Sex and the Mature Woman

Judging Amy's Tyne Daly is no fresh-faced WB babe ? and that suits her just fine. Fact is, she rather enjoys playing Maxine Gray, mother to the titular Amy (Amy Brenneman) on the hit CBS drama, since she's portraying a mature woman who's independent and ? gasp! — still has an active sex life.

"Sex after 60 seems to be quite interesting to people," the actress told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, CA. "It's certainly interesting to me. I also am interested in a woman at any stage of the game being a whole unto herself and not having to rely on a man's arm and other parts of his anatomy to validate her."

The former Cagney & Lacey star, who has amassed five Emmys during her career, was just nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her Amy role. But don't be fooled by Daly's enviable statue collection: She never gets tired of the attention.

"No, no, because what they mean is that there is... some kind of peer approval," she said. "As you know with the Emmys, actors vote for actors and directors vote for directors and writers vote for writers and all that. So it means that my act is still working for people who do it. And that's important to me.

"It also means that maybe I can keep acting for a while," Daly added. "You can always sort of take [the trophies] and shake them in people's faces and say, 'Remember me? I know how to act!' "