Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995 TAG: 9509200008
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT WILLIAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Leoni had risen in the middle of the night to promote her new comedy ``The Naked Truth,'' which premiered Sept. 13 on ABC (WSET, Channel 13), and she was paying the price.
Fans and critics hailed her as ``the sexiest woman on television'' in her first series, the deft ``Flying Blind'' on Fox in '92. (The distinction still makes her snort, sexily: ``Isn't that a hoot?'')
``I'm glad to be back,'' Leoni said. ``The sitcom arena is a tremendous amount of fun, but it takes a lot of time, a lot of work, and you can't always leave it at the office.
``You get home and your mind is going a million miles a minute because you got that script on Monday and the show is Friday night and what's my line?''
She perked up when told the new show is very smart, funny and raw. Very raw.
``I've got the greatest rebel on my side in [executive producer] Chris Thompson,'' she said. ``I think together we're the scariest team any network has ever seen. If I had my druthers and Chris had his, we'd be a cable show.''
Leoni plays Nora Wilde, a Pulitzer-nominated photographer and fresh-cut divorcee who got nothing from her media-tycoon husband but the Armanis on her back. Her ex-husband also has blackballed her in the news biz.
``She's a very kind character,'' Leoni said. ``She's got a good heart. She's not a snob ... Her issue is much more, `Maybe at the end of my life I'm going to get a parade!'
``You just wish that you could put smelling salts under her nose: `Come on, Nora, snap out of it! There's no confetti for you, babe!'''
In the premiere, Nora sought work at The Comet, a celebrity-driven tabloid. To get the job, she had to track down the rumor that Anna Nicole Smith is pregnant - and get the pictures.
(And, yes, Anna Nicole Smith did a cameo. In tonight's episode, Tom Hanks appears as himself. Suzanne Somers and Betty White appear in coming weeks.)
Nora tracked Smith to the gynecologist's office, where among other things, a urine sample went awry. That's not your usual source of network comedy, but it's pretty much par for ``The Naked Truth.''
``That scene was a real issue,'' Leoni said. ABC said they couldn't show a simulated urine sample. The solution? The sample cup was opaqued so that its contents were invisible.
``Chris and I just happen to have nasty senses of humor,'' she said. ``Some people might say, `You're pushing the edge.' I say, `You should hang out with us. This is effortless. Trust me. We haven't even scratched effort as far as lewd, crass, and pushing the envelope.' ''
Her laughter is a great, gleeful, brassy hooting.
Leoni took it hard when Fox canceled 129th-ranked ``Flying Blind.''
``I took it all on my own shoulders,'' she said. ``Sure, it was on Sunday night, it was Fox and it was very sophisticated humor, but those glorious possibilities for blame never outweigh the one where you think: `If I'd been funnier, damn it, it'd be on the air.' I went to bed with that for a long time.''
She followed with ``The Counterfeit Contessa,'' a Fox TV movie. ``It's something I want to show to my kids,'' confessed Leoni, who is single. ``So I can say, `See? Your mom can be the girl next door! She's not always the nymphomaniac!' ''
She paid her dues in movies, too, with featured roles in ``Switch,'' ``Indian Love Story,'' ``A League of Their Own,'' ``Wyatt Earp'' and, most recently, the action comedy ``Bad Boys.''
A TV development deal beckoned, however, and she read 150 to 200 scripts before settling on the production team of Brillstein-Grey (HBO's ``The Larry Sanders Show'') and Thompson.
ABC is protecting ``The Naked Truth'' in its early outings, scheduling it between the hit ``Grace Under Fire'' and before ``PrimeTime Live.''
``When the fat lady sings, there'll be no place to put the blame,'' Leoni acknowledged with gallows laughter that suggested high confidence.
``If we don't last here, I will go to bed, again, with the knowledge that I got the No. 2 time slot available and blew it with the best writer in town.
``Oh, it's going to hurt!''
by CNB