It was Alley's idea, in fact, to play a woman back in the dating game and severely out of practice. "She finds herself very naive to the world," says Alley, who split last year from Stevenson, with whom she has two children, William True, 4, and Lillie Price, 3. "I find myself in that position. I wasn't exposed to AIDS. I'd been off the market for 15 years when all these things went down, so it's a very different world." Alley insists, however, that the sitcom's notion of a famous unfaithful husband bears more resemblance to Frank Gifford than to Stevenson. "There was no infidelity in my marriage, on either side," says Alley, who's now dating actor James Wilder, 33. "There was no hatefulness or craziness. There was nothing other than maybe different goals in life. People look for something to make it volatile, but there's nothing there."
Indeed, during the marriage, tabloids speculated that the two were gay, something Alley laughed off. She's not laughing, however, about the terms of her pending divorce. There has been a bone of contentionm — and a big one, as it were. Alley recently lost her bid to go through with the divorce in Maine (where she spends most of her downtime) and not California, where community property law entitles Stevenson to half the assets. "It's been made a much bigger issue than we consider it" is all she'll say on the matter.
Kauffman recalls that when she sat down with Alley to begin refining the concept of Veronica's Closet, the star "talked about things she wanted to do that were different than what she's done on TV before — specifically Rebecca Howe." Alley wanted Veronica to be more glamorous and to have her own money, though Alley says they kept "that Rebecca bumbling thing. I mean, that's what I do. I play a victim because that's what I think is funny."
This she learned as a teenager in Wichita, Kan. "From the time I was, like, 12, until I was 18, women thought I was really snobby," says Alley. "I learned that if I just acted self-deprecating they would warm up to me.... I don't think bitchy women [on sitcoms] are funny. I think Julia Louis-Dreyfus is funny, but I don't think there are very many funny women out there." (Ask Alley what she thinks of the bitch-fest Cybill, and she responds, "No comment.")
If Alley's sense of humor translates, if she can approximate the success of Cheers alum Kelsey Grammer's Frasier — and not Ted Danson's Ink — then she stands to get very rich, thanks to her producer status on Veronica. Though one wonders if, having been on Cheers, Alley really needs more money. "I do," she says. "I don't know if Ted does...but I have big goals. I want to change the world. I believe I can change the world."
Like how?
"I want to put Scientology missions around the world," says Alley, speaking unapologetically about the controversial religion she shares with longtime pal John Travolta. She credits L. Ron Hubbard's book Dianetics with helping her remove personal barriers (notably low self-esteem and cocaine dependency) back in 1979 and enabling her to pursue a career in acting. Her first mission was built two years ago in Wichita and includes a literacy center "where anyone, whether they want to be a Scientologist or not, can come and learn to read. So when you ask me about money, I need a lot of money. Once you educate somebody, that's giving them freedom, and that's sort of where it's at for me."
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