2007'S VALEDICTORIANS: THE CABLE QUEENS

Not long ago, if you said the phrase ''strong female character,'' what you really meant was ''bitch.'' Today however, you'd mean a powerful, complex figure who's flawed but fascinating. The actress this description calls for doesn't fit into any box — except, at last, the TV. Glenn Close (FX's Damages), Mary-Louise Parker (Showtime's Weeds), Kyra Sedgwick (TNT's The Closer), and Holly Hunter (TNT's Saving Grace) (pictured, left to right) are four extraordinary film vets who have embraced the challenges of their latest provocative roles on the small screen. Here, a tribute to the leading women of cable. —Ari Karpel

MARY-LOUISE PARKER, Weeds
''I think it just all thins out there the older you get.'' Parker's not talking hair, she's talking movie scripts: There aren't many offered to women in their 40s. Still, the primary reason she took the role on Weeds was that she'd recently had her first child and wanted steady hours. But don't go thinking motherhood has dampened her resolve to push Nancy Botwin — the devoted mom and suburban drug kingpin she plays — to extremes. ''I want to take her as far as I can,'' she says. ''I probably wouldn't be able to take off my panties and put my stuff in Matthew Modine's face on any other channel, y'know?''

KYRA SEDGWICK, The Closer
''I live in terror that it won't be so exciting year after year, but so far it's been great,'' says Sedgwick, who plays Brenda Johnson, a criminal interrogator (and sugar addict) extraordinaire. After three seasons, the character has really gotten under her skin. ''At this point, she's sort of taken over me,'' explains the actress, who says she now tends to let go and hand the reins over to Brenda to ''just see what happens.'' The Golden Globe winner has a little advice for those looking to forge a career in series television: ''Make sure you get involved with sane, wonderful people,'' she says. ''Because if they're crazy now, they're gonna be crazy four years from now.''

GLENN CLOSE, Damages
'' I guess putting women at the head of something is considered risky,'' says Close, who doesn't understand all the fuss over today's new women-on-top trend in television. ''I'm amused by the whole antiheroine thing because to me it's just women acting like men.'' And as Patty Hewes, the masterfully manipulative — and perhaps murderous — New York litigator, the five-time Oscar nominee uses the masculine approach to outdo even her infamous Alex Forrest, making the Fatal Attraction bunny boiler seem like Doris Day. ''Alex would be putty in Patty's hands,'' Close says.

HOLLY HUNTER, Saving Grace
''It would not have been possible for this show to be on the air 10 years ago, maybe not even five years ago,'' marvels Hunter, who credits Tony Soprano and The Shield's Vic Mackey with paving the way for Grace Hanadarko, her alcoholic, adulterous police detective in spiritual crisis. ''You can't have antiheroines without the guys going first.'' And the Oscar winner (1993's The Piano) clearly relishes the role. ''The rawness appeals to me,'' she says. ''The character's a woman doing these things, and that changes everything. That changes the taste of the whole dish.''

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