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She rules since the Emmys Saturday Call it post-traumatic Emmy disorder. Though it's been a full month since "The Practice's" Holland Taylor (Judge Roberta Kittleson) unexpectedly won the Emmy for best supporting actress in a drama, her life is still in a state of suspended animation. "It hasn't sunk in yet, really," says Holland, 56. "The repercussions, let's say, are continuous." So continuous that Taylor checked into an oceanfront Malibu motel just to clear her head. And contemplate her stacks of unpaid bills, parking tickets, and fan mail. "The [Emmys] machinery keeps grinding long after the event. My life has been steamrolling. All the minutia gets pushed aside -- grocery shopping, laundry. I'm hungry and dirty. My mortgage probably didn't get paid." Taylor's Judge Kittlelson gets paid, often in trade. The libidinous jurist has a taste for young flesh. Her current flame: chunky lawyer Jimmy Berluti (Michael Badalucco), whose gorgeous boss, Bobby Donnell (Dylan McDermott), was once the object of Judge Kittleson's fantasies. That one went nowhere. Nowhere is where Taylor -- a standout in such losers as "The Naked Truth" and "The Powers That Be" -- was supposed to go on "The Practice's" ABC freshman season. Originally designed as a one-shot deal, the judge was, shall we say, fleshed out to six episodes by creator David Kelley. (This season, she's in the first five episodes, with more to come, as her schedule permits.) After two segments of all work and no play, Kittelson's hormones began to rage. "You could say she was promiscuous," Taylor says. "Obviously, she had a lot of affairs. For a woman of a certain age, the only way we justified it was by establishing she was a widow with three grown kids." Playing her "is totally fun all the time. The whole ambience of the role, the sexuality, is always present. It comes into subtle play in every scene. If I'm talking to a witness who's an attractive man, I'm looking him over." As for the judge's future with clueless Jimmy, well, don't book too many billable hours. Even though she surprised him by showing up naked in his apartment in last Sunday's episode, "I think they will segue into an affectionate friendship." In real life, the never-married Taylor is recovering from the breakup of a long relationship. Back to the Emmys. When "The Practice" beat HBO's freshman "The Sopranos" for best drama, it was a surprise. When Taylor edged "Sopranos"' Nancy Marchand, it was a seismic shock. "I actually heard the presenter say, 'And the winner is ... Nancy Marchand.' I had an out-of-body experience. My date stood up and tapped me on the shoulder. I had a look of complete non-comprehension. My eyeballs went up." It was only after being ordered to get on stage that Taylor realized she had hit a home run in her first-ever Emmy at-bat. At that point, "I became Lady of the Serenities. Some kind of calm descended on me." Not for long. Six job offers poured in, including three theater roles in New York. (After 30 years, no more auditioning!) Taylor can't go anywhere without being recognized. |
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