Jane's Passions
Jane believes that the insights of alternative medicine should be used to complement "the brilliance of scientific research and science." To her, it's often "a question of being able to help the body help itself."
Her father died a few months later saying he wished he'd learned more about alternative medicine earlier in his life. He felt that integrating conventional and alternative medicine could have made him an even better doctor. Four years later, Jane's younger sister Sally survived a potentially fatal brain aneurysm.
Cumulatively, Jane's personal health-related experiences have created in her an ongoing interest in and respect for the wisdom of alternative medicine.
"And for the human spirit, and whatever divine spirit there is," she adds. "But not any specific religion. I have enormous respect for everyone's different beliefs."
"My personal belief is that there is definitely something way bigger than we are. That the time we have here on the planet is incredibly valuable. That you take nothing with you other than the love that you shared with people while you were around and the difference you may have made in their lives."
She's been haply married since 1993 to director James Keach. She loves romance but admits, "It's very hard to be romantic when you have six children and several jobs, and are dealing with the aches and pains of aging. But definitely I've found true love. And definitely, we have our moments! I've found a soul mate."
Keys to making it work: communication, not trying to change the other, and honesty. "If you're in a relationship that's about lies," she says, "then you're not relating. You're actually cheating yourself, not just the other person."
The couple's two-tiered family includes twins John and Kristopher, 10; Katie, 23; and Sean, 20, from her marriage to her former business manager, David Flynn; Jennie Flynn, 25 (stepdaughter turned permanent family member); and James' son Kalen, 27. Jane is so proud of them all. When Katie and Sean were young, she fretted about missing school events and not driving them too school each day. Now she thinks she worried too much about her parenting skills:
"They're phenomenal kids, very kind of sober-minded. They'd never drink and drive. They make good choices. I realize that I've enabled them to really handle themselves in life, in any culture, with all kinds of different people from all walks of life. Not one of my kids is spoiled."
Jane is currently working on a coffee-table book called Putting It All Together, From My Home to Yours. She and James love redoing homes and recently oversaw a $2 million dollar remodal of their historic, 34-room manor near Bath, England, which dates back to A.D. 950 An oceanfront Malibu home is their primary residence.
At 54, Jane's famous energy still isn't failing her, "I opted not to do HRT or anything like that anymore," she says. "And at one point I was taking more vitamins than I was food. I was rattling around!" Now she gets her vitamins from eating really good, fresh food. She rarely eats red meat, preferring fish, chicken, and vegetables.
She's also a passionate supporter of women's-heart-health causes, and note cards of her paintings are currently raising funds through the California Pistachio Commission. Childhood obesity is another cause close to her heart, one that hit home when one her twins, "was actually pulled aside at school and told that he had to see a neutrons."
Jane believes in arming children with the information to make their own choices, "Although you can help that choice by not serving ice cream in front of them."
Now her son happily grabs water rather than sodas or Gatorade after sports, "and he chooses not to eat bad food."
A member of the American Red Cross's Celebrity Cabinet, she also helps raise money for ChildHelpUSA and City Hearts, an art program for L.A.'s inner-city kids.
"I just think that's how you get kids," she says. "And of course in America, they've cut all those programs. Amazing."
Her boys aren't allowed TV or computer games during the week. On weekends, sports dominate along with art projects, swimming, and going to the movies.
"We try to spend quality time with them," says Jane, "but mostly it's about watching them play sports!"
Recently, while one twin stayed at home doing homework as a punishment--"I'm pretty strict!"--she took the other to a film and dinner.
"It was amazing because he was just so grown up," she says. "I really got a good scoop on him just by having a 'date night' with him. I'm going to do that in future, and I'm going tot take the other one out, too, just one-on-one,"
Jane, who was in the hit film Wedding Crashers, plays a psychiatrist in her husband's forthcoming movie, Blind Guy Driving, and has a new TV sitcom, Modern Men. A far cry from Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, she plays Dr. Stangel, a psychologist and life coach who's helping three young men with dating and relationships. "She's a bit mysterious, "she says,"and dresses very provocatively!"
Incredibly, it's Jane's first time playing a Brit on American television, and she's really in heaven doing comedy. "I think I've found my thing!" she says with a contented sigh. "I should have been doing it all along."
