Daphne Zuniga

http://www.tvguide.com/news/insider/041105c.asp

Warning may contain spoilers

Daphne Zuniga spent four years surrounded by bedroom bedlam on Melrose Place, but she didn't really get in on the action herself until this fall, when she joined NBC's comparatively tame '60s-set sudser, American Dreams (Sundays at 8 pm/ET). As single mother/Playboy Bunny Shelly Pierce, "I finally get to have a little fun!" she exclaims to TV Guide Online with a laugh. "I don't mean to be trite, but Shelly has a yen for men."

Although she acknowledges that the Pryors' free-spirited new neighbor has noticed how handsome patriarch Jack (Tom Verica) is, she hints that she will eventually cast her eye, and then some, on the younger model — his ne'er-do-well kid brother, Pete (Matthew John Armstrong). "Nothing gets too, um, juicy," the actress insists coyly, "but there's definitely a chemistry that those two feel.

"Matt has been married for six years and hasn't kissed anyone other than his wife [in all that time]," she adds. "So I taught him a trick or two. But it's American Dreams, not Melrose Place — let's not get confused! No torsos were involved!"

To hear the quick-witted showbiz vet tell it, a lust interest for Shelly couldn't have come quickly enough to suit her. Without one, scenes between her and her TV son, Gilmore Girls hottie Milo Ventimiglia — who's only 15 years her junior — were starting to get a little weird. "God, he's cute!" she observes with unrestrained enthusiasm. "Sometimes, I pretend he's my boyfriend instead [of my kid]. It makes for some interesting subtext!"