Fantasy a Reality to ‘All-American’ Jaclyn

From the look of the pictures in her new beauty book, Jaclyn Smith lives on a movie set. She wakes up each morning in a hand-painted bed, drifts to the window in a silk kimono, looks into a silver-framed mirror when she checks for lines and wrinkles.

Her home gym is the size of a ballroom, where she may blush but never breaks into a sweat during workouts. At night she puts on a beaded chiffon dress and pauses, looking perfect, by a gilded marble fireplace.

In view of the pictures, a trip to her home is something of a shock.

Not because it contradicts her movie-set life but because it confirms it. The photos in the book were taken at home. The silks and chiffons are from her real-life closet.

Smith seems to see her book, her look and, presumably, her world as an attainable slice of modern life. At least, the title suggests as much: “The American Look: How It Can Be Yours” (Simon & Schuster: $17.95).

“It’s a natural look,” the actress explains. “I see myself as the all-American type.”

That may be, but achieving this natural look her way would cost some real American dough. For shiny hair like Smith’s, change your home tap water from hard to soft. She did. For manicures just like hers, hire an expert who comes to the house. For fitness at home, “take the stairs instead of the elevator.”

If this makes Smith the all-American type, proving it in Hollywood has been a challenge.

Since she made her name as one of “Charlie’s Angels” in the ‘70s TV series, Smith complains: “People see me as glamorous. And not right for strong character roles.” She says her role as Florence Nightingale for a recent TV movie was her first chance to change that image.

“In ‘Florence Nightingale’ I wasn’t glamorous at all,” she says. “I was un-slicked. It’s the most challenging role I’ve done.”

Changing her image as an actress isn’t her only challenge these days. There is also Gaston, her 3-year-old son. “He will wear nothing except white shirts,” she says, adding that his taste may be hereditary.

“My grandfather was a Methodist minister, and he only wore white shirts too,” she explains.

She takes Gaston with her when she travels, buys him his favorite candy at Fred Segal and takes him to Sunday school. She let him change his name to Little Tony Baby on a whim. And she dedicated her book to him and to her mother.

In return, she says, “Gaston notices everything about me--if I’m wearing makeup, if my hair’s curly or not. He’s a constant delight. I enjoy being a mother more than anything.”

Maybe even more than being a wife? It seems that Tony Richmond, an Academy Award-winning cinematographer, Smith’s third husband and Gaston’s father, was beginning to wonder.

“Tony and I finally had a talk,” she says. “He told me it was Gaston, Gaston, all the time Gaston. I wanted Gaston’s closet to be perfect, everything to be perfect. I was getting obsessed.”

While she doesn’t think of them as obsessions, Smith says she is also very close to her parents. Her mother, a Texas housewife, is her role model. Her father, a dentist, maintains her teeth and performed cosmetic surgery on them. And her parents, not her husband, gave her the heart-shape ruby ring she wears all the time.

“I lost my wedding ring,” she says, apparently unconcerned. “Tony is getting another one in England.”

Aside from managing her family and her acting career, she’s about to try something new. She will introduce her first sportswear collection, for K mart, in August.

“I have several things in my wardrobe--pleated pants, brushed twill shirt--that we worked with,” she says. Her modestly priced K mart collection is “for the average American woman who doesn’t spend $1,500 on an outfit.”

How much of an obsession will her fashion venture prove to be?

“Acting comes first,” she says with certainty. “I’ve come to enjoy acting more lately.”

She obviously has come to enjoy getting to know other things about herself--that she has the “stamina” to be an actress, for example.

What has she learned about beauty?

“Feeling secure lets you take chances with your appearance.”

And how secure is she about her own physical beauty?

“I feel pretty sometimes,” she says, thoughfully. “Then sometimes, I don’t.”