Before signing on to Die Another Day, Pierce Brosnan debated whether he cared to wear James Bond's tux for a fourth time. Names of potential Bonds were furiously bandied about, with many pegging Brit actor Rupert Everett as the next 007. However, MGM and Day director Lee Tamahori reportedly shied away from casting an openly homosexual man in the role. Did they fear moviegoers — who best know Everett as Julia's charming gay pal in My Best Friend's Wedding — would refuse to accept him as Ian Fleming's famously womanizing superspy?

"[Tamahori] could have quite easily cast me if he wanted to," huffs Everett. "He had carte blanche over casting that character."

While the 43-year-old was bummed about being nixed because of his sexual orientation, he still has no regrets about coming out, or doing movies like Wedding. "If it hadn't been for My Best Friends Wedding to start with, I wouldn't have gotten any of the other roles that I'd gotten after [it]," he says. "[Typecasting] is frustrating if you want to let it be frustrating. That's how it is, and I think there are two ways that you could look at it: You can look at yourself as a victim or you can look at every potential situation in your life as a challenge for you to turn around."

Apart from the elusive Bond, Everett has landed roles that don't involve playing gay. Earlier this year, he was Reese Witherspoon's love interest in The Importance of being Earnest. Next up, he voices a villain in Nickelodeon's animated flick, The Wild Thornberrys (opening Dec. 20). Like many thesps who do voiceover work, he was challenged by having to act alone in a recording studio.

"Its very virtual," he says. "You never meet anyone else involved in the film. You never see an image [of your character]. You read a script, and then you perform your part. You don't really know what it is you're doing until about two years in, and then you see the image and the whole thing married together.

We don't want to jinx Eric Close, but it looks like the Without A Trace star finally is free of that pesky Nielsen curse. This FBI missing persons drama is his seventh TV series, and it's holding steadily in second place against ER on Thursday nights. Thus, it's faring far better than his other six shows — none of which survived past season one. In his latest tête à tête with TV Guide Online, the deliriously sweet smell of success has Close spewing clichés left and right!

"Patience is a virtue," he beams. "Good things come to those who wait. None of [my other shows] were bad projects. People liked them. They had followings, but there are so many factors that go into a show's [success], and I think one of the biggest things that's helping us is our timeslot.

"When ER goes off the air, we'll beat them," jokes the Now and Again alum. "They've been around for a really long time. But people are obviously showing us that there's a desire for something new."

Trace isn't the TV stud's only gig. For Steven Spielberg's miniseries Taken — airing weeknights on Sci Fi Channel — Close revisits the alien-invasion genre that made him a fan fave on NBC's short-lived Dark Skies. This time, though, he's on the other side of the extra-terrestrial divide, playing an alien who's out to cross-breed with earthlings. Kinky!

Actress Paula Marshall is hiding something. While she stars on NBC's comedy Hidden Hills — as a wife and mother in complete control over a chaotic suburban household — she's no June Cleaver. "Except for the cool clothes, my real life is night and day," admits the 42-year-old. "I'm not married and have no children, so I'm acting my butt off!"

But the Rockville, Md. native is used to stretching away from her own reality. She's been a romance counselor on the short-lived, but critically-acclaimed Cupid; a private eye on David E. Kelly's Snoops; and an NYU student reporter who "outs" George and Jerry in a classic Seinfeld episode. Not that there's anything wrong with that. "I've been on a lot of shows, and I don't plan on going anywhere," she chuckles. "I want to star in The Golden Girls 2 when I'm 80." Here, we grill the Hills star for more info on her quirky career.

TVGO: Can you relate to life in suburbia?
Marshall: Growing up, I was captain of my high school's pom-pom squad and dated a football player. I know the station wagon world.

TVGO: Attend any "Mommy and Me" classes to prepare for portraying a maternal type?
Marshall: It's just TV. I didn't have to actually give birth to be on the series. The producers give me tips on being motherly, but on the set, it's so obvious I'm the only non-parent.

TVGO: Your Hidden Hills costar Kristin Bauer also appeared on a well-known Seinfeld episode as "Man Hands." Have you compared notes?
Marshall: I didn't know! It is a rare honor to be one of Jerry's women. We are like the Bond girls, only funny.