We sent Los Angeles freelancer David Rensin to meet with Shelley Hack on a typically beautiful Southern California afternoon. His report: "I was waiting in her living room, sipping a glass of wine, when I heard a piano tinkling faintly in the background. The sound was familiar, but before I could determine whether it was Bobby Short or Mel Torme playing, Shelley breezed in, wearing abbreviated khaki shorts and a simple white blouse. She flashed that smile. I stood. I began to sing...."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: Do you like being a TV star?

Shelley Hack: Yes. I've got two parking spaces with my name on them. It's wonderful. Someone on the set asked me if I was scared, but it never even occurred to me. Before joining the cast, I thought the show was very well produced. Really, it's a wonderful tongue-in-cheek fantasy; three terrific-looking girls running around packing pistols. And it's funny.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Kate Jackson was always called "the smart one." What do they call you?

Shelley Hack: Well, I am the one from the East, the one who went to Smith--which I did in reality, too. I can do with my character what I want. We play it in terms of my being well educated, knowing Latin and other languages, but I'm also trying for a bit of goofiness.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Aren't you really overeducated for the show?

Shelley Hack: No, I'm educated for life; Charlie's Angels is part of life.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: You majored in history at Smith. If you taught contemporary American culture, how would you explain the Charlie's Angels phenomenon?

Shelley Hack: For obvious reasons, it is a product of reflex thinking in a culture that is working harder and harder for the dollar. During the Depression, we went to the movies; now we watch TV. The show has something for everyone. Women watch because they want to look like the Angels. The show represents a total fantasy that isn't so far out to lunch that it's science fiction. I mean, the Angels aren't untouchable types. They're not the kind of invulnerable beauties that you see in the fashion magazines.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: You've had your picture in fashion magazines.

Shelley Hack: Yes, but I never looked quite so haughty. Once, on a promotional tour, I was talking with a guy at a radio station and he wanted to know why my Charlie perfume commercials for Revlon were so successful. I suggested we make it the call-in question, because I was curious myself. The women respondents said that this girl walking into a restaurant alone--which most women are afraid to do--looking chic, but not too chic, seemed like somebody they would like to know or to be. I was their idea of a modern, liberated but not threatening woman. The men thought I was someone they would like to go out with; again, modern, not brassy and someone who, if they met me, would talk to them. Men complain about women who can't talk.