| Kim Zimmer isn't making New Year's resolutions...just real-life maternity plans. "The best place to be when you're pregnant is starring on Guiding Light," says Kim Zimmer, who's hoping to be expanding her maternity horizons early next year. "Our show is a real haven for working mothers," explains Kim. "Susan Pratt, Tina Sloan and Maeve Kinkaid all have toddlers at home. When we bring our kids to the studio, it's a madhouse, but the kids have a ball." Kim and husband A.C. Weary, met 11 years ago in a summer stock production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Today, they're parents of a beautiful 3-year-old charmer, Rachel Beth, and eager to add two more children to the family fold. But Kim won't make any definite plans until she consults a specialist. No, not her obstetrician --- her TV producer. "I wouldn't get pregnant without the show's approval," says Kim. "I wouldn't want my pregnancy to interfere with whatever storyline they might be cooking up for me. So I'll wait till my contract's up in December, and if I renew, I'll talk everything over with our producer, Gail Kobe. That way maybe they can plan ahead for my condition in the storyline. If all goes well, I'd like to conceive in December and give birth in September, just a few months after Rachel turns four." Meanwhile --- even with just one child to raise --- Kim runs on a pretty tight schedule. "I have time to do everything but catch my breath," she laughs. This year she's been on Guiding Light three or four times a week (she landed a best actress Emmy nomination for her work). In her spare time, she's also fixing up a big suburban house in NJ --- and learning to fly! Yup, that's right, Kim has been taking lessons (15 hours a week, to be exact) in trapeze artistry. She's been attending classes at New York's Big Apple Circus in preparation for her guest stint on Circus of the Stars. "I'm not a total novice," she confides. "I've done acrobatics, tightrope walking, the trampoline, so this is basically just the next step." How did A.C. react to the news? "He just said, 'Honey, can we increase your life insurance policy?'" laughs Kim. "That was the first thing out of his mouth. He's a real comedian but the truth is --- if he wasn't tied up in theatre projects at the moment ---he'd give his eye-teeth to be doing it, too. We even joke about putting together a flying act." "At first, I almost blacked out. I turned 30 in February and I guess I lost a lot of guts that I used to have. Suddenly I thought, 'Kim, why are you doing this? You're a married woman with a child ---do you want to get killed swinging up there?' But that was just stage fright. I'm glad A.C. pushed me to go ahead with it --- I needed that. Now he gives me rubdowns when I come home from my trapeze lessons." Kim and A.C. have no plans to put Rachel on the high-wire, too --- though she just might be a natural at it. "Rachel's very athletic," Kim confides. "In fact, I'm going to start her in gymnastic classes. I think she'll love it. She's already in a regular play group. I signed her up because we don't have many kids in the neighborhood. She thrives on it. She knows her colors and her alphabet and comes home with a new song every day." "A.C.'s doing a lot of theatre now and I'm away at GL all day, but Rachel's very good at taking full advantage of the time she has with us. She always wakes up before I leave for work in the morning, no matter how early that is. She's smart that way. She knows that otherwise she won't see me until bedtime." Rachel, (who's named for one of Kim's favorite actresses, Rachel Ward) enjoys going to the studio occasionally, too. "The last time I took her with me, she told everybody on the bus where we were going," laughs Kim. But Rachel has little interest in watching her mother on TV. "Frankly, we don't encourage it," Kim says. "She used to watch me when I played Echo on One Life to Live, and it didn't turn out too well. A.C. was on the show for a while, and one day we had a scene where he was holding me hostage in a cabin. It was a big fight scene and Rachel got very upset. Now she doesn't watch at all, which is hard on her nanny who's a real Guiding Light fan." The TV set may have to stay off for quite a while because Kim has no plans to leave GL in the near future. "I love the show and I love my character," she exclaims. "Reva has almost no limitations. I get to play a wild, wonderful lady every day and then I come home to the people I love. What more could I ask for?" Nothing... except maybe for another present from the stork. |