Wendy Phillips

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ALL WENDY PHILLIPS WANTS IS A HAPPY MARRIAGE AND ANOTHER CHILD...OH YEAH...AND LOTS OF SEX

Bounding into the elegant Wine Bistro in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley one recent afternoon, actress Wendy Phillips, with an expression of near-panic, apologizes profusely for being forty minutes late. She launches into a rapid-fire explanation for her tardiness: "The babysitter didn't show up, and then Sarah Jessica Parker [a friend and former co-star] called and ... do you mind if I go to the ladies' room?"

Assured a trip to freshen up would be just fine, Phillips heaves a sigh of relief. "Some journalists are just horrible and some are nice. Thanks for being one of the nice ones," she says before making her way to the rest room.

Minutes later, a much calmer Phillips returns, smoothing her suitably trendy two piece white skirt and jersey ensemble and settling into a booth. "Let's eat," she suggests with a smile. "I'm starving."

Wendy Phillips, an accomplished film and TV actress best known for her role as Richard Kiley's divorced daughter in the critically acclaimed 1987 drama A YEAR IN THE LIFE, is one of the new faces nighttime soap viewers see gracing FALCON CREST's Tuscany Valley this season. Nibbling on a heaping plate of salmon finguine, the soft-spoken actress - who bears no resemblance to the brittle and neurotic Ann Gardner, whom she so effectively portrayed on A YEAR IN THE LIFE - animatedly discusses her new role on FALCON CREST, among other topics.

"I'm Lauren Daniels," she explains, referring to her character's name on the long-running soap. "She's an ex-hippie. Kind of like me," Phillips laughs, perhaps recalling her college years at U.C. Berkeley in the early '70s, when she "felt the call to demonstrate." "My maiden name [on FALCON CREST] is Sharpe as far as I know but," she hints with a sly grin, "there could be all kinds of secrets lurking." Some of those secrets may involve fellow newcomer Gregory Harrison [Gonzo Gates on TRAPPER JOHN, M.D.],who plays Lauren's evil brother, Michael Sharpe,a Wall Street financial wizard who'll be tangling with corporate bigwig Richard Channing.

Coincidentally, this isn't the first time that Phillips has worked with the "very intense ... and so attractive" Harrison. "Talk about feeling that the cycle is complete," marvels Phillips, shaking her head in amazement. "Greg was the very first person I met in Los Angeles." She explains that since they both had the same agent, and were the only clients who were not from New York "He's from Catalina, I'm from Oakland" they became very close friends. The now happily married Phillips refrains from detailing exactly how close, but goes on to say she and Harrison worked on a film called Fraternity Row together and, ironically, he almost played her character's brother in the 1976 prime-time soap EXECUTIVE SUITE, just barely losing the part to Leigh McCloskey (now Ethan on SANTA BARBARA).

This link to the past helped make Phillips's first day on the set less nerve-wracking than it might have been. "It was a scene where we [Lauren and Michael] hadn't seen each other in many years," Phillips says, savoring the recollection. "And I hadn't seen Greg in many years, so it was very nice."

Phillips can't be romantically involved with TV brother Harrison on the show, but she does expect her share of the action. "Everybody gets to sleep around in Falcon Crest," Phillips points out. "They're very democratic about that. I'm sure I'll get my version of the bathtub scene."

The thirty-eight-year-old actress who, with her straight, shoulder-length hair and slim figure doesn't look a day over twentysomething, adds that since she's going through her "mid-life crisis," getting paid for appearing in somewhat risque scenes would be no hardship whatsoever. In fact, she regards this newest phase in her career as a godsend for many reasons.

"This is the reward you get for staying in Hollywood long enough," Phillips claims, throwing up her hands in giddy disbelief over her own good fortune. "You work one day, two days a week, you get paid a handsome amount, and the rest [of the time] is free. It's great!"

Phillips is pretty content with her life at home, too. She's been married to actor Scott Paulin for over eight years. Her mother made the introduction. Waiting for her daughter to meet her at a local bar, Phillips's mother spotted Paulin. "There was this very arrogant actor talking about actors in Los Angeles selling out, and how he was a real artist. We just fell in love with this jerk," Phillips laughs. "He came to Los Angeles, and I showed him how to sell out." Paulin rates as Phillips's "favorite actor to work with" - he played her philandering mate in the A YEAR IN THE LIFE miniseries, and now Joey on FC. Phillips describes the impact of A YEAR on their personal lives.

"It was like therapy," she recalls bemusedly, propping up her chin with her fist. "We got to act out all this anger in sort of a creative form ... an artistic honeymoon." Not that her two-actor marriage has always been a bed of roses. Phillips admits that at one point, her self-esteem took a beating. "Early in the marriage, I had worked a lot as an ingenue. It was the end of my years as an ingenue, and I was really slipping. I was on a downward slide. [Scott] was new in town and a wonderful, exciting actor, and it was hard for me."

Phillips decided her acting career was on its deathbed shortly after the birth of her daughter, Virginia Dare. "I could no longer go back to ingenue, so I didn't work in anything for two years." Never having been employed in any capacity other than acting - "I never waited tables" - Phillips was so resigned to her plight that she enrolled in typing classes at Santa Monica College in order to "learn a skill."

"Actors always say, 'It's over. I'm never going to work again,' Phillips notes wryly, "but even my friends said that it was over. A YEAR IN THE LIFE really was a resurrection of an actress from the dead."

After the twenty-two-episode run of A YEAR IN THE LIFE, Phillips played Robert Guillame's romantic interest in last season's show bearing his name. Although the series was short-lived, Guillaume made a lasting impression. "More than just acting, I learned a lot from him. We had an almost entirely black crew, and I felt, without being pretentious, that I got a little closer to what it feels like to be a member of the black community."

Phillips also appeared in the recent hit film Midnight Run, playing Robert De Niro's ex-wife, an experience the actress describes as "movie-star time for me because I've always thought he was one of the great actors."

And what pleases Phillips most about her career at the moment? "Playing women who have a sexual life!" she replies with unexpected forcefulness. "This society separates women into the mother and the whore complex so much, and TV is only a reflection of that belief," Phillips maintains. She adds with annoyance that most women her age are depicted on TV as adjuncts to men or to children, and they have no sex. "And," Phillips states with conviction, "I resent the hell out of it. There's a life operating there outside of making peanut-butter sandwiches for Jimmy."

Aside from the sex, is there anything else Phillips likes about working on a soap? "The story lines are delicious," she gushes. "I don't think I ever looked forward to scripts with such bated breath."

Asked about her goals, Phillips hesitates but an instant before responding, "I would like to continue working as an actress. I would like to have one more child ... and - I come from a divorced family - if I had one marriage in my entire life, I would feel that would be my major accomplishment."

She smiles reflectively, revealing a Lauren Hutton-esque gap between her white, even teeth. With a slight shrug of her shoulders and a sweetly wistful look in her hazel eyes, she concludes, "if I could do that, I'd be very lucky."

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