TV Guide
December 2, 2000
She Means Business

ONE LIFE'S "CAT" HICKLAND HITS THE MAKEUP MARKET As One Life to Live's home-wrecking, hostage-taking Lindsay Rappaport, actress Catherine Hickland, 44, is the queen of daytime's dirty dealers. Now she hopes to clean up, at least financially. On December 5, the soap sexpot--known to pals as Cat--will launch her own Internet makeup company, Cat Cosmetics (www.catcosmetics.com).

TV GUIDE: Word is, you're not just excited about this venture, you're obsessed.
CATHERINE HICKLAND: I'm so proud of it, I could spit. I took no investors. I wanted to own this company and have 100 percent control. I'm not just lending my name. I worked with a chemist in San Francisco and personally formulated everything--bronzers, blushes, lip gloss, eye shadow--so the colors and quality are exactly what I want. I've put my life savings into this, and I am fearless.

TVG: What sets you apart from all the other makeup mavens?
CH: I want women to appreciate their skin and know that all they really have to do is warm it up and glow it up, not cover it up. My products can be applied in just a few seconds with just a few strokes. Seriously, I can change your life in under a minute. I live in New York, and when I'm on a long subway or bus ride, I'll just whip my stuff out and try it on the other passengers. I'm like, "Hey, how would you like to let me glow you up a bit?"

TVG: Are you nuts? We can just see the headline in Cindy Adams's column: DAYTIME DIVA ARRESTED WITH BLUSH BRUSH!
CH: So far, most of the women I approach agree to let me work on them. No one has called the cops. But my husband [All My Children star Michael E. Knight] is totally horrified. He says, "I am so embarassed to be near you when you do that! What is this about?

TVG: What is this about?
CH: It's some kind of co-dependency. I can't help it. I want to make the world feel better, one woman at a time. I drove the girls at One Life to Live crazy when I was testing my products. I was like, "I need guinea pigs! You! Linda Dano! Sit down! I need to try this new bronzer on you!"

TVG: What kind of a test is that? Everybody on your show is already gorgeous.
CH: C'mon, none of us really looks the way we look on TV. Before I hit the makeup in the morning, it's real touch and go.

TVG: So this stuff hasn't let you down?
CH: Well, we'll see. The night I flew back from ABC's Super Soap Weekend in Floriday, I got home at midnight and had to wake up three hours later to shoot Law & Order. [The episode, featuring Hickland as a Tippi Hedren-esque star who runs an animal preserve, is set to air in early 2001.] I'm sure I looked like something left over on a McDonald's warming tray, but I didn't give a damn. I got to act with Jerry Orbach, man! I died and went to heaven.