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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