Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994 TAG: 9407070005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GAIL SHISTER KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I'd call my daughter at 9:20 on a Wednesday night and she'd go, " `Mother, it's Wednesday night!' I'd go, `Oops, sorry,' " says Gray, whose new soap is a spinoff of Fox's smash "MP." "It's like the old `Dallas' days. People wouldn't go out on Friday nights."
Gray, 51, played simpering Sue Ellen Ewing on CBS's "Dallas" from 1978 to '89. On "Models," she's tough-as-titanium Hillary Michaels, head of her own agency and mother to "MP's" awesomely awful Amanda (Heather Locklear). Hillary's son (Brian Gaskill), whose bloodlines are, shall we say, undetermined, helps run the shop.
"Models" has a special 90-minute premiere at 8 p.m. June 29 before assuming its regular 9 p.m. Wednesday slot on July 6.
Gray wasn't looking to get back into series TV. But after five TV movies exiled her to the road for seven months last year, she was open to a project that would keep her closer to home and family - daughter Kehly, 27, son Jeff, 29, and Kehly's 21/2-year-old son, Ryder.
One day, while sitting in the doctor's office waiting for Kehly, Gray read in one of the supermarket rags that Linda Evans, Angie Dickinson and Lauren Hutton, among others, were up for the "Models" role. On pure instinct, Gray called her agent and told him to set up a meeting with exec producer Aaron Spelling.
Without auditioning - or having seen a complete episode of "MP," for that matter - Gray got the part. Suddenly, she was a Major Deal in the eyes of her daughter, who runs Gray's new production company, LG Productions.
"She says, `Mom, do you know how cool this is? You're going to be so cool," Gray recalls with a deep laugh. "I said, `How can this be cool?' I found out later this was way cool."
Gray labels "MP" "a younger `Dallas.' The kids are terrific. Billy [Andrew Shue] and Allison [Courtney Thorne-Smith] are doing this. Amanda and Jake [Grant Show] are doing that. The plots are similar to `Dallas,' with the intrigue and mystery."
Hillary was introduced over five episodes of "MP." Two "Models" segments are in the can. Gray says her character is "smart, tough and mischievous. She doesn't put up with anybody's guff. She's nobody's fool."
Like Gray, Hillary is seriously single, but she will get a love interest. Don't expect to see much skin, though. Although still a bodacious babe, Gray won't do nude scenes. "There are plenty of others to do it. I'm not one of them. I'm a grandmother!"
For the record, Gray is no stranger to modeling. She began her career as a professional model in the late '50s. And in "All That Glitters," Norman Lear's short-lived 1977 sitcom, she played a female model who turned out to be a transsexual. (Eat your heart out, RuPaul.)
The world of modeling has changed drastically since she was in it, Gray says.
"It's big business now. Supermodels like Linda Evangelista and Christy Brinkley are glamorous multimillionaires. Back then, we were just working girls. Kids. Except for somebody like Jean Shrimpton, the world didn't focus on models like the superstars they are today."
|n n| Short stuff: HBO has ordered 13 episodes of Dennis Miller's new late-night talkie for the fall. The show, seen live at midnight Fridays, just completed its initial six-week run.
by CNB