A
reprint of an Australian TV Week article
from 3 December 1977.
DARK-EYED beauty
Jaclyn Smith of Charlie's Angels has proved she
really is an angel with a bitter attack on Hollywood's per-
missive lifestyle.
The 28-year-old actress, who plays a liberated, sexy
super-sleuth on the top-rated show, says she's nothing like
her image in real-life. She is, she insists, just an old-fashioned girl who is horrified
by the movie capital's boozing and drug-taking party scene.
"I don't want to sound like a saint heading for church
every Sunday, but I do have my own values,'' Jaclyn said.
"I'm shocked when girls talk about their one-night
stands. I just don't understand how they can meet somebody
and then . . . boom the next minute."
Jaclyn, who has been divorced and is currently
going steady with actor Dennis Cole said she found Hollywood
life upsetting and offensive. "It would be impossible for
me to relate to the casualness of most girls here who are off
with a different man each
night," she said.
"In a million years I wouldn't want that for myself.
I know it is accepted and this is the way it is. I'm not saying it
is wrong, but it is just not the ideal lifestyle for me.
"I went to one discotheque and saw people openly passing
envelopes containing drugs to each other. I would never go
back to a discotheque again. It was a dreadful place.
"I've never tried pot. I have no desire for it, or hard
liquor. I've had a little wine every now and again but I'd
rather have ginger ale.''
Jaclyn grew up in a religious home in Houston, Texas, in a
"Sunday school atmosphere", Her grandfather was Methodist minister Gaston
Hartsfield, and she used to help him recite long passages
from the Bible when his eyesight started failing.
She said: "My parents are still my best friends. They
instil in me a sense of conscience. Their life is how I
would like my life to be. So I have never needed
to rebel or go against my parents or their
values.
"I was late in learning
things in life — my husband was the first man in my life —
but that's not so wrong and I'm not going to apologise-for
it." Jaclyn is divorced from actor Roger Davis, of Alias
Smith And Jones fame. She married him after a brief courtship — he proposed
on the second date. She struggled both outwardly and
physically to make a go of the relationship but found it
impossible.
The word divorce horrified her and it was two years after
they separated before she could bring herself to go
through what was for her an unforgivable
severing of the sacred vows of marriage.
She was so upset that she could not tell her parents until
some time later of the divorce. Jaclyn claimed that her
conservative beliefs are laughed at by many people who think
she is missing out on life. "I'm labelled goody-two-shoes but I don't really know
why," she said. "My beliefs are simple, nice and they give me answers;
they make me laugh and feel lucky. They give me security
in life and I can always turn to them. There can't be anything
wrong with that."
Boyfriend Dennis Cole, who once posed nude for a
magazine centerfold, insists he shares many of Jaclyn's
beliefs. "I believe in marriage and in being faithful," he said.
"I'm going to keep the
high standards she holds to, She may well be old
fashioned but what a delightful change to find somebody like her in
Hollywood."
But Jaclyn is not in a rush get married: "My first
was a mistake and it didn't work. I'm really for marriage
and a family and home. When I love somebody I'm totally
devoted and faithful and I couldn't bear a second
failure."
Besides her $15,000 an episode job with Charlie's
Angels, she has just negotiated a $3 million contract to launch her own movie
production company. And she has guest spots lined up in
top-rated series. Jaclyn also gets $100,000 a year from commercials for
Wella Shampoo and Max Factor cosmetics, and has $5 million tied up in land
buildings in Hollywood and
antiques.
