When she started to work, actress Sarah Shahi was as naive as they come. When it came to life, she was wise beyond her years. Growing up in the tiny town of Euless, Texas, she used to imagine what she would do if she were in the place of TV's protagonists. And she always nurtured a compulsion to perform in musical theater.



She wangled a position with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, though she'd never led a cheer in her life. And when director Robert Altman came to town to film "Dr. T and the Women," he took a shine to her. But she had no clue who he was.



At home it was a different matter. Her father was a drug abuser and she remembers she was 8 when her sister was born. "My dad took my mother to the hospital. He came back, picked my brother and I up. He filled a trash bag full of clothes and canned food. He dropped us off at the hospital, and then he didn't come back.



"At 8 I felt like I had to grow up right then. It was not like consciously I was aware of what he was doing. I thought he was packing clothes for my mom, but I remember they had this dinner for the moms in the hospital who'd just given birth. It was for the husbands and wives. I looked around and all the other husbands were there, except for my mom's. So I sat with her. I realized he's not coming back. It's just us. I have to grow up. And I stopped being a kid after that."



It's that combination of innocence and savvy that makes Shahi so good in USA's new "Fairly Legal," premiering on Thursday. Shahi plays a moxie little lawyer who knows the score but doesn't play the game.



After co-starring roles in "Alias," "Life," "The L-Word," and having her baby boy, who's 18 months old, Shahi says she's ready for anything.



"I loved being pregnant. I felt like mother Earth, loving any living creature. I felt I could talk to the squirrels. I know there are tons of women out there where pregnancy isn't easy for them. But it worked for me. To give life, to have another human being live off you, I felt like a woman. I felt so sexy. I laughed every day and cried every day and loved every moment of it. I gave birth at home without any kind of drugs, it was me, a birthing coach, my husband and my mid-wife. I trusted my body and I trusted my baby. I would talk to him before hand. And my husband delivered him and that moment I felt I earned my stripes in a big way."



It seems that Shahi never takes the easy way. Once she had decided to pursue a career, she and her mom packed up her cherry-red pickup and headed for L.A. She had no idea how she was going to conquer show biz. Her mother stayed three days and was on her way when Sarah had to figure out how to make a living.



It was only a couple of months before she landed a tiny part as a cheerleader. "In the beginning when my dinners were coming from the 76 across the street, little cans of tuna, the struggle is hard, especially in L.A. when all around you are images of people enjoying the glamorous lifestyle. There are certain aspects of my career that still trouble me," she says.



One of those was being a new mom and carrying the lead role in "Fairly Legal." The days were long and sometimes she'd see her son for only 30 minutes a day. Shahi treasures every second with her family. Married for two years to actor Steve Howey (he was on "Reba" for six years) Shahi says, "In our hearts we could be school teachers in the Midwest. We'd been together for seven years, and I knew who I was getting."



The typical family life had not been part of her upbringing. "I remember I loved going over to my friend's house who had the mom and the dad, because I loved that. I loved being surrounded by the Norman Rockwell version of the family."



The day she finally decided to disconnect from her father was another obstacle.



"I was 24. I was supporting myself. I was on my own. That day was when they talk about the notches in your belt, that was a big one because I remember the last conversation I had with him, that was not him. He was a crazy man. It was sad how quickly I realized that, it was so apparent. No matter who they are, your biological parents or not, I do believe we pick our parents. I believe in the spiritual world. I believe my child came to me for a reason and that my child came to my husband and I for a reason. And I came to my parents for a reason, and it was the moment when I said, 'I never had a father, I'm not going to have a father. I'm not going to stop loving him. But this man is not my dad' And that was a huge adult moment for me, and I felt a big loss.



"American Idol" returns Wednesday with new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez and without the acidic Simon Cowell to keep everyone honest. Lopez admits their act will be unlike Simon's. "We bring a different perspective, I think, than any of the other previous judges really have before, especially if you're speaking about Simon specifically. We just do," she says. "We're artists. We've been up there. We've auditioned. We've been through the ranks. ... I've been in this business a long time too. There's nothing like having that type of discussion with another artist to help you grow. And at the end of the day, that's what we're there for, to help the kids either move on to the next level or break the news to them that they're not going on to the next level."



Betty White warns it's best not to tread in spiked heels if you're guesting on "Saturday Night Live." "Don't wear those heels if you do it, because between sketches, they grab you by the hand, into a closet about the size of this table, and somebody's taking off your clothes, and somebody else is putting it on while the makeup girl is doing this, (powdering her face) and the wig person is taking off one wig and putting the other on, and then they drag you back on stage, and you think, 'What sketch are we doing?' It's panic time, but it's good panic."



She's a disgruntled, disillusioned lawyer who finds the wine glass always teetering on half empty, but writing Kathy Bates into the role on NBC's "Harry's Law" was a natural. Of course, the role was originally written for a man. But creator, executive producer David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal") says, "We saw a lot of good actors but no one that truly embodied the role to our satisfaction.



"So we said, 'OK, well let's think about a woman then.' And as soon as we opened the field up to women, Kathy's name came up first and fast. And everybody unanimously was on board with that.



"The trick was getting Kathy. And we were lucky enough ... to get her to read the script and she signed on board. The adjustment of the character really was surprisingly very little. I mean, the character originally conceived was this card-carrying curmudgeon brilliant lawyer but one who had become disillusioned with the law. And that truthfully could have been a woman just as easily as a man. So the adjustments were very, very small."