That love led Riegel to apply for an internship at the White House. "I worked in the office of Presidential Personnel. I was in the Old Executive Office Building. The West Wing [of the White House] is very small and very few people work there, but I've been there. I would go over with other staff members to drop things off and so on, but they don't put a lot of interns there. Monica Lewinsky wasn't there."

Ironically, Riegel didn't get to meet President Clinton because during the summer, she landed the role on AMC. (Even while in school, she'd kept her manager and agent, just in case.) The actress put Harvard on hold and came to Pine Valley.

Her new home wasn't completely foreign to Riegel because she'd been there before. "My friend, Lacey [Chabert, ex-Claudia, PARTY OF FIVE], had been in the cast as Bianca, so I knew from her experiences how wonderful it was," recalls Riegel. "Also, Tommy Michaels [ex-Tim] had been in Les Miz with me. I had actually dated him when we were both like 12 or even younger. He would take me every so often to the set to hang out, and it always seemed like such a positive place. Otherwise, I just knew what a fine reputation all the actors had and, of course, the opportunity to work with Susan Lucci [Erica] was overwhelming, so I jumped at the chance. When the producers described to me the type of role I would be playing and where they were going with the storyline, I was really excited. I had to keep it such a secret. I found it so hard because I couldn't even tell the other people in the cast. They would say, 'Where are they going with your character?' And I was just like, 'I don't know.' "

The secret that Bianca is a lesbian was revealed when word was leaked to the press. Riegel was shocked to see her storyline splashed across the front page of the Star. "I gotta say, it was all very surprising. I mean, I knew from the meetings that Jeannie [Dadario Burke, then-executive producer] said they'd had problems with stories leaking out, but I thought, 'Okay, I think everybody's being just a little bit too careful.' I came into work one day and they were doing my hair and makeup, and somebody mentioned that I was in the Star. And I was like, 'Wow! Who knew that I would be tabloid fodder so soon in my career?' And then I was getting into the subway one day and I passed a newsstand, and I was like, 'There it is.' I picked it up and I read it, and I thought to myself, 'Okay, there's my first lesson: Never believe everything you read, especially in tabloid papers.' I was very sad about that because it's not what the story's about. Anybody who had watched the show for a day would see that the story's so real and it's so heartfelt to trivialize it like that is wrong."

Riegel is happy with the mostly positive response she's received from fans. "I got a letter from one young person who feels that she's ready to come out to her mother and her mother is a big fan of the show. And she wrote me a letter saying, 'I hope that my mom can learn some understanding and some tolerance from watching what Erica Kane goes through and what Bianca goes through. And I hope this will open up our conversation.' I'm very touched by it. It's amazing to me that we can actually reach out to people in that way."

Musing on all that's happened, she reflects, "I actually have a pretty great life ... I mean a great life. Not even pretty, a great, great life."

This article originally appeared in the January 23, 2001 issue of Soap Opera Digest.