My chat w/Holland Taylor of "Two and a Half Men"

When I met Holland Taylor recently, I jokingly referred
to her as "mother of the year" because the character she plays on TV's top-rated comedy, "Two and a Half Men," is anything but.

Even though the actress' beyond narcissistic character of Evelyn Harper appears in only about half of the episodes each season, her emotionally damaged sons - played by Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer - seem to feel her presence always.

"They usually have a phone call where I say some impossibly hideous thing," Holland said of the episodes she's not physically in. "I want to work more and maybe down the road I will."

The cast, which also includes Angus T. Jones and Conchata Farrell, wasted no time in coming back from the writers strike to begin shooting new episodes of the Monday night comedy.

"We're in our fifth year, we're a well-greased track," she said. "We know what we're doing and we're all very comfortable with one another and very respectful."

Holland said Sheen and Cryer not only play opposites on screen, but are also quite different off it.

"John is very gregarious and outgoing and loves to go out and run around and Charlie's a homebody, he's very, very private and quiet and likes to be with his kids," she said. "They're temperamentally quite different but they get along like a house afire and they have from the beginning. That's one reason why they're so good together."

Playing their mother is the latest in a series of memorable television roles for Holland who won an Emmy Award for her delicious portrayal of Judge Roberta Kittleson on "The Practice" and co-starred with Tom Hanks for two seasons in the early-80s sitcom "Bosom Buddies."

She also had a two-season run as the manipulative wife of a U.S. senator (John Forsythe) on the series "The Powers That Be." But the character of Evelyn has been the biggest stretch with her
with her complete lack of nurturing skills.

"I often don't understand quite how to play something because it is kind of far from me. So sometimes I literally say, 'Does she mean this?' I try and find her values and also, I remind myself: this is a sitcom. This is not a drama, this is not Ibsen. The thing about sitcoms is that they establish certain conventions and rules about their world. Everybody now gets the 'Two and a Half Men' world and so you stay within the parameters of that world."

Somehow, Evelyn has scored a home run in the romance department with a love interest played by Robert Wagner (below) who the actress describes as "dreamy, dreamy, dreamy."

"He's so elegant and so friendly and so warm and supportive that is a thrill to be around him," she said. "He's also insanely flattering. I don't ever want to break up with R.J. Wagner! I'm so afraid they're
going to have me cheat on him or do some dastardly thing to this fabulous man and drive him away."