AOL PopEater October 13th 2010
Shannen Doherty doesn't even set out to promote "Badass: A Hard-Earned Guide to Living Life with Style and (the Right) Attitude" until the first week of November, but she's already feeling the sting of mean remarks related to her combination memoir/satirical handbook.

"Someone sent me a link to Perez Hilton's site. He's nice and I know him and I'm friendly with him, but underneath his story were other people's comments. Some of them weren't too nice. I hadn't read things like that in forever," Shannen tells PopEater. "I had that weak moment of 'Oh my God. This is terrible.' But, like my friend said, 'It's 13 people out of how many millions?' 13 people who probably don't do anything in their lives but sit in front of the computer bashing more successful people."

Shannen is no novice when it comes to public scrutiny, of course. But she says things are different now. Few would ever mistake the former 'Beverly Hills, 90210' vixen and tabloid fave with a 1960's icon of all-American wholesomeness, but as far as Doherty is concerned: "Compared to today's standards, I'm like Sandra Dee."

How so? "Look, I always wore panties and I never flashed the camera. I was never arrested for cocaine possession. To see excuses -- nonstop excuses -- from these girls, is crazy. When I made a mistake, I would admit to it. I'd be 'Wow, this is embarrassing, humiliating, and it'll never happen again.' These girls seem to make the same mistakes over and over and not learn from them."

Such as Lindsay Lohan and --

"In the instance of Lindsay, I actually think Lindsay is really talented, and so it's kind of..." Shannen trails off. "You know, you watch somebody who is that talented, who obviously has a lot of family issues, which a lot of people would say is the root of her problems. I was able to make mistakes, learn from them and grow as a human being, because I have a very strong family. Morals and values were instilled in me from the time I was born, so that always stuck with me. If I did stumble and fall on my face, I could remember who I am and how my parents raised me, and always get back to that."

In the book, she delineates the differences between the negative "bad girl" and empowered "badass."

"A badass always has integrity and compassion," she says. "She will make a mistake, but she'll learn from that mistake." Among the current group of female celebrities who keep finding themselves in trouble is, obviously, Paris Hilton, arrested in Las Vegas for cocaine possession in August. Her notorious sex tape with Shannen's second ex-husband, Rick Saloman, is among the "very personal" matters mentioned in "Badass." Any trepidations about opening up to that extent? "No," she says. "I came up with the idea for this book years and years ago and I kind of delayed it because I thought, 'I'm not ready to write it yet.' I wrote it when I was exactly at the right place in my life."

And fortuitously enough, the book is coming out in tandem with her Oct. 23 "Growing the Big One." Think that title is risqué? Well, it's a Hallmark Channel movie and Shannen's character has a farm and a radio/Internet gardening show and it's about a giant pumpkin contest so stop thinking dirty.

"We joked about the title all through production," notes Shannen. "What attracted me to it was that it was a departure for me, a different character. Her whole demeanor is lighter than other characters I've played. She's not brooding or intense or anything like that," she explains. "And also, my brother has seven children, the oldest being 15, and I like to every once in a while do Hallmark movies where he can sit down with his wife and kids and it's appropriate TV for all of them."

Shannen, in fact, volunteers that a year from now, "kids would definitely be something I would love" in her own life. This past summer, the Web was rife with rumors that she was expecting by her hunky-enough-for-a-Hallmark movie photographer boyfriend Kurt Iswarienko. She took to Twitter to declare those rumors false, tweeting in her badass way: "I was NEVER pregnant and not fat imo. Enough about that senseless crap."

So she now does foresee family on the horizon? "I'm just saying in a year it would be great to at least start working toward that."