No Frasier Reunion For Leeves & Co.

[Family Ties Forever!]

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Jane Leeves is happy to get older in 'Cleveland'

Updated 4h 6m ago


By Matt Sayles, AP

No Frasier reunion for Leeves & Co.: "Sometimes it's better to have the memory of it."

By Gayle Jo Carter, USA TODAY

Jane Leeves is all about aging gracefully...but naturally.
"It's all 'Don't age, don't age, anti-aging cream, go inject your face,'"says TV veteran Jane Leeves of the pressure on women, especially those on TV and movie screens. "You start to feel, 'Oh my gosh, I haven't done that, should I be doing that?' And then you sort of take a deep breath and look at Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith and go 'No. They're actresses and they use their faces.'"

It's also not the sentiment she wants to convey to her 9-year-old daughter Isabella. "That's not a message I want to be sending her, that there's absolutely anything wrong with being a certain age, shall we say" says Leeves, 49, who stars in TV Land's first original series Hot in Cleveland, (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. ET) about three women who accidentally discover that aging in Cleveland is a lot better than aging in Hollywood.

"It was interesting to start examining the lives of women my age," says the British born actress about her show which co-stars three other actresses of a certain age, Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me); Valerie Bertinelli (One Day At A Time) and the legendary Betty White. "It does feel like a taboo subject to get into it and deal with it."

Leeves, who admits to her own insecurities, says Cleveland's"female centric environment," is an empowering experience. "We're not following guys around and picking up the slack," says Leeves.

Off the set, it's husband Marshall Coben, a former Paramount TV executive she met while working on Frasier, who will be "taking up the slack" with the kids' (Isabella, 9 and Finn, 6) extra curricular activities now that she's busy with a weekly series. "I'm sort of frantically now before we go back to work, just trying to clean out drawers and organize cupboards, and stock up and cook and put stuff in the freezer," says Leeves.

Leeves has done guest spots on shows such as Desperate Housewives and The Starter Wife in the six years since Frasier went off the air, but mostly she wanted to spend time with her kids. Of course, the eleven seasons of Frasier, and its subsequent syndication, has given her the financial freedom to be selective. "I'm a good saver," says Leeves. "I don't have the latest purse or anything like that. And I probably should have."

Actually, Leeves sounds too practical to fall for pricey purses, lamenting, "they're too heavy, full of hardware." She's also a realistic mother of two. "I need a sac so I can put their stuff and my stuff and it won't weight a ton," she laughs. That stuff includes her sons' favorite hamster Zu Zu Pets. "I've always got a couple of them in my purse and his Star Wars guys," says Leeves, who then wonders out loud: "When does that stop? When do you stop finding bits of Legos in your make-up bag?"

Financial security isn't the only thing she took away from her years on Frasier. She's remained friends with all her cast mates including David Hyde Pierce, Kelsey Grammar and Peri Gilpin, who lives just two doors away from her in sunny Malibu. "It's like a little commune here," says Leeves, about their neighborly relationship. "She says, 'I'm cooking tonight,' and I say "Well, I'll cook tomorrow night.' It's a great comfort. And our kids are in school together. It's just been heaven."

But don't expect an on-air reunion, say Leeves, who while admitting Frasier's end was "devastating" for her, she also thinks "everyone's moved on," including the audience.

Leeves says wistfully, "Sometimes it's better to have the memory of it."

[80sTrivia]

Great article... I'm so happy that Jane has found another successful series to showcase her talents!

[iluvnilescrane]

Oh no!! I was hoping that this wouldn't happen!! I would have loved a Frasier Reunion. So heartbreaking!!!!!!