2 The Donna Reed routine is refreshing. Keep it up. "My boyfriend and I are both sort of through with doing the nightclub scene and partying and drinking," says Doherty, who has often been photographed carousing (usually with Spelling and accompanying escorts) at L.A.'s trendy club, Roxbury. "Clubbing was a big part of me, but I think it's because I was a little lost. I was young and under a lot of pressure and unhappy in my personal relationship. I don't have that problem anymore." She now describes an idyllic life of cooking chicken dinners with Factor and playing with her three dogs. Staying home should help her bottom line, too: After she made headlines like Brawling Starlet Busted last December for tangling at Roxbury with lesser- known actress Bonita Money (charges were eventually dropped), she says she lost at least three product-endorsement deals.
3 Shock your public: Say you're sorry! "I will grant that in the first season, I was not the most diplomatic person. But I did not throw temper tantrums. I went days and days and days without having a fit! Weeks!" says Doherty, with a laugh. "You know, right now I feel very much in control. Besides," she adds, more wishful, perhaps, than sure, "there are a lot of people out there who are getting very, very sick of Brenda bashing. People come up to me and go, like, 'We thought you'd be a bitch, we just wanted to come up and see if you were or weren't. And you're not.'" (The 90210 cast, having offered supportive comments in the past, is now tired of being asked about her; Doherty's recently fired publicist gives a terse "no comment" on her former client.)
4 Lighten up. That goes for Shannen and Brenda. Doherty is deeply steamed about the jokey one-shot I Hate Brenda Newsletter, which rode a wave of anti- Brenda/Shannen sentiment and showered considerable media attention on its two young creators. "It's ridiculous," she says, non-temper flaring, "that two girls, wherever they are, are so incredibly jealous of one person who happens to be on TV and are so desperate for publicity that they would create lies." But she can see how one might think Brenda is a pill. "The (90210) writers and I have had this conversation," she says. "'Let's make her not quite so pathetic, let's have her mellow out.' And that is happening. You'll see Brenda spiritually become a little bit of a stronger person." (Of late, Brenda is looking spiritually subdued: humble in washed-out lipstick tones and more modestly dressed.)
5 Do not do that Playboy pictorial. She's thinking about it, negotiating with the magazine over how much of her body she'd expose. "They offered me a very large sum of money-over $300,000-which I think anybody would have a very hard time turning down," she explains. "Besides, it might make people say, hey, she's not Brenda Walsh, she is Shannen Doherty, and she can play a lot older than 17 and high school." We repeat: Don't do it. If you pose, you will share that undistinguished honor with Mimi Rogers. La Toya Jackson. Joan Collins. Vanna White. And you'll never, ever win back Dylan McKay.
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