dfw.com April 11th 2012
Shannen Doherty

It's easy to imagine Shannen Doherty transforming into Bridezilla before her wedding day. The former Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed star is famously bossy and stubborn. These are qualities that often made things hard on her co-stars. These are qualities that doomed previous romances, including two marriages. These are qualities that led to pre-ceremony meltdowns in Shannen Says, her wedding-themed reality show on WE tv. But another of Doherty's character traits makes the show watchable. She's brutally honest, even when exposing unflattering sides of herself. Shannen Says, which airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday, documents her misadventures as she plans her wedding to photographer Kurt Iswarienko. "I've seen all eight episodes," Doherty says, "and I was touched by them and petrified at the same time, because there are no barriers between who I really am and what they captured: the good, the bad and the ugly."

1 Whose bright idea was it to open up your life to everybody in a reality show?

Mine. And it was shared with my husband. We were on vacation and maybe drank one too many margaritas and thought it would be interesting to work together. And we're very, very big fans of Anthony Bourdain. We love his show, No Reservations. Also, Deadliest Catch is one of our favorite shows. I remember watching that show and thinking, "Wow, they do it right." You get so invested in these guys and what they're going through. We were intrigued by the idea of bringing that quality to celebrity reality TV.

2 What do you think was your most embarrassing moment that the camera captured?

The craziest thing was two weeks prior to the wedding. My dresses showed up and they were completely wrong. Wrong to the point of I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So I just did both. I was a hysterical mess at the house. And my husband looked at me and he was like, "Is this a joke? I don't understand what's happening. Like, you're a mess and you're wearing a really, really ugly dress!"

3 How did you and Kurt meet? Was there instant chemistry?

I met Kurt on a photo shoot. I requested him to shoot me for a cover of a magazine. And yes, there was instant chemistry. When we started dating, which was two months after that, he said to me, "I've missed you since I was a child." As if, in another life, we had known each other.

4 The wedding was in October. How's married life treating you?

Married life is amazing. It's the little things. It's when he comes home and the first thing he does is comes in my office, wraps his arms around me and says, "I love you. I missed you," even though he was only gone two hours.

5 What's the biggest misconception you think people have about you?

They don't consider that I have grown up and that there is a softer, more vulnerable side. They don't consider what was behind some of the antics when I was young. I'm not the same person as when I was younger, when some of the crazier stuff happened. Which, by today's standards, were incredibly tame.