Hampton Style - August 17, 2007 -

It's pretty rare for the girl you finger-painted with in nursery school to remain your best friend throughout your life. But Ali Wentworth and I started out as best friends at age four, because our mothers were best friends in Washington D.C., and have stuck together to the present day. Ali remembers me in our pre-teens as intimidating, slightly punk, without a curfew, and smoking Dunhill cigarettes. When I moved to New York, I remember her visiting in loser Laura Ashley turtleneck dresses, knee socks, and clogs. Now our daughters are the best of friends and we are godmothers to each of them. She is back living in D.C. where her husband, George Stephanopoulos, hosts his Sunday political show This Week on ABC. She now has a hit comedy show on the Starz network called Head Case, where, through hilarious improv, she plays a shrink treating real-life Hollywood stars. It's in the Hamptons every summer that we connect and watch our daughters grow up together the same way we did. History is repeating itself; my daughter is way cooler than hers.

Whenever I see you in the Hamptons--about three times a week--you don't pay attention to me because you are on a dock with bags of raw chicken, five kids under the age of ten, and white string trolling for crabs. What's the deal with that?
I'm obsessed with crabbing. The women out here work on their bodies, their tans, their fashion sense. I work on perfecting the art of crabbing. It's imperative to me to bring home over two dozen crabs to feed my family. I enjoy the chase, the skill, and the final product. It's what I assume the hedge-fund guys go through every day.

Do you ever actually jump in the water?
Are you out of your &*$%@# mind?

Are you scared of the water?
Not bathwater. But ever since I saw Jaws, not even my little toe. There was one intense afternoon, I put aside my fears and went knee-deep into Mecox Bay. Like I was in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, I felt a strong tug on my string. A battle of wits ensued. I assumed it was an Alaskan King gone astray. As I pulled in the string, still knee-deep with my toes covered in brownish silt, a snapping turtle's head, the size of a Prince racquet, opened its jaws and tried to take a bit out of my thigh. I screamed and raced to the shore, where my first thought was the need to soothe the traumatized children who had witnessed the attack from the beach. That was a year ago. We are still in recovery. I now go crabbing only from the well-manicured docks of the Hamptons elite (when I know they're not home).

Does your husband George [Stephanopoulos] ever partake in your obsession?
He does his own political crabbing in Washington. Plus, he's too scared.

Do you find time to get your professional work done when there's so much to do out here?
This summer I've been very distracted by dirty diapers, and the Bratz movie. So I write for my TV show at night after dinner in my bed.

How do you stay awake?
Chocolate chip cookies and iced tea. Needless to say, I get about ten minutes of work done a night.

Your show is about a crazy Los Angeles psychiatrist who treats celebrities. It's virtually all unscripted. My favorite moment so far was when you were trying to convince Jason Priestley he was gay with play therapy involving two Ken dolls going at it. What does your mother have to say about this show?
Sshhhh... she doesn't know I'm an actress. I told her I practice criminal law. After a few years on In Living Color, a predominantly black sketch comedy show on Fox, my mother became accustomed to seeing me as scantily dressed whores and strippers. So the Ken dolls are actually quite tame. My mother is actually a huge fan of the show. That is saying a lot from a woman whose name is Muffie.

Tell me how you came up with the show and how you sold it to Starz.
Every time you look at the cover of Us Weekly, you think, "God, that person needs therapy." And I thought how funny it would be to have a window into celebrities on the couch--the comedic version.

So you put fake psychological issues before them and then they go with the improv, but do they get worried someone is going to think it's real since they are playing themselves?
No, because everyone knows the show is a comedy, a la Curb Your Enthusiam, and the analysis is so absurd. I don't think people really believe Rich Eisen [from the NFL network] is a cannibal.

What's your favorite part of the show?
My favorite part is the adrenaline of being unscripted and some of the hilarious things that spontaneously come out in the moment.

Like?
Like out of the blue, Alanis Morissette sat down and said, "The first time I got an STD it was in my eye." On the other hand, the problem with improv is that we end up losing a lot of takes because we are laughing so hard. I could not get through a scene with Sean Hayes from Will & Grace because we would lose it even when we looked at each other. I asked him where he was from. He said "Dayton." I said, "Really? Because you have a kind of Alaskan accent." And from there we just wasted film.

When you're out here enjoying the Hamptons and your young kids, do you let work consume you at all? I know your husband has "CrackBerry" issues and is rushing into the city to do a broadcast at the last minute all the time.
No, I'm the opposite. In fact, I've been known to miss a few conference calls because I'm enjoying the clams.

Do you avoid the social scene or enjoy it on your terms?
I enjoy it on my terms, which means, two social events a summer: Super Saturday because, like crabbing, I like to reel in a good bargain. And the Baby Buggy event at the Seinfelds'. I am in awe of how fantastically those charities are run. And then I just hang out with friends I don't get to see during the year. Actually, I'm never invited to anything so I watch a lot of HBO and eat tacos. Is that on my own terms?

Describe a great night in the Hamptons.
Real or fantasy?

Your choice.
Fantasy. Jay-Z and I have cocktails with Martha Stewart and Kimora Lee Simmons on David Geffen's yacht, then we all have a clambake with Richard Gere and Joan Didion, followed by HBO and tacos at my house.