PRACTICE STAR GOES BLONDE
TV Guide.com | July 9, 2001

Looks like The Practice's Holland Taylor is raising the bar on her on-screen law career. An Emmy winner for her randy role as Judge Roberta Kittleson, she also plays Reese Witherspoon's cantankerous Harvard Law professor in the summer comedy, Legally Blonde (opening Friday).

"They probably got the idea to use me in this role because [of] The Practice," Taylor concedes, adding wryly: "But that's where the comparison stops - I haven't slept with any of the undergraduates in this film."

Indeed, Taylor takes pride in her libidinous Judge Kittleson, who's indulged in naughty fantasies about Dylan McDermott's Bobby, bedded Michael Badalucco's Jimmy - and spiced up viewer perceptions of older women in the bargain. For that, Taylor gives props to Practice creator David E. Kelley. "I've played a lot of older leading ladies who are very cold and strong, which isn't particularly my personality," she explains. "So getting to play a babe was pretty pleasant! It's nice to see that character - a woman who's still hot-to-trot and very desirable - make it as such a success."

Even so, Taylor will give her sex-kitten side a rest this fall when she plays former First Lady Nancy Reagan in the Showtime teleplay, The Day Reagan Was Shot. "She is perhaps the greatest wife of all time, and [she and Ronald Reagan] were a great love match," the actress enthuses. "It was incredibly disturbing and harrowing to play out this intense, chaotic period when the President was between life and death. You will not believe all the hysteria and confusion that happened in this 24-hour period."

- Amy Helmes