This
Charming Man
Holly
Marie Combs has been bewitched and betrothed to a man she met through Charmed
co-star Shannen Doherty.
The
26 year old brunette who plays middle sister Piper Halliwell on the hit Network
Ten series Charmed says it was her close friend and TV sister who
actually introduced her to the man who is now her fiancé.
"Shannen
(Doherty) and I were in Mexico right before we started the show, and happened to
be in a bar/restaurant. There was a cute boy there that she happened to spot
first. I didn't like the look of him, so I thought, 'Oh no Shannen!',"
Holly recalls for TV Week with a sheepish grin, as Shannen overhears our
conversation during a break in filming the series in Los Angeles.
"Did
Holly tell you that I saw him first?" Shannen interrupts with a grin,"
Let's make that clear. She had no idea what to do. But he turned out to be an
amazing guy."
"And
a year later, I'm engaged to him!" Holly adds excitedly. While marriage
does not seem to be a long-standing commitment for the three Charmed
stars - Shannen's 1994 marriage to Ashley Hamilton lasted seven months and
Alyssa Milano's 1998 marriage to musician to Cijiun Tate ended late last year
after only 10 months - Holly is not letting her own failed marriage to actor
Bryan Smith, which ended in 1996, discourage her from taking the plunge again.
"We're
going to be sensible and wait to make sure it really lasts," she cautions,
explaining that her first marriage at the age of 18 took place in a Las Vegas
chapel after only eight dates. "I thought he was the love of my life but
people change. You need a lot of time to really know someone."
Now
Holly can't stop singing the praise of her new love, Storm Lydon. " He's a
spiritually evolved person," she says, "That's what attracted me to
him when we started talking, because it was a big lesson for me not to judge a
book by its cover. He looks tough on the outside, but he's actually a second
grade teacher in a rough Los Angeles neighborhood - and a real sweetie.
"Wedding plans are just the latest upbeat news in the life of the former
child actress, best recognized as the daughter of Tom Skerritt and Katy Baker in
the drama series, Picket Fences. In Charmed, Holly, Shannen and
Alyssa play sisters who discover an antique book in the attic of their late
grandmother (house?) that unleashes their own supernatural powers.
They decide to move into the house in San Francisco to keep it in the family and
explore their relationships and their new powers.
"I
liked that it was totally different from anything else I'd done and I knew it
would be fun and I would get to work with Shannen," says Holly, who has
three days to make up her mind when Aaron Spelling called her in to replace an
actress who shot the original plot and left for person reasons. (Actually it
was Alyssa who replaced the actress, not Holly, but why let facts get in the way
of a good story).
Holly
was a close friend of Shannen's since the pair were child actresses, and both
were thrilled to finally work together. "After the emotionally
charged Picket Fences, I knew this would be entertaining," Holly
adds, "It's fun to get to kill warlocks but still have great conversations
with your sisters!"
In
the Network Ten series, Holly plays Piper Halliwell, the middle sister who is a
novice chef and is also caught in the middle of a long-running feud between her
older sister Prue (Doherty) and younger sister (Milano).
"I'm
similar to my character in some ways but she's a bit more wound up and I hope
I'm not like that," Holly smiles, "But we're similar in one respect,
and that is we both have a tendency to avoid any confrontation for as long as
possible. We like things to be calm."
Although
Holly describes herself as very "unsuperstitous - the other girls hate it
because I'll always spill salt and walk under ladders", she admits she does
see the appeal of the show.
"
I think we are in a time when young people are looking for something new to
believe in," she says, "They are realizing that traditional religions
don't always offer what's relevant today. I think people want to believe in
something and witchcraft is new and exciting."