2007′S VALEDICTORIANS: THE CABLE QUEENS

Not long ago, if you said the phrase ‘’strong female character,” what you really meant was ”bitch.” Today however, you’d mean a powerful, complex figure who’s flawed but fascinating. The actress this description calls for doesn’t fit into any box ? except, at last, the TV. Glenn Close (FX’s Damages), Mary-Louise Parker (Showtime’s Weeds), Kyra Sedgwick (TNT’s The Closer), and Holly Hunter (TNT’s Saving Grace) (pictured, left to right) are four extraordinary film vets who have embraced the challenges of their latest provocative roles on the small screen. Here, a tribute to the leading women of cable. ?Ari Karpel

MARY-LOUISE PARKER, Weeds
”I think it just all thins out there the older you get.” Parker’s not talking hair, she’s talking movie scripts: There aren’t many offered to women in their 40s. Still, the primary reason she took the role on Weeds was that she’d recently had her first child and wanted steady hours. But don’t go thinking motherhood has dampened her resolve to push Nancy Botwin ? the devoted mom and suburban drug kingpin she plays ? to extremes. ”I want to take her as far as I can,” she says. ”I probably wouldn’t be able to take off my panties and put my stuff in Matthew Modine’s face on any other channel, y’know?”

Source: ew.com