Talking with Paula Marshall of 'Gary Unmarried'

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Actress Paula Marshall figures she's giving ex-wives a good name on the new comedy "Gary Unmarried" (8:30 p.m. EST Wednesdays, CBS)."Ex-wives are going to love me," says the 44-year-old star, an ex-wife herself. "I'm not going to play her as the snotty, obnoxious, bitter ex-wife."Instead, Marshall plays the title character's ex, Allison Brooks, as a harried mom but clearly the more responsible one of the former couple. She doesn't nag or complain. Allison accepts Gary as he is.That's not always easy, she says."I guess to be an ex-wife you have to be a little bitter," Marshall says, "but you're going to see that we really did love each other."We have children with each other. We're in each other's lives. It's sort of an old-fashion, modern-day romance. We're people who used to love each other and now we're trying to go on and find love again with other people."Marshall can relate to being someone's ex. She was married for 10 years to actor Tom Ardavany, who is now an acting teacher in Venice Beach, Calif. "We didn't have any kids together," she says. "I never, ever have to see him again. Thank God."With Allison, Marshall didn't want to be the standard TV ex-wife, the harpy with no soul."That was my goal: To not make this ex-wife the typical ex-wife on television," she says.Marshall learned of "Gary Unmarried" through her husband, actor Danny Nucci, who auditioned for the role of Gary (the part went to comic Jay Mohr instead). "When I read (Danny's) script, I thought, 'I really like this ex-wife. I want to go for that part,' " Marshall says.However, she found out the producers wanted to see her about the role the next day. She didn't have a baby sitter for her children and hadn't prepared to meet with producers.So she thought the part was passing her by. Later, after the producers saw other actresses but didn't cast any of them, Marshall got a second stab at the role.At the time she got "Gary Unmarried," Marshall was working on Showtime's sex romp "Californication."She's one of the few actresses working on cable and network shows this season. She loves the benefits of being on network."I'm so glad I'm not naked on ('Gary Unmarried')," Marshall deadpans. "I'm not 25 anymore. We're on during the 8 o'clock hour."There is only so much you can do then ... I guess if I'm on two shows now that means I'm hot or something."(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)