Baywatch Babe a Bush-Whacker

Admit it: You read a headline that includes the words Baywatch and babe, and immediately, you get ideas. Red swimsuit. Dangerous curves. Empty head. But only two of those notions are applicable where Alexandra Paul is concerned. The civic-minded sex symbol did jail time for protesting the war in Iraq, champions the rights of animals as well as gay men and lesbians, and, in this election year, is Dubya's worst nightmare.

"When you're on a show like Baywatch, people often don't see any other side to you," she tells TV Guide Online. "But every Wednesday night, I register voters, and every Thursday night, I protest... Well, it was the war, but now it's the Bush administration. I'm an anybody-but-Bush person [in the showdown to come]. I'll support 100 percent anybody the Democratic party chooses to run against him."

Now that you've got a better handle on the beautiful mind that sits atop Paul's heavenly body, perhaps you'll be as surprised as we were to learn that the savvy triathlete has been cast as a downtrodden loser in A Woman Hunted, a new Lifetime movie airing tonight at 9pm/ET. "It's not the usual sort of intelligent-leading-lady role I play," she laughs. "This character has just lost her kids, and she's just gotten out of rehab, so I was on edge the entire time."

Things only go from bad to worse for Paul's femme near fatality when she runs afoul of a psycho. But the Melrose Place alum is back in fighting form in her spring telepic, PAX's Landslide. "I play the estranged wife of Vincent Spano," she offers. "He's been caught in a landslide with my son, so I have to try and get them out. It's less about me and more about trying to save them, whereas in A Woman Hunted, I'm trying to save my own butt!"