• April 30, 2007
• Vol. 67
• No. 17

Turning Heads

By Jennifer Wulff

The Actress, Mogul and Mother Is Back on TV with a New Role—as Host of a New Hairstyling Reality Show. (And She Knows a Thing or Two About Ring Tones)

When Farrah Fawcett was going through treatment for cancer after being diagnosed last September, her old friend Jaclyn Smith was there to lend support—whether it was giving her Charlie's Angels costar a hug or some good old-fashioned comfort food. "We baked cookies and bread pudding. I was right there with her," says Smith, who was treated for breast cancer herself in 2002, undergoing a lumpectomy and radiation (she's had a clean bill of health since). "When something like this happens, it stops you in your tracks. She needed to be surrounded with friendship and love. She's through her treatment now—the power of girlfriends is so important."

Now Smith is showing her nurturing side in a different way: hosting Bravo's new reality series Shear Genius (think Project Runway for the hairstyling set). Also one of the show's judges—next to famed stylists like Sally Hershberger and René Fris—she admits she has a hard time whenever a contestant doesn't, well, cut it. "I just want to hug them," Smith says of having to fire someone each week. "It's heartbreaking."

Little else is these days. Although she'll forever be known for her five years as Angels' Kelly Garrett, Smith, 61, has become something of a mogul: Her Kmart clothing has been "hugely successful," says a store spokesperson, so much so that she launched a home-furnishings and furniture line in '02. Smith's next venture? A skin-care line. "There will be no chemicals in it," says Smith, who wears minimal makeup herself. "The chemicals we're putting on our faces, they're not healthy for us—everything's going to be very pure."

Traveling the country promoting her businesses, Smith keeps close to her family by cell phone, giving each member a different ring tone. "It's like a drug!" she says of her habit of assigning melodies to loved ones. Calls from daughter Spencer-Margaret, 21, are accompanied by Prince's tune "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World." Son Gaston, 25, who graduates from USC in May, chimes in to "You Are the Sunshine of My Life." And husband Brad, 52, a heart surgeon she married in 1997? "Fantasy" by Earth, Wind & Fire. "It takes so little to make me happy!" says Smith, who was divorced from her kids' father, cinematographer Anthony Richmond, in 1994. Other things that bring her joy? Playing ball on the beach with her four dogs, Pilates, and going to church on Sunday ("It's soothing to me," she says). Still, "I'd rather be home with my family than anywhere else," she says. "I've tried harder at being a mother than at anything." That includes staying in the spotlight. Although she's loving her new TV gig, "with Charlie's Angels, it was like being a rock star, but it wasn't what made my day. In the end, it's about that handful of people that you love."

• Contributors:
• Reported by Natasha Stoynoff/New York City.