TV: La femme Peta

By LOUISA CLEAVE

When you're 65 floors above New York City, it's hard to keep your eyes from straying to the window for a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty silhouetted in the distance.

Peta Wilson, the Australian star of La Femme Nikita, is saying something. "Isn't it breathtaking?"

Oh yes, that's right. We are here in the famous Rainbow Room restaurant to talk to her about her role as an elite operative in a top-secret government organisation.

The view competes with the lethargy after a Saturday brunch where everything from ordinary bacon and scrambled eggs to pastries, salads, salmon, and chicken is on offer and the coffee cup is never empty thanks to those slightly aloof waiters wearing white gloves.

Wilson arrived about 30 minutes earlier with little fanfare, accompanied only by her mother who flew to the States for her daughter's birthday.

The TV star's bleached-blond hair is gelled flat and combed back underneath a cream hat. She wears light-brown leather pants and a matching jacket over a cream jersey.

She is friendly and chatty in a fashion that only an actress on her way out of a job can be.

Just eight weeks before sitting down in front of this group of journalists from France, Israel, Canada, England and New Zealand, Wilson's show was cancelled after four years because of poor ratings.

But the fans rebelled and the studio ordered a final eight episodes to tie up loose ends.

Wilson is possibly under orders by her bosses to squeeze as much of Nikita into her 15-minute interview slots as she can, but there is more interest in her future plans. She seems happy enough to comply.

"I loved the way that it ended," she said of the last episode of Nikita (TV2 is playing series three on Friday nights, 10.30 pm). "The fans brought it back, wouldn't let it go.

"I was done, I was on to something new. I was like, 'No way'. Then they called me in Australia and said, 'Can we not just do eight episodes?' and I said okay."

Did she have to push back her other commitments?

"Yeah, but it's okay. The character's a great character. It's really about fans and that's why I did it. Those people are my career — those people support me."

Wilson filmed the final episodes in December at Nikita's Toronto location. She had planned to return to New York and work for a street kid foundation she established.

Wilson said if the scheme turned out to be a success she would like to make it an international foundation. So, why start in New York and not Australia?

"Because this is where I got my break. Australia's my home. I like to go home and go fishing or hang out with my father on the water taxi."

Wilson swings the conversation back to the task at hand without prompting — and seemingly without any idea why.

"You'll like the ending, the character's totally changed. This is a woman who has been through a lot so she's a bit Bladerunner-ish. She's been through a lot. She's not numb to pain. There's not much she hasn't seen or done so she's getting closer to what a real spy would be."

Wilson said she was developing a series of her own which had network support. The character, she said, "is like a female Humphrey Bogart" who is "in the business of solving lives, not crimes."

Now, which window had the best view of the Statue of Liberty?