Titans Article #1:
Victoria Principal

Principal's Principles

Victoria Principal has some advice for young women: Tell the truth about your age! The 50-year-old stunner reveals that she has been honest about her age from the beginning and is proud to play matriarch Gwen Williams on Aaron Spelling's new NBC drama, Titans.

"Primarily, I wanted to play someone my own age because I think there's a stigma in America attached to women over the age of 35, unlike many other cultures," the actress/fitness expert tells TV Guide Online. "And I think it's unfair and it's time to get rid of it." Principal observes that this stigma is even worse in Hollywood because "we only have leading ladies who are 35."

The former Dallas heroine says that she has become a maternal figure on and off the Titans set. Her character, Gwen, has four children with her ex-husband [played by Perry King] who lives across the street with his trophy wife [Yasmine Bleeth]. "I love having this family," she says. "I call the cast and the crew my ducklings. "I love [being around] these young people who are about to experience fame probably for the first time, or the kind of fame I sense is going to happen with Titans," she continues of her TV brood, played by Casper Van Dien, Josie Davis, Elizabeth Bogush and John Barrowman.

Principal is confident that Titans, which will air Wednesdays (8-9 pm/ET), is bound to surprise a lot of people. "As much as they think they're going to see Dallas, Dynasty or Melrose Place, I think they might be thinking a little more along the lines of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman." she says referring to the 1976 TV series starring Louise Lasser. "I think that this is a black comedy. Just when we break your heart and tears are streaming down your face, we do and say something so black, so twisted, so unexpected, so on the edge of reality, that you die laughing. Just make a great bowl of popcorn, sit down and get ready to be entertained."

-Allie Cahill