Alyssa Milano's Charmed Future
by Lauren Kanter

Playing the same TV character for six years can get a little boring. Unless you're Alyssa Milano. As Phoebe Halliwell on the WB's Charmed, Milano's gone through more than enough costume and personality changes to keep the magic alive for her. "When you're a little girl and you're in this business, which I was at 7 years old, that's what it's all about — playing dress-up," Milano says. The witchy woman — who has turned into a mermaid, a mummy and the Queen of the Underworld, just to name a few — really spices things up on Sunday, when she goes undercover as a dominatrix assassin. TV Guide Online asked Milano to borrow Phoebe's premonitory powers to foretell the future of Charmed.

TV Guide Online: Charmed was recently renewed for its seventh season. Will that be the last one?
Alyssa Milano: We're all contracted for eight years. But I think we all feel like we want to go out on top. So if our ratings are as strong as they are this year, we'll probably go for an eighth season. And if it starts to slip, we'd all decide to end after the seventh season. It's a tricky thing to know when the right time to end a show is.

TVGO: A lot of shows are struggling with that now. What do you want for Phoebe before the show ends?
Milano: She's been through so much with love that, clearly, I'd love some sort of storyline where she's in a stable relationship. And that's so much fun for me to play, as far as just the romantic-comedy stuff. We did an episode this year where we saw Phoebe's future, and she was pregnant, so I don't know what they're going to do with that. Although I would not be looking forward to wearing that weird latex belly. Holly Marie Combs wore that belly and it was stinky! It didn't matter what you had on as far as perfume or clothes on top of it — you could smell it a mile away.

TVGO: Are there any shows that have wrapped up in a way that you think really worked well?
Milano: When you watch a show and you get so invested in the characters and the people, I think it's really important to end a show how the audience wants it to be ended. Tie up all the loose ends. It's kind of like the reward for the fans for sticking in there as long as they have. Who's the Boss? is a perfect example of it not ending the way it should have — because everyone wanted Tony and Angela to get married and they never did. And I think that's taking something away from the fans who have invested so much time and energy into caring about these people.

TVGO: What do you think Charmed fans would like to see?
Milano: I think definitely Piper and Leo being back together. I know that they're really invested in that relationship. They all wish Cole, my demon boyfriend [played by Nip/Tuck's Julian McMahon], would come back, too. But I don't think that's going to happen, since he's busy on his own show now.

TVGO: How will you spend your hiatus from the show?
Milano: I will be taking my first field trip as a UNICEF ambassador. We're going to Angola. [I'll be doing] everything from vaccinating children to rallying kids to get back in school.

TVGO: How did you get involved with that?
Milano: I contacted them about six months ago, when I took a trip to South Africa. I lived there for three months and did a lot of humanitarian work in children's hospitals and townships. When I got back to the States, I started volunteering in a children's hospital and I needed to find an outlet. UNICEF just seemed to be the way to go after much research. I contacted them and they were happy, and now, I'm happy.

TVGO: And now for your obligatory Shannen Doherty question. Do you ever look over your shoulder worrying Shannen might pull a Scare Tactics trick on you?
Milano: [Laughing] That's funny. No, but I have had the fear of being Punk'd!

TVGO: Paging Ashton Kutcher...