity Water which helps bring clean water to people and countries around the world who desperately need it!

The stars of Salem certainly were on hand including:  Camila Banus, Blake Berris, Casey Deidrick, Shawn Christian, Arianne  Zucker, Eileen Davidson, Kristian Alfonso, Freddie Smith, Nathan Owens, and two Daytime Emmy winners Tamara Braun and Sarah Brown, both whom were on DAYS, and both whom played Carly on GH!   In addition, The Young and the Restless was represented by Melissa Ordway and Redaric Williams, and General Hospital with Emily Wilson.   On-Air On-Soaps was there and chatted with many of your favorites to get some DAYS dish, and to hear what they had to say about their friend and colleague Ms. Mansi.

However, first we caught up with the gal of the hour to discuss her birthday bash and charitable efforts. Kate revealed how Charity Water came into her life: “I asked my manager to help me find some charities that I would like to be involved with, and I gave her the list of ten but I said, ‘My first choice would be to work with Charity Water.‘  And she said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘I felt Charity Water has done a great job of having 100% of their donations go where they say they are going to go. Then they follow it up with media to the donors. So they are sending you photos and links to show you where your money has gone.’  I donated myself, and then I wanted to get in contact with someone who can help me get involved in Charity Water and I met Kaitlyn Jankowski and she flew out for the event tonight from New York City.  I thought, ‘What can I do?’ And so I decided to throw a birthday party, and it all just came together. I t has been so great. I have had amazing support from my cast and Missy Reeves (Jennifer) and Kristian Alfonso have been huge supporters of this. “

So what did Kate hope party-goers would have as their takeaway from her event? “My hope for this get-together tonight is that people are aware that there are 180 million people in this world that are living without clean water, and whether they are donating through my event, or promoting to their fans, I just want people to know that is a problem that needs to be solved.  It’s such a simple solution. I raised $8,090 dollars and that will help over two entire villages with clean water.  I am very proud.  I took Kaitlyn to dinner and she said we can continue to raise money on this till December 31st.   I am really hoping we can hit $20,000 by then.

Photo Credit: Courtney Berman

Now, we could not help but notice the oh-so-cute and chic outfit Kate had on at her party.  Kate gave us the lowdown: “I feel like Alice in Wonderland.  I am wearing a skirt and top from Alice and Olivia.  The earrings are from Kate Spade, and my purse is by Alexander McQueen.  I got this outfit two days ago.  I finally thought, ‘Oh, I don’t have anything to wear!’ So in a mad rush I found something!”

As to Salem’s Abigail losing her virginity to Chad, and the impending on-screen departure of Casey Deidrick, Kate stated: “Yes, she lost her virginity, and I don’t know what to say, she has been deflowered. She gave Chad her heart and something that she waited a long time to do with another person.  The final scenes with Chad were so emotional and I cried so hard when I rehearsed my lines that I was like, ‘I can’t.  I just have to go straight to tape.’  Casey and I met even earlier than four years ago when I tested for the role of Melanie. Casey is my best friend. He is such a fantastic guy. He is amazing and I loved working with him.  He is a fantastic scene partner.  I am sure we will work again somewhere in the future.”

As for the men in Abigail’s life, Casey Deidrick had this first to say about his dear friend Kate: “She’s my home girl!  Kate has the ability to walk into a room and light the entire room up. That is her personality, and that is how she has always been since I met her.  I grew up with her the last four years of my life on DAYS and I am really glad that I got such a good friend out of this. I could not have asked for a better co-star and I fully support what she is doing here tonight.  I am really proud of her.”

Photo Credit: Courtney Berman

Now as to Chad’s deception, and the reveal that he is lying about his brain tumor, and Casey’s impending on-screen exit: “Chad is lying! And in my defense, Chad never lied to Abigail about it.  He always said it to Cameron and that’s it. The writers really did this ending storyline justice, and fans will really appreciate how they write my character out.  My last airdate is October 30th.  It was such a heartbreaking day, the last day on set, as I have told you before.   I would really like to go back and relive the moment again, and I will watch it when it airs.  I hope the fans will response to it as well.”

The other man in Abigail’s life Cameron, played by Nathan Owens, echoed Casey’s sentiments about Kate:  “I am good friends with Kate, and she is a beautiful human being inside and out.  She impresses me day to day with the amount of humility, generosity, empathy and sympathy she has for other people in this world.”

Photo Credit: Courtney Berman

Nathan weighed-in on Cameron’s fight for Abigail and Chad lying to the good doc about his brain tumor!  “He is in love with Abigail, but he is at a stage in his life where he understands you might not get what you want, and you might end up being somebody’s sacrifice for their happiness. And there is a whole other side to this, where I am a doctor getting duped. That’s messed up that the brain tumor is used by Chad to get with the girl of Nathan’s dreams!  It hurts and it’s going to be a big mess!  I will just say that. You will see it all play out in front of the cameras.”  Well, we wanted to know Nathan’s thoughts on Cameron being a stripper/doctor!  “You want to know how the stripper thing came out?  I found out a week prior to it when we were shooting promo photos for NBC, and the photographer says, ‘So, you are a doctor/stripper?’  And I go, ‘Excuse me?’  He goes, ‘Oh, my God. I am not supposed to tell you.  Yeah, you are going to be a stripper!’    So I started asking around after that and found that a few of the other guys like Galen Gering (Rafe) and Shawn Christian (Daniel) were going to be involved in it.   I thought, ‘OK, if they are going to be involved too …”  But, I had my own strip portion which was just me and it was a bit terrifying, because it was my first storyline like that in front of people with not much on.   It is one for the books, for sure.” (Laughs)

Photo Credit: Courtney Berman

Daytime Emmy winner, Tamara Braun (Ex-Ava) chimed in on what Kate Mansi is doing for the cause of clean water to those who urgently need it:  “I think she is an amazing young woman, and on top of that a great actress, and a dear friend.  Anything she asks me to do I will help. The cause she is working for is incredible.  We take for granted that we can go to the faucet and get clean water, (yes, we need a filter), but so many people don’t have the simple things in life, which is water.  And it’s so easy to do and it doesn’t cost us much to help. There are so many horrible things that go on in the world, and we can’t fix it all, but we want to try to make life a little easier for people. That is what Kate is doing with this organization Charity Water.”  Beloved by soap fans , we had to ask Tamara,  which character do people come up to her the most about when they see her out and about? “I get a lot of things when I am out in public, and a guy when I was walking into the party said something very nice to me about my Carly on General Hospital, and so that was lovely.  Fans know me as Ava, Taylor, and Reese!  I am shocked at that, because I would think they would only know me as Carly, but it’s nice that I touched people in other roles, too.”

Photo Credit: Courtney Berman

Kate’s cast mate, Arianne Zucker saluted Kate Mansi’s birthday and efforts: “I am very proud of Kate for being the age she is ….  she is of legal drinking age, we can say that (Laughs).  But I think it’s great that she took her name, and used it for something and has been very proactive and positive, and did something her peers can look at her, and up to her, for something pretty incredible.  You know this is something we talked about when Kate came on to Days of our Lives, and that is make sure you do right by your name. God love you Miley Cyrus for doing what you want to do, but not a good influence, especially when I have a 3 1/2 year old little girl!”

Shawn Christian who attended the event with his young son, honored Kate in this way:  “I think Kate is a very compassionate, loving, sensitive woman.  It is no surprise that she would be involved in this at all.  She has supported many of the projects that I have been. To see her putting forth her name and reputation that she has worked very hard to build, I think is the beginning of many charitable things she does.  She has a big heart, and it’s very authentic.  She is very aware of problems outside of her own, and for a young girl to have that, it’s very special.”  As to Shawn’s current storyline, where Daniel is dumped by Jennifer: “Juggling the widowed woman with two children, one troubled child of course, is not an easy task in life, or on daytime in Salem.  I think Jennifer’s priorities are her children and her family. Now in comes Theresa of course.  Jen Lilley (Theresa) is a very talented girl and I love the choices she makes. When we run lines together, and then put something up on its feet I see her wheels turning.  She does a great job with this character, and at establishing her as a sort of new kind of femme fatale, if you will.  But Theresa goes to extreme lengths to get Dr. Daniel! And interestingly enough, Dr. Daniel is not so easily had.  He is not so dumb this time … can you believe it? Two damsels in his path and he resists them!”

Photo Credit: Courtney Berman

Camila Banus revealed how Kate and her made some very cute viral videos to help the Charity Water fundraising cause: “We were running lines in her room and we said, ‘We should tape a video for Charity Water,’ and then we started doing it.  Actually, then we had bloopers that were really funny, but I told Kate not to post them because of some of the inappropriate language that came out of some of us! (Laughs). ”   Camila  then told us why Gabi is dumping Nick this week on DAYS:  “She is not in love with him.  Gabi cares abut him, but she knows he may be taking things in excess which is why she thinks he might not be good for her.   That is why she tells him, she does not want to be with him indefinitely.  There are crazy scenes coming up that you would not even imagine   There is something that will change her life, and there will not be time in the near future for a new man in her life, I can say that!”  Blake Berris chimed in as to Nick’s reaction to Gabi’s change of heart:  “At this point he is handling it just fine, because to him there is nothing to handle.  But if at some point that does set in, he probably won’t handle it very well.  (Laughs)  I think the most important thing to Nick is getting a modeling job for Gabi.  As far as what is coming up,  Gabi tells him that their relationship is not happening, but I think he believes he can make it happen anyway.”

A great time was had by all as the stars danced, mingled, and participated in a cake-cutting ceremony in honor of Kate’s birthday.  Check out our photo gallery below with our captions with some of the night’s attendees!  Then, let us know what you thought about Kate’s charitable efforts?  The DAYS stars on their current storylines?  And if you might just check out CharityWater.org to make a donation, or to see how you can become involved?