News.com.au March 29th 2014
IF YOU’RE over 35, and you’re a bloke, you will be in love with Shannen Doherty. This is a given.

So naturally, when the sultry star of the original Beverly Hills, 90210 series was on the line to news.com.au, this was clearly NOT a job for one of our excellent under-35s on the entertainment desk.

Instead, 40-something reporter Ant Sharwood stormed across the room and grabbed the phone. Here’s how that went.

(Warning: this story may have drool on it)

Ant: Shannen, it’s you. I can’t believe it’s you.

Shannen: (awkward silence as she awaits a question to be asked)

Ant: So, er, I just read on Twitter that you feel like a zombie after 26 hours of travel to Australia. Have you dezombified yet?

Shannen: I have, amazingly enough. I went to bed early. I think I was sound asleep by 8.15pm, crashed out cold. I woke up at like 5.15 this morning feeling invigorated.

Ant: Good for you. How was breakfast?

Shannen: I had a croissAnt and a coffee with cream and sugar.

Ant: How many sugars?

Shannen: Four sugars. But they were little hotel packets. If they were teaspoons they would have been the equivalent of one or two.

Ant: Still doing things your own way, eh? Just like the headstrong Brenda Walsh…

Shannen: No, it just shows that I’m a good sweet girl.

Ant: So why are you here Shannen?

Shannen: Who wouldn’t want to hang out in Australia? Australia is amazing and has some of the coolest people I personally have ever met. Perth is beautiful. I’m here for Ozcomiccon, which is a really amazing experience where you get to meet your fans.

Ant: Well, speaking of Ozcomiccon, they’ve listed all the visiting celebrities on the website and you’re the ninth one I encounter as I scroll down the page. Number nine. Number nine??? I don’t even recognise most of the other people! I think they were hobbits or something. Personally I’m outraged.

Shannen: That makes sense to me. I’m happy if I’m not a headliner. I’m just glad to meet my fans. You know I’ve got a large range, which is testament to all the shows I’ve been on. There are fans of 90210, fans of Charmed, Heathers, Mallrats. They’re a diverse group from eight-year-olds to 70-year-olds.

Ant: So slobbering, balding suburban men like me are somewhere in the demographic middle.

Shannen: Right.

Ant: Have you ever gone on a date with a fan just to be nice? Can I be the first?

Shannen: Well I’m married.

Ant: Great, me too. So we could go out together with my wife and your husband as a foursome. I could even bring my kids.

Shannen: Sorry my husband’s at home. He’s working.

Ant: I rarely missed an episode of 90201 back in the day. I had just started university and should have been studying but I couldn’t help myself. Was I wasting my time?

Shannen: I don’t think anyone was wasting their time, that show was ahead of its time. I think it was the first show that dealt with teenagers and teenage issues and it was fAntastic ‘cause parents could watch it with their kids and open up a conversation that may not have been opened up prior. It still remains a big show for all those reasons, it was different and unique.

Ant: But let’s be honest, the new series of 92010 wasn’t as good. It kinda stank, right?

Shannen: I was in it, so I don’t think it was that bad.

Ant: Um. Well… uh, I guess I mean apart from the episodes you were in.

Shannen: I just think it was so different from the old one ‘cause it was set in a different day and age so the problems kids face now are so different. But I think anytime you redo a show it will be difficult, especially when the show is that huge and popular and iconic. Unless you bring it back with the original cast I think you’re going to suffer. I think the cast was great, but maybe it was a bit too soon.

Ant: And maybe people like me could never enjoy any remake because we wouldn’t be watching it with the same people at the same stage of our lives.

Shannen: Right. 90210 is a time capsule.

The show was a time capsule. The fringe is timeless.

Ant: Hey who was a better kisser, Luke Perry or Jason Priestly?

Shannen: My husband is the best kisser. You know, I don’t even remember kissing anybody else except my husband.

Ant: Let me try this one then. Is your sultry pouting face real? Every time I see a photo of you you’re doing sultry pouting face. Don’t get me wrong. I like sultry pouting face…

Shannen: It probably depends on the mood I’m in. I don’t think I’m consciously making that face but I always look at pictures of me and say ‘oh that doesn’t look good’.

Ant: Is that why your Twitpic has your hair covering your face?

Shannen: Yeah, it lets me hide.

Ant: Here’s something I’m even more outraged about. In a poll of the best ever TV witches, you were named at number 10 while your Charmed co-stars were number 7 and 3. Were the people who made that list under a bad spell?

Shannen: That’s probably because they were there for eight seasons and I was there for three, My character Prue would’ve been top if she’d been there for eight seasons.

Ant: You love animals. And now I understand you’re using your powers for good, almost like a good witch.

Shannen: It’s funny, all of a sudden I’m claimed to be not just an animal lover but an activist. I’m a lover of humanity as well. I just wAnt to see the world be the best place it can be. I just have to start with myself, and if I have any influence over someone, that’s great.

Ant: That’s beautiful Shannen, thanks for speaking to us today.

Shannen: It was a pleasure, I look forward to reading it.

Ant: gulp.