wine and a good book.

Talking about good reads, she is particularly enamored of an Ava Gardner biography, and calls the actress “a woman after my own heart. I think that she was ahead of her time,” muses Delany. “She was a very independent woman. She didn’t want to be told what to do. She was a very sexual woman. She had a full sex life before anyone was talking about that, although she drank too much and that caused her a lot of pain and shyness.”

Like her current TV character, Delany, 52, is a single woman but hopes to be in a romantic relationship in the future. “I see myself married and producing my own television show,” she projects five years ahead. “I’d like to do a drama, female lead, probably cable. I like things that are on the darker side.” Asked what kind of man she’s looking for, she answers quickly and definitively. “Smart and kind,” she says. “The older you get, that’s what’s most important.” •