Quips Joie Lenz, the charming and beguiling young actress who plays Michelle, "Danny and Michelle are probably doomed." Quickly, she amends that thought. "Actually these two might have a chance to be happy ... for a month."

Not so fast there, Joie (pronounced Joy). For one thing, Michelle will be devastated to find out it's her own brother who had her kidnapped. "Rick tells Michelle that he did it for her own good," Lenz goes on. "He wants her to take her blinders off with regards to Danny. Rick thinks Michelle is unsafe [with the Santos family]. But she is still, of course, really mad. She thinks he is being a bit extreme. Well, very extreme. She doesn't understand how he could do this."

The same could be said of the show's producers. Lenz was first introduced on GL to play a teenage Reva in the controversial clone storyline. But even those who hated the story loved Lenz. And mere months later, because she was such a hit with the audience and soap critics, the producers brought her back when they were recasting Michelle. No questions asked.

"At first I thought, 'How can that work?' " she says, laughing. "But these things work on daytime."

In addition to her hot love story, Lenz is also acting up a storm in bitchy scenes opposite Carmen, her hated mother-in-law (played with brio by Saundra Santiago).

"That's the fun part about acting," Lenz explains. "I'm pretty quiet in real life. I can't believe how rude Michelle is to this woman. And Saundra might be the sweetest lady in the entire world. It's funny to me to have to be so mean. But at the same time, it's so cathartic!"