Cybill's Martha Moment

As the Martha Stewart insider-trading scandal erupted last summer, Matt Lauer gave the "Today" show audience his picks for the perfect actors to play Martha in the made-for-TV biopic: Cybill Shepherd, Candice Bergen or Robin Williams. A friend of Shepherd's immediately called her and told her to pursue the part. Shepherd got her manager on the phone with the NBC brass that day. And now Matt Lauer's casting call will come to the small screen. On Monday, May 19, Shepherd will star as the domestic diva in "Martha, Inc.: The Martha Stewart Story" airing at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.

Shepherd doesn't consider it typecasting, but she says she did draw on her own rage playing the famously temperamental Stewart. (The scene of her hurling a copper pot at her catering partner is particularly delicious.) Yet Shepherd also humanizes Martha, especially in a highly sympathetic ending that shows her being mobbed by adoring fans. (The producers had to dream up that scene--the real Martha story isn't over yet. Stewart denies any wrongdoing in dumping stock in biotech company ImClone the day before negative news sent it tumbling. But federal prosecutors are still weighing criminal charges.)

Shepherd spoke this week with NEWSWEEK's Keith Naughton about playing Martha, how she controls her own rage and "Cybill Disobedience," an autobiographical musical she's developing for Broadway.

NEWSWEEK: Why did you want this role?

Cybill Shepherd: I wanted the role so badly because it was the part of a lifetime. This woman is one of the most fascinating, contradictory characters and powerful people that have been in front of the public in a very long time.

Could you relate to her?