Hampton Style - May 23, 2008 -

In the most endearing sense of the word, Candice Bergen is a broad. She may have the appearance of a fine-boned aristocrat, but underpinning that elegant bearing are signatures of fortitude-the throaty timbre of her voice, an all-too-knowing smile and a magnetic sense of self.

But Bergen waves it away. "Oh please, my confidence just came with extreme age, and whatever confidence I projected when I was younger, part of that was just the ignorance of youth. I traveled everywhere by myself just because I really didn't know any better," she explains.

One of the first trips a young Bergen took involved leaving California to head east for adventure, and she was just 18 when she landed in the Hamptons. "When I first came out here I stayed in Southampton, in a share house on the dunes. It was such a long time ago, but after that, I just kept coming," she remembers.

"When my late husband and I first met, we had a house together in Bridgehampton. Then I go and marry into another house, this time in East Hampton," explains Candice, referring to her husband of eight years, real estate mogul and philanthropist Marshall Rose. "We really love it here; we come year-round. And I can relax a bit now and be here for most of the summer."

A summer day in the Hamptons with Bergen is not for the faint-hearted: "Typically, we start early with a big walk along the beach with our dogs. We have breakfast, then go for a bike ride, or on Saturdays we have a great masseur who comes-which is sort of spa Saturday for us-and he digs around in our backs. Then people may come over for lunch or we just stay quiet at home and eat on our porch. Then another bike ride or dog walk. If we go out, it's to Nick & Toni's. We also go to 1770 House...downstairs for burgers-and we love Rowdy Hall. Our days here are a nice mix of the active and the slothful, but tilting more to sloth all the time," she laughs.

And how did a formerly roving, single-minded woman come to be so happily house-broken? "I've always spent lots of time alone," she says, "so I had to make the transition to learn how to be with someone full-time. And Marshall is very much a traditional husband, and doesn't really see the point of marriage unless you're together. Which I thought was such a novel concept, and he sort of civilized me, I suppose. Emotionally. I just don't enjoy my alone time as much as I used to. So I think I've been made a little less savage with time. It's just that I wasn't especially gifted at relationships. And I'm not now either, but let's just say I know more of what's expected," she concedes. "I do my very small part, but my husband is brilliant at it, thank god. I would have gone right off the track if left to my own devices.

"In my first marriage [to French film auteur, the late Louis Malle] both of us were temperamentally more similar, much more loners, so we could deal with the absences. But in the end, too much absence bites you on the ass," she resigns.

"I do find that as you get older, freedom becomes less enjoyable. And a child gives you such relief from that. Finally I don't have to think about myself any longer... And they're the love of your life," Bergen smiles. Her daughter, Chloe, is now 22.

It would appear that domesticity is a fair trade for freedom-when you're Candice Bergen. Peculiar to Bergen as an actress has been her ability to play substantial, stand-alone female characters, ones who hold your interest irrespective of any romance waiting in the wings. It seems Bergen could so effortlessly reach this high note on camera because she really was this woman, one whose currency is every bit as valuable alone, than when she's part of a couple.

Raised in Beverly Hills amid a lifestyle of privilege and industry connections-her parents were famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and actress Frances Westerman-a headstrong Candice was intent on mapping her own path to success. She dropped out of university when a lucrative modeling career beckoned, but the classic beauty soon caught the eye of Sidney Lumet and was cast in her first film role in The Group. Bergen played a snooty lesbian in the adaptation of Mary McCarthy's classic book about a coterie of women.

Subsequent dramatic roles, such as The Sand Pebbles with Steve McQueen and Carnal Knowledge with Jack Nicholson, earned Bergen recognition but no real accolades. After Lorne Michaels offered Candice a Saturday Night Live hosting stint, the private clown was unveiled, and it was as a tone-deaf divorced singer in the 1979 comedy Starting Over that she finally got to flaunt her acting chops. (The scene where she tries to seduce a deadpan Burt Reynolds with an off-key serenade is hilarious and excruciating. "That is on YouTube?" Bergen asks incredulously. "Oh, my.") The role earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

"It was insane, but so much fun," says Candice. "I find it tremendously exhilarating, though, when you make a fool of yourself-it's a great freedom. My father was very much a comedian, so I grew up around comedians; humor was a way to get approval. I knew I could be funny, but it wasn't until my 30s that I actually started working on comedies. Once I was able to show it in films, I started feeling a comfort level that I never had before."