EDITORIAL ROUTING 8-30-94 To: ENTERTAINMENTS EDITORS: NEA is discontinuing the Star View column. This Ivey league Judith Ivey is at home on TV for now By Frank Lovece What's a two-time Tony Award- Yrnner like you doing in a place like Making a living, assures Judith Ivey, whose new CBS siteom, “The Five Mrs, Buchanans,” premieres Saturday, Sept. 24. And if this series about four Midwestern suburban sis ters-in-law and their autocratic mother-in-law isn't exactly Broadway, ey doesn’t mind. “It's a good living and a stable environment and all those middle-class values,” she ob- serves, “instead of hi-diddie-dee, the actor's life for me.” Serious but wry — seriously wry ‘That elegant combination has served the blond, comfortably ordinary-look: ing Ivey ever since her college drama- ‘major days. Yet while Ivey, 42, seems tailor-made for the serious but wry role of Alex Buchanan — a smart and savvy thrift-shop owner with a calm head and a quick wit — Ivey says the producers offered her her choice of three of the five titular Buchanans. “They said, ‘Well, you can have whatever part you want,” Ivey re- calls, “and they were all pleasantly surprised I picked Alex.” It's odd that ‘would seem so surprising, since Alex is the lead character, but “they thought I would pick Vivian, the In- diana prude.” That role went to Har- riett Harris, “who has understood her far better than I would have,” Ivey allows. “Vivian was close enough to some roles I've already played that she wasn't attractive to me.” The other role offered her, she says, was that of Delilah, the slutty but well meaning preacher's wife in tight clothes and tighter cleavage —a role for which Ivey, despite her many fine qualities, would have found a wee bit ofa streich, ‘The series, set in an Indianapolis suburb, posits Alex as a relocated Jewish New Yorker. Ivey, to her and the producers’ credit, doesnt play her asa stereotype a la Fran Drescher in the sitcom “The Nanny.” That was, however, a late decision, Ivey says. “Since I was not known for playing ‘Jews from New York, (the producers) hhad me read for the part,” Ivey notes, “But then when I was rehearsing the scene (to read for the producers), they told me they didn't want her to sound like she was from New York. ‘To which I kind of snidely said, ‘Well, then, what am I auditioning for?” She chuckles at the memory, but still ‘| like doing sitcoms. A big advantage is that you get to have as normal a life as any actor gets to have. It allows a stability for young children that’s important.’ seems understandably exasperated ‘At any rate, Ivey has had experi- ence with the siteom thing: She's starred in her own series, “Down Home” (1990-91), and joined the cast of “Designing Women” for that ‘show’s final season. She also does the voice of Eleanor Sherman on the an- imated series “The Critic,” whieh is moving from ABC to Fox this fall “Like doing siteoms,” Ivey insists “like the challenge and the speed of it, And that’s also the downside — there’s so litte time to get in and in- ddulge yourself and create. A big ad- vantage, though, is that you get to have as normal'a life as any actor gets to have, It allows a stability for young children that's important, and until mine are old enough to deal with the wacky actor's life it's nice to have this available to me.” Ivey and her second husband, cable-movie pro ducer Tim Braine, have a young daughter, Maggie, and an infant son, ‘Thomas Carter. Ivey was born in Texas and raised there and in Michigan and Mlinois, the daughter of academics. She attended Judith Ivey linois State University on a drama scholarship, and after graduation and several months of unemployment fi nally landed an “industrial” flm (the ‘overall term for corporatelinstruction- al films or any other films for non- ‘TVitheater release) “It was a religious film called ‘The Enemy,” Ivey remembers, “It was the Christian Film Series answer to The Exorcist,’ which had just come ‘out. I played the wife half of a couple who exorcised two young boys — it ‘was a much more evangelical point- of-view, as opposed to the Catholic version in which you need a priest.” ‘That led to an agent, commerciais and stage plays with Chicago's well: regarded Goodman Theater. After @ divorce from first husband Ricardo Gutierrez, an English and theater professor, Ivey moved to New York with then-boyfriend Barry Cullison (Sgt. Cutter on the 1988 Fox series “The Dirty Dozen”), She established herself in theater, broke into TV with the hour-long “American Playhouse drama “The Shady Hill Kidnapping” (4962), and won Tonys for "Steaming" (4982)'and “Hurlyburly” (1984), Ivey went on to movies including “The Lonely Guy” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and several TV-movies. ‘Through ital, “Tve always loathed seripts where ail the humor is based ‘on how bitchy women can be with each other,” Ivey says, Whether or not “The Five Mrs. Buchanans" falls into that category, it will be interest- ing to see how Ivey fares with these new designing women. ‘01091 NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN, STAR VIEW FRANK : LOVECE W751 sprang women ending sedate 0 wopmnd A ene peed id 2 wow woenpontny Q18b-LZZ (008) 99TOT AN ‘HOA MeN “OAV Hed 00Z NOLLVIOOSSV ASIUdUALNA YadvdSMIN