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Anne Heche ready for own sitcom By BILL BRIOUX - Toronto Sun
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When you think family drama, you don't usually think Anne Heche. The
35-year-old actress -- who once told Barbara Walters that she had an
alter ego named Celestia -- is still probably best known for her
tabloid-fueled, three-and-a-half year relationship with Ellen
DeGeneres.
Before that, the former soap star was partnered with Steve Martin,
among other actors. She owned up to some of her erratic behaviour in
her 2001 autobiography Call Me Crazy.
Motherhood seems to have had a settling effect on Heche. She and her
camera-man husband Coley Laffoon have a 2-year-old son, Homer.
Career-wise, things seem to be in an upswing, too. This Monday, Heche
concludes a 10-episode arc on Everwood (9 p.m., The New VR, The WB)
before moving on to her own sitcom, already in production at The WB.
Heche was on her best behaviour last month in Los Angeles at a WB
Network press conference. She took a few prying questions in stride
after the session, reacting with good humour and candour.
Her lingering tabloid notoriety was probably one reason she was cast
as Everwood's scarlet woman, Amanda Hayes. At the start of this,
Everwood's third season, Hayes and her husband -- diagnosed with
aphasia and locked in an ever worsening state of paralysis -- came to
super surgeon Andy Brown (Treat Williams) in search of a miracle. The
Rocky Mountain MD suggested several therapies, but with buddy in a
coma, he was soon ministering more to the Missus.
The affair has shocked some Everwood viewers. After all, even
Williams refers to each week's script as his next "Capra film."
While Williams concedes that Dr. Bown's "libido has overridden his
heart for a while," he also feels strongly that true fans will follow
the series down darker paths.
"I think that the blessing of the show is that people who are pure of
heart do bad things," said Williams, who credits executive producer
Greg Berlanti with pushing the "envelope of what some (might)
consider acceptable behaviour, and then we have to find our way back.
And I think for the characters to take these journeys is much more
interesting than to remain pure of heart."
The fact that Heche's Everwood stint ends Monday night suggests that
this particular journey is over.
It's all good for Heche, already looking forward to her new comedy
project for the network. "I've been wanting to do this for four
years," she told a few reporters after the session. "I was always
looking for the right thing and when Everwood came up it was an
opportunity to see how I'd do on a show again."
In a way, Everwood was a bridge toward comedy, says Heche. Despite
the edgy, adulterous storyline, she found her character "full of
subtle humour ... there was a lightheartedness and an ease about
her."
The new series, tentatively titled True, stars Heche as, in her
words, "a single mom trying to get it right." She's grateful to
executives at The WB for "taking a leap of faith" in casting her in a
female-driven comedy. "There aren't many on the air and I'm ready to
blow it out and do something really unique and wonderful," she said.
A sitcom schedule also is the best fit for Heche's newly-settled
lifestyle. It keeps her close to her young son and allows her stay-at-
home husband "to be the artist he is and run our business the way he
wants to run it."
"I think I always had a priority of finding my life, finding my
centre, finding my family," she said. "Now that I have my life
together, family is No. 1."
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