Melinda Page Hamilton says she didn't have to be talked into playing a woman whose sexual past includes once fellating her dog.

Some trepidation came, however, when the New York actress told her mother what Bobcat Goldthwait's new comedy Sleeping Dogs Lie was about. The movie opens in theatres today.

"My mother's from Virginia," Hamilton said during her visit to the Toronto International Film Festival in September. "And she was very supportive, and then the next day sent me an e-mail that said basically, (puts on southern accent): 'Darling in these uncertain times when anyone can use anything against anyone I should just like to remind you that should you ever decide to run for public office, or wish to marry someone who wants to run for public office, you might not want to do this movie.' "

Hamilton is best known for her role as sexy nun Sister Mary Bernard on the last season of Desperate Housewives. She says that, no, she didn't do any research for the role in Sleeping Dogs Lie.

"The great thing about this part is it's sort of a universal human story," she says. "For me, it was about a young woman sort of shattering the myth of perfection with her parents and the outcome of that.

"I think we all have that urge to show our parents who we really are and break that rosy picture that they have of us, and then have them still love us. And it's inevitably a paradox and inevitably a very difficult transitional period. And I also thought, to me, it also examines the notions of unconditional love."

Hamilton says she was unfamiliar with Goldthwait's earlier, often outrageous, comedy career during their first meeting in L.A., but during filming some startling facts trickled out.

"At one point he turned to me and said, 'You know one time I set The Tonight Show on fire and got arrested.'I said, 'What?' And he was like, 'So tell me about yourself.' I'm like, 'I got nothing!' Compared to that I'm like as squeaky clean as they come."

Hamilton says so far she hasn't been brought back for the new season of Desperate Housewives with the nun "off in Alaska converting eskimos."

She has had a rich year of roles, though, including playing a wannabe porn star on Nip/Tuck, twins on CSI: Miami, and a idealized hooker in the indie film Ted's MBA.

"I tell ya, once you've done the dog thing, there's really nothing you won't do," Hamilton says with a hearty laugh.


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