The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 119

WONDER WOMAN" SAYS IT WITH MUSIC W-H vol i There's this Beautiful Woman, see, who has a certain Talent. She leaps off buildings, stops cars with her bare hands, deflects bullets with her bracelet and forces the truth from evildoers with a golden lasso. Question is, what can she do for an encore? To follow that act, she'd have to be some sort of wonder woman. she is. Lynda Carter, who stars as the legendary heroine of The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (seen Fridays at 8PM on CBS), can and will top that, with music, when she takes her headline act to the main room at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas during one of the two busiest weeks of the year June 29-July 4.

Later this year, Miss Carter's first album, which will include five songs she wrote, will be released on Epic Records. "I've been singing a long time," she said recently. "Sort of country rock or contemporary country. I write music and lyrics and record it on tape, then have a friend pick it out on piano and write it down. "Of course, one of the great things about Wonder Woman is that it has made me more visible.

Now is the time to get re-involved with my music. Acting has been the main thing in my life. I guess practically everyone knows-me by way of the series, but the truth is, I have been a singer and songwriter since I was a child." Growing up in Phoenix, Miss Carter had always dreamed of being an actress and later studied with well-known acting teachers Stella Adler and Charles Conrad. But her career did not begin, as commonly thought, with her reign as Miss World-USA 1973. She had been singing professionally in Phoenix since she was 15 and later toured the country for four years with The Garfin Gathering, a rock band.

The best way to describe her career to this point is not "branching out" but "opening doors." The willowy (5' azure-eyed brunette's performing background not to mention her heart-stopping beauty surely flung open doors at the Miss World Pageant, which she entered, almost on a whim, after tiring of touring and quitting the road. That title, of course, was an open door to the Wonder Woman series. And the series, in turn, has now opened doors, ironically enough, for her reunion with singing. Miss Carter routinely works 60 to 70 hours a week on Wonder Woman. "When I was a girl, I read all the Wonder Woman comics," she said.

"I loved her. It was a wonderful fantasy to imagine having all those special powers and using them to help people. As with any pop-culture hero or heroine, I think she's a powerful role model for the kids who watch. "But even more importantly to me, Wonder Woman is a model of human kindness. You'll never see her so much as physically harm anyone.

And because of that, I will not 'camp it up' and play her as a cartoon, but rather with all sincerity." Even though Miss Carter takes pains to make Wonder Woman a more believable character, she tries to maintain her sense of humor about the role. "It's not easy to make people believe in someone who whips off her glasses, spins around and emerges in a hot-pants American-flag outfit to save the day," she told one writer recently. "It's not the most convincing part ever written." Another project to which Miss Carter is dedicated if "dedication" is defined as 50 sit-ups, 50-push-ups and 50 laps in the pool every morning and every evening is physical fitness. She is working on a book on health and beauty care with her brother-in-law, John Cole, a former U.S. Olympian who appeared recently on the 1 0-part "World's Strongest Men" competition on CBS Sports Spectacular.

And who, after all, should know more about physical fitness and beauty than the beautiful and fit Lynda Carter? 1 ram Page 15.