HOLLYWOOD -- For three years, Mimi Rogers was married to Tom Cruise.

She does not consider that period, from 1987 to 1990, the highlight of her life nor the defining moment of her career.

"Being married to Tom Cruise didn't hurt my career but it certainly didn't help it," explains Rogers reluctantly.

She's so obviously tired of being asked the Cruise questions but obliges by saying that, "in Hollywood, people don't hire you because you're married to a famous person. Sometimes it is the exact opposite."

She will not discuss Cruise and responds to such inquiries by feigning a snore or rolling her eyes in mock disbelief that any one should care after all these years.

Yet Rogers, 42, admits her career might actually have suffered from her marriage to Cruise.

"I was trying to make the marriage work so I made it a greater priority than my career," explains Rogers who was married to Scientology counsellor Jim Rogers from 1977 to 1980.

"If I had focused more on my career maybe things would have gone faster for me."

Her biggest roles to date were in Ridley Scott's 1987 thriller Someone to Watch Over Me and the 1991 thriller The Rapture. She has usually been cast in supporting role, such as Barbra Streisand's sister in The Mirror Has Two Faces or the mom in Lost in Space.

The past two years have been her busiest since her celebrity divorce. In addition to Lost in Space she filmed five movies and had a small cameo in Mike Myers' Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

"The great irony is that I had just become a mom and had just turned 40 when all these offers came pouring in. Those are supposed to be two things that spell doom to a woman's career in Hollywood.''

Rogers has been living with director Chris Ciaffa for five years. Their daughter, Lucy, is three years old. She admits begrudgingly that her divorce from Cruise proved to be a liberating experience. Her image on screen and off changed radically.

She was offered sexier roles and she agreed to pose for Playboy magazine.

"People called those years my sex attack. I guess you could say my heart just came unchained and the real me was released."

Rogers admits she had been approached several times by Playboy while she was married to Cruise. He disapproved, so once the divorce was finalized she accepted the magazine's next offer.

"I'm a great fan of nude art. I'm also proud of my body. I like being naked. I was given complete control of the shoot. That was essential.

"I knew I wanted to have a child so I realized I'd better get my nude pictures out there before I had a baby and my body changed. This is my permanent record of the way things were once with my body.

"The reaction I got from my Playboy pictures was very positive and it made me feel good, so that translates into a very positive experience."

There is talk of an Austin Powers sequel and already there are whispers of a Lost in Space sequel if the film is a hit these next few weeks.

"I like the fact that our Lost in Space takes Maureen Robinson out of the kitchen and into the lab. As she proves, Maureen is really the one best suited to command the family's mission."

In the Lost in Space movie, Rogers has a brief cameo with June Lockhart, who played the same character in the TV series.

"June is such a sweetheart. She was so happy that Lost in Space finally got made into a feature film and that she could be a small part of the experience."


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