Things got bleaker. With time on her hands, Jackson, who turns 39 on Aug. 2, painted the condo's living room walls a light purple—"because the set of Friends is purple," she explains, "and they always look like they're having fun." That decor, in turn, inspired her to write a bluesy song called "My Purple Cage." "It's about being trapped," she sighs, "but I chose to be trapped, because I love my family."
Then, in January 1997, Jackson cut a tendon in her wrist in a dishwasher accident. The injury, which required physical therapy, prevented her from doing a handstand for six months. Jackson was bereft, because handstands have been part of her comedy act since she started out in L.A. clubs in the early '80s. They won her huge ovations when she performed them on SNL—usually on top of the Weekend Update anchor's desk. Perhaps, she thought, the dishwasher mishap was no accident. "Subconsciously, I was saying, 'I don't like being a housewife.' " Her husband empathizes. "I honestly feel badly that she is sacrificing her career to be here with me," says Wessel, a 17-year veteran cop.
Jackson can't say she didn't know what she was getting into. She and Wessel have known each other since high school in Miami, where they were sweethearts; they got engaged in 1978 while sophomores at South Carolina's Furman University. Two years later, Jackson left for L.A. to become an actress, and the couple drifted apart. By the time they met again in 1991, both were emerging from unhappy first marriages. Wessel had just split from his wife, an accountant. Jackson had parted from Nisan Eventoff, a fire-eating magician at an L.A. comedy club where both performed. Their eight-year union produced Scarlet in 1986, but Jackson's career success resulted in marital strains and a 1992 divorce. Rekindling their romance, Jackson and Wessel became engaged in March 1992; she quit SNL that June, in part to spend more time with him and Scarlet; and they wed in September (Aubrey arrived in 1994).
After several quiet years, Jackson has been retooling her career. In addition to a stand-up comedy act that she has taken on the road—including to the Montreal Comedy Festival in July—she has done commercials (Infiniti, MCI), children's musical albums (Ukelele Ditties for Itty-Bitty Kiddies) and TV guest shots (The Naked Truth). But she yearned for a crack at a prime-time series. Each spring for the past three years she has flown to L.A. to test for series pilots. Last summer, torn between the city she loves and the family she can't live without, Jackson, a lifelong Baptist, found herself alone on Venice Beach, praying for a sign. "God said to me: 'Go home. Love your family, and I'll tell you what to do.' "
She went home to Miami—and last spring she landed a supporting role as a ditzy secretary on Conrad Bloom, a sitcom pilot that made NBC's fall schedule. Which means, of course, uprooting to L.A. "I've been working on Paul for six years to move there," she says sadly, "but he loves his job." Last April, they compromised: Jackson took a lease on a two-bedroom L.A. apartment, where she and the kids will live, joined regularly by Wessel.
Juggling work and family is a skill that Jackson is still trying to master. "I had a great career and I didn't have a good marriage. Now I have a great marriage and my career has been suffering," she reflects. "But when I die, I'd rather be surrounded by a loving family than, say, two Oscars." In the quavering voice of an old woman, she gasps, "There's my Oscar, and there's my other Oscar." Then, shaking her blonde mane, Jackson laughs. "I don't think so."
Michael A. Lipton
Grace Lim in Miami
- Contributors:
- Grace Lim.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
