Friday, December 6, 2002

Nothing against Charmed starlet Holly Marie Combs, but her Piper Halliwell has been less than charming lately. In fact, if we weren't so polite, we'd call this character something that only rhymes with witch. Is she still sad about Prue's (Shannen Doherty) demise? Or stressed out by the demons trying to kill her other sisters in sorcery week after week? Here, TV Guide Online asks Brian Krause - who plays Piper's saintly hubby, Leo - why his TV wife is such a damn shrew.

"Well, she's having a baby," he grins. Yeah, but this Wiccan witch was sportin' a snappish, abrasive 'tude well before she got preggers. "Before that?" Krause nervously replies. "I don't know. Boy, I don't know!"

We won't speak for the diplomatic Krause, but Leo sure seems whipped by his whiny bride. "Leo's the consummate nice guy," he says. "He's a pacifist, through and through, as a guardian angel. Not to say he can't get tough here and there, but he definitely puts up with somebody who's in a bad mood. He's an understanding guy."

The 33-year-old California native clearly wishes he weren't so sunny all the time. "Does Leo have a dark side?" he muses. "I don't think so. I'd love to have Leo taken over by evil for an episode! Or be more of a tough guy and lose his temper on the demons. But I like being the one on the show that gives the good, moral message out there to the audience."

And hey, at least Leo has the benefit of great special effects. The heavenly husband's always "orbing" - that's vanishing and reappearing places Bewitched-style - wherever he goes. "It's funny," Krause says. "When I walk in through a door, people are like, 'Huh? You walked in the room!'" - Daniel R. Coleridge