The Hoff, ex-wife meet at festival

He arrived about 25 minutes late for the festival’s kickoff ceremony.

“He was late for our wedding too, so I’m not surprised,” said Hickland, via a Twitter tweet.

They were married from 1984 to 1989.

“There are no bad feelings, never was,” she told me. “I always felt bad when things went bad for him and good when things were going good for him.”

Both arrived in K.I.T.T. cars, the iconic vehicles that appeared in the series, which ran from 1982-1986. The Hoff arrived accompanied by a film crew.

Earlier, Hickland was the maid of honor for a number of couples who renewed marriage vows at the Little White Chapel in ceremonies held next to Hickland’s K.I.T.T.

After the divorce, Hickland continued her acting career, mostly in soap operas, but gave Broadway a try, playing Fantine in “Les Misérables” in 1995.

For more than a decade she played Lindsay Rappaport on ABC’s “One Life to Live,” until her recent move to Las Vegas where she hopes to establish herself as a hypnotist.

She’s got a venue lined up, but doesn’t want the word out just yet.

She has been studying with master hypnotists for five years, most recently with Marc Savard, who runs a stage hypnosis school when he isn’t performing at the V Theatre at Planet Hollywood Resort.

Her 14-year marriage to soap star Michael E. Knight of “All My Children” ended in 2006. Before leaving New York City last fall, after two decades, she published “The 30 Day Heartbreak Cure – A Guide to Getting Over Him and Back Out There One Month From Today.”

After chatting with The Hoff, Hickland said it was “just like seeing an old friend, not an ex- husband.”

He seemed to be in good health and good spirits. “And that makes me happy; he is a good person,” she said.

SHOWEST WRAP

“High School Musical” star Vanessa Hudgens is living out a dream.

Hudgens, who was in town to pick up the female star of tomorrow award at ShoWest, told the R-J’s Carol Cling that starring in the “Beauty and the Beast” update “Beastly” was a dream come true, because, as a little girl, “I would sing all the Belle songs” from “Beauty and the Beast.”

“Never in a million years did I imagine that I would be playing the part,” she added.

Las Vegas’ own Paige O’Hara, who’s now in “Menopause: The Musical” at the Luxor, was the voice of Belle, the heroine in the 1991 Disney version of “Beauty and the Beast.”

SIGHTINGS

Former “Baywatch” star Angelica Bridges, now with the “Fantasy” revue at Luxor, reading some of her favorite story books to students at M.J. Christensen Elementary School in Summerlin on Friday, part of Nevada Reading Week.

THE PUNCH LINE

“John Paul Stevens, the 88-year-old Supreme Court justice (he’s actually 89 years old), said he’s considering retiring. Either that or playing for the Minnesota Vikings.” – Jay Leno

Norm Clarke can be reached at (702) 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.