Two things might surprise you about likable country music superstar and fledgling actress Reba McEntire:

She sometimes has a ribald sense of humour. And a short fuse. Though not necessarily at the same time.

"I'm very down-to-earth people -- what you see is what you get," said McEntire, 44, yesterday sipping camomile tea in a Toronto hotel room while answering questions in short bursts of energy, punctuated by her Oklahoman twang.

"I talk to you just like I talk to Cindy and Sandi (her art director and hair/makeup person, respectively).

"I might not tell you a dirty joke like I'll tell them," added McEntire, with a hoot. "But I am just the same offstage as I am onstage. Except when I'm onstage, I get to act out the stories of the songs and I become fancy."

As for her boiling point, the self-described "red-headed, hot-tempered" McEntire has outgrown it. For the most part.

"Oh, Lord yeah, I get tired," she said. "I get grouchy. You know my fuse is real short. Let me put it to you this way. It takes a lot to build me up to that point, but once I kind of go -- (grunts loudly) -- I'm over it. I don't pout for three days. I used to throw things like if I was washing dishes and I dropped a plate, and it splashed water over me, I'd just throw a fit. That's when I was 20. And then one day I looked at myself and I said, 'Who am I throwing a fit for? Nobody's here to see it? I'm just making myself upset. Wipe yourself off and go on. Finish your chores.' I've been a lot happier since then."

Speaking of chores, McEntire was here yesterday on a quick promotional visit following her Sunday night show at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton with opening act and If You See Him/Her duet partners, Brooks & Dunn.

But despite touring in support of her latest album, If You See Him (Brooks & Dunn's album is called If You See Her), McEntire won't play in Toronto. Instead, she's setting her sights on Europe with a tour there in January.

Following that, McEntire hopes to be filming two different movies, one a TV movie, the other a feature film, by March.

"What we're wanting to do is do a Christmas album and a regular album and have music from both albums in the Christmas movie, and then the music from the regular album in the regular movie," said McEntire.

Meanwhile, her new material recently got a boost from the Sept. 27 airing of a highly-rated CBS-TV movie, Forever Love, in which she played a woman who awakens from a 20-year coma. The movie contained the two new songs, Forever Love and All This Time.

So what's with all this creative marketing on McEntire's part? It's not as if people don't know who she is -- the most successful country music female artist with sales of 40 million worldwide.

"By golly in this business, you have to," said McEntire. "There are so many more people in the music business nowadays. The record labels are signing acts left and right."

Also in stores is McEntire's contribution to the just-released all-star country music album, The Prince Of Egypt -- Nashville, on which she sings Please Be The One.

On the horizon is McEntire's participation in the Country Music Association's 40th anniversary celebration, which airs Saturday night on CBS (8 p.m.)

McEntire, who has been outspoken in her support for such new country music artists as Shania Twain, joins 200 country music artists at the CMA party taped at Nashville Arena.

"I think the woman's got talent," said McEntire of Twain. "I think she's got balls to do what she has done. Having that whole album out, that many singles that do that well, and then not tour. Nobody, other than Roseanne Cash, has done that to my knowledge. But, I mean, she sailed by me with flying colours and I was so proud of her. Every day I see the Soundscan and she's sold another week's worth of unbelievable sales. So more power to her -- in my book."