Happy Birthday Kirstie Alley

Alley dropped out of college during her sophomore year to marry her high school sweetheart, Bob Alley. They soon divorced, and Alley gave up on acting in favor of interior design...she also took up cocaine.

Alley credits Scientology with curing her coke addiction and changing her life. In 1980, she moved to L.A. to follow their rehab program, Narconon. The religion, the program, or both, gave Alley new confidence in her ability to act. I said I want the lead in a major motion picture within a year and everyone said, you're nuts, she recalled on CNN. She mightve been nuts, but she was right.

Alley made it to the final round of auditions for the second Star Trek movie...but she had to have her audition postponed: she was attending her mothers funeral. When she did audition, she got the part. Her mother, killed in a driving accident, never saw her daughters film debut.

...and the chance to give a risqu Emmy acceptance speech. Alley quoted herself when remembering the moment on CNN: I would like to thank my husband Parker, the man who has given me the big one for the last eight years. It just came to me as I saw my husband out there and his big blue eyes, and thought I should give him a tribute. Unfortunately, the two divorced not long after.

Alley has done her best to turn it to her advantage. When she was launching her show Fat Actress in 2005, she told CNN, People say to me, well, what do you think about the tabloids? They either crush you or you create something new for yourself that you think is funny and you go with what you have.

Alleys divorce from her second husband, Parker Stevenson, after she discovered his cheating, was acrimonious: he claimed hed nurtured her career and was owed alimony and child support (they have two adopted children). Alleys post-divorce beau James Wilder, 13 years younger than she, also got her splashed across tabloid headlines. And then, of course, For 20 years of my career, I've been on the cover of the tabloids for being fat. I don't think most people know that. You know, if I weighed 140, I was on the cover of the tabloids being fat. 150, I was on the cover of tabloids. So it sells a lot of magazines for them, Alley told CNN.

Its one way she deals with her fame, she said on her blog. When youre famous you cant really talk to normal people, said Kirstie. Its all about having your picture taken or people wanting something from you. On Twitter I can say, Whats your life like? What are your challenges? It has opened up a whole new reality to me I havent had since Ive been recognized as an actor.

Though shes been accused of using her weight-loss program as a front for Scientology, Alley has strenuously denied that has anything to do with it. Instead, she said, Little kids who grew up with the Jenny ads would come up to me and say, Hey, its Jenny! I thought, No, Im Kirstie. I want to be the face behind my own success story.

But I do want a love, she told Ellen Degeneres. I dont know what Im looking for... I know what Im looking not, she said. The guys who are my age all wind up looking alike, all wind up looking like Lloyd Bridges. She added later that hes a very handsome man, but not her type. Huh.

That would be Season Two of her semi-scripted reality show, Kirstie Alleys Big Life. A&E dropped it after the first season, but Lifetimes picking it up for an extended run. Heres to that, and a big happy birthday to Kirstie!