By Sandi Davis
The Oklahoman

Actress says she'd like to see more of Oklahoma Depending on whom you ask, Jane Seymour is famous for being a Bond Girl in "Live and Let Die," a charming actress who falls for a stranger in "Somewhere in Time," a doctor in the wild West in "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" or a sex-hungry mother of the bride in "Wedding Crashers."

In addition to being known for those roles and others, she's a mother of four children and two stepchildren, and she writes, paints and designs and sells handbags and home furnishings.

Seymour was in Oklahoma City April 6 to headline the Metropolitan Library's fourth annual "Literary Voices" dinner and read to patients at The Jimmy Everest Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. She visited Bricktown, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the Oklahoma City Memorial during her brief trip.

"I've never been to Oklahoma, nor do I have any friends that have been here before," Seymour said in an afternoon interview.

Even with dust in the air and high winds, Seymour said she found the city beautiful and the people great.

"The art museum blew me away," she said, seated in a quiet library room in a Nichols Hills mansion.

She didn't have time to visit the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum but was interested to learn about the exhibit featuring Western actors, TV shows and movies.

Dressed in a light blue satin skirt and jacket with a white sequined top for the dinner, Seymour talked about her life now and her books, especially "Remarkable Changes: Turning Life's Challenges Into Opportunities."

"I never thought I would be a writer or a public speaker," she said, then admitted she can't type. "I can do everything else but that, but when I get drafts of my books, I edit them and am constantly rewriting things."

The introduction to "Remarkable Changes" was written by the late Christopher Reeve, her co-star in "Somewhere in Time" who became a quadriplegic after a riding accident in 1995. The book contains stories of people turning adversity into something positive.

"Life is short. You've got to live in the moment and keep the people you love close," she said. "How do you roll on? You accept whatever it is and make the most of it. There is no perfect anything, but you do your best."

Currently co-starring on the WB's "Modern Men," her introduction to a younger crowd was in "Wedding Crashers." As Kathleen "Kitty Cat" Cleary, she comes on to a much younger man, John Beckwith, played by Owen Wilson. In one scene, she bared her breasts, but only Wilson saw them.

"I have children in their 20s, and they were OK with me playing Kitty Cat," she said. "I go to clubs with my daughter, and men still flirt with me."

She said "Wedding Crashers" was the funniest script she had ever read, but she originally said no to the topless scene. To take the part, her contract guaranteed no frontal shots, just her back.

"You can rewind the DVD all you want, and there are no shots from the front. There are none hidden. They don't exist," she said.

Seymour carried a handbag decorated with a beach scene and a woman in a red bathing suit. She designed it, and the picture is a copy of one she painted.

The handbags, along with her bedding, hardback copies of her recent book, paintings and a new line of children's clothing, are on sale at her Web site, www.janeseymour.com.

Seymour owns a castle in England she rents for meetings or to visitors who can afford it when her family isn't there.

As people started arriving for the invitation-only reception, Seymour said she'd like to return to Oklahoma and spend more than one day in the state.

"I'd like to bring some positive attention to Oklahoma. Maybe I'd have an art show here, maybe something else," she said.