‘Strictly Business’? No, Johnson Can’t Wait to Break for Tee Time

When Anne-Marie Johnson isn’t busy playing devoted wife Althea Tibbs on NBC’s “In the Heat of the Night” or starring in such films comedies as “True Identity” and the current “Strictly Business,” she’s more than likely shooting 18 holes of golf.

“I’m addicted to golf,” says the lithe 31-year-old actress, who divides her time between Atlanta, where “In the Heat of the Night” is produced, and her home in Los Angeles.

“I used to compete in tennis and about four years ago I said to myself, ‘I got to find something else,’ ” Johnson says. It just so happened her boyfriend was an avid golfer. “He would be getting up at 5 a.m. to play the game, so I went with Marty to the golf range and I am now more hooked than he is.”

So hooked, the couple plan their vacations around golf. “I travel with my clubs everywhere,” she says. “We go to Maui every year and play seven courses in seven days. And we go to Ojai and down to Newport and San Diego.”

Johnson also has told her single girlfriends about all the benefits of the sport. “The best men I have met have been on the golf course,” she says. “So it is multifaceted what golf can do for a person.”

Though Johnson is one of the busiest black actresses working today, she says most scripts she receives are incredibly racist.

“The industry is stuck on the past,” she says. “They like doing stories about Negroes as opposed to stories about blacks . It’s safe to do movies in the past because the history is done.”

Johnson even believes it was easier for her to get roles when she was starting out. “At that point in my career I was a nobody and was able to audition for anything. Now that I am in the upper echelon of starring roles, there are none for black women. You know what infuriates me is the fact there are actresses in my peer group, like the Meg Ryans and Demi Moores, who aren’t as talented, but because they’re white they get the offers.”