She knows how to live. There's the island retreat in Maine, the ranch in Oregon, the private jets and the entourage that cares for her and her two young children. It takes money, lots of it, but that's no problem when you have your own top-ten-rated sitcom, Veronica's Closet, as well as having worked six years as part of the Cheers ensemble and in movies that include the Look Who's Talking series and Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry. But if Kirstie Alley simply made a living wage, the girl would still have fun, whether taking bubble baths or adding to a collection of multi-colored wigs that put a certain topspin on amour with her boyfriend, actor James Wilder.

She and Wilder currently share adjoining four-story haciendas in the Hollywood Hills. Both have glass-and-copper elevators, are connected by a third-floor bridge that Wilder built and are stuffed with antiques. According to Contributing Editor David Rensin, "Kirstie has inexhaustible energy and an uninhibited mouth, and she's always on the lookout for a good time. It's just as well that Kirstie thinks we all go around more than once. She can't possibly make enough mischief in a single lifetime."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: Is underwear the key to a man's heart?

Kirstie Alley: I think you've got to go about 18 inches below his heart [laughs]. Actually, undergarments can really help. They work on the same principle as unwrapping a Christmas present. If you just put a microwave oven under the tree, without festive paper and a bow, it wouldn't be very exciting. I think women are much sexier when they're wearing something that makes a man use his imagination.

Guys, however, shouldn't wear underwear. There's no style that works. Any man who thinks he looks good in those Speedo-type bikinis needs to think twice. Yuck. If you want to turn me off, just prance by in a Speedo. I believe most women would rather see a man in 501 jeans--no fashion jeans, please--with three buttons undone. Also a custom-made white shirt, unbuttoned. That would be the same package for women that lingerie is for men. We are talking about a package, right? That's always been sexiest to me. Or jeans and no shirt. Definitely barefoot. No toe hair. And no back hair.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Waxing: good idea or a sign of a screwed-up society?

Kirstie Alley: I love waxing. I think that you should wax it all. If I were a guy, I would want a woman's body in its native state. Each time I wax I lie there thinking, Do you know how much I love this man? That's part of the game. You're enduring all this pain for him. Women are going to hate me for these answers [laughs].

Q 3

PLAYBOY: An April 1998 piece in The New Republic earnestly analyzed female TV archetypes. It cited your character Veronica and Dharma and Ally McBeal as the new feminist role models. Can we really look to TV to define role models? Can life lessons be found on television?

Kirstie Alley: Sure. Life lessons can also be found at Home Depot. It depends on what you're looking for. I view what I do as strictly entertainment. I'm just there to divert somebody for 30 minutes. If I can make someone laugh or teach some sort of lesson, fine. If Veronica is perceived as a successful woman who's fluent in business and illiterate in relationships, it may communicate something to all those working women who don't or can't pay enough attention to their husbands and kids. I understand why it happens. It's easy to get overwhelmed by work and lose touch. I'm not saying what's right or wrong. But if something makes you notice life, whatever it is, that's good. Otherwise, this all gets overanalyzed. Are there really women out there like Veronica Chase or Ally McBeal? Who cares? My favorite show was I Love Lucy. Am I judging her as a housewife? Am I judging Ricky? To me a role model is somebody I dig for whatever reason--and it changes. I never sat down in front of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and worried, Is Mary going to really make it? What's her relationship with Rhoda? Are they lesbians? Is this some sort of subliminal message? She's 35--shouldn't she have a man now? I never thought of any of that bullshit. That's why I've told everyone we're never going to have "a very special" Veronica's Closet, ever.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: What's in Kirstie's closet?

Kirstie Alley: Wigs. Blue, red, yellow, orange, black, green. It's important to be theatrical and dramatic in life, and my wigs make me feel like different women. Wigs are also my solution to the conundrum of monogamy, in which I believe strongly. You wouldn't want to eat a plain hamburger every day for the rest of your life. Ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and pickles now and then make it tastier. My wigs let me change the package occasionally. The blue one is sort of ice princessy. The yellow one makes me look like an airhead. The orange one means aloof. The black one is serious stuff. James' favorite is the red, but you'll have to ask him why. My natural color is brown, but I realized I was a little too conservative and I wasn't having enough fun. So I did a small part blonde. Thank God it didn't affect my IQ. Spiritually, I think of myself as an Italian with black hair, wearing Capezio slippers that were hand-beaded by a little slave boy. I have this vision of myself with black Cleopatra hair and blue eyes, wearing chinoiserie: silk Oriental clothes that are designed for me and are sort of open in the front. I'm standing on a huge stairway, where I greet my gentlemen callers looking like I do nothing.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: Is your life always so dramatic?

Kirstie Alley: Always. To me, an hour without drama is unimaginable. The worst thing in the world is boredom. There is nothing that will upset me more or do me in faster. I realized last night, while I was sitting in the bathtub feeling sorry for myself about something, that I don't think I've ever spent 24 hours alone. I'm very social. I don't know what people do when they're alone. Curling up with a good book seems unreal to me. Maybe it would make sense if I were curled up with somebody else while reading a good book. But to read a book by myself? Unreal. I can't stand it if there's no drama. [Pauses] Now, by drama I don't necessarily mean conflict--just the drama of life. If all the world is a stage, I'm there. I'm committed. I'm sort of nuts in that way. Everything is like a movie to me, so nothing feels common, and that's a good thing. If I started feeling common, ugh, you might just as well slit my throat.