Kim Delaney Continues Lucky’s Adventures in NBC’s ‘Lady Boss’

When television audiences last saw Lucky Santangelo in Jackie Collins’ “Lucky/Chances,” she was a beautiful blonde--specifically, Nicollette Sheridan. This time around, she’s a beautiful brunette.

“The fact that a new person is playing it never comes up,” says Kim Delaney, who has the title role in the four-hour NBC miniseries “Lady Boss,” airing Sunday and Monday. The story follows the continuing adventures of Lucky, now married to Lenny Golden (played by Jack Scalia) and the strain that develops in their marriage when the more-successful wife buys a movie studio for him.

Since completing “Lady Boss” in July, Delaney spent a few weeks in New York (where she lived during her 1981-84 stint on “All My Children”) and has been prepping for her stage role in “Cody Angelino is Coming,” opening Oct. 24 at Hollywood’s MET Theatre. The actress plays Marie, an agent’s secretary who’s looking to be a producer. “She gets victimized, but she’s not a victim,” Delaney stressed. “It’s a good, strong, woman’s role.”

Another plus is the play’s producer: her actor-husband, Joe Cortese. The couple met four years ago on the TV movie “Something Is Out There,” and are now parents to 2 1/2-year-old Jack. Cortese also has a role in “Lady Boss.” “He plays a bad-ass named Santini,” says Delaney, who was last seen in the ABC-TV movie “The Broken Cord,” opposite Jimmy Smits. “Our characters don’t get along.”

The Philadelphia-born actress (“That Was Then . . . This Is Now”) admits that her greatest recognizability still comes from her role on “All My Children”--which she landed at age 17--as goody-two-shoes Jenny Gardner, a much-loved character who was killed off in a jet-ski explosion. “As long as people keep up with my current stuff, I don’t mind,” she says of the Jenny fans. “But otherwise, I try not to talk about it. It was a good first job, but it was a long time ago.”