WHERE ARE THEY NOW: DIANA CANOVA

One of the first crushes I had as a young boy was actress Diana Canova on the silly sitcom Soap, which ran from 1977 to 1980. I thought she was the most beautiful woman on television at the time, even though she is around my mother's age! I have not seen her in any projects in a number of years, so I was curious about what she is doing now.

Diana Canova was born on June 1, 1953, West Palm Beach, Florida. She is best known for her role of promiscuous daughter Corinne Tate on Soap, a sitcom that parodied soap operas, between 1977 and 1980. Born as Diane Canova Rivero, her professional surname is the maiden name of her mother, actress and singer Judy Canova. She was raised in the Greater Los Angeles Area, where she graduated from Hollywood High School.

In 1980, ABC executives offered Canova her own television series, starring alongside Danny Thomas in I'm a Big Girl Now. The show lasted just one season. Canova's acting career entered a slump for years before she was cast as Sandy Beatty in Throb!, a successful sitcom which was broadcast in syndication from 1986 to 1988. She played "Jenny" in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company in 1995.

Canova spent a number of years as a member of the Church of Scientology, an organization she later began to criticize. She found the Scientologists straightforward in their desire for money, declaring in 1993 in a Premier magazine interview, "The first time I walked in those doors, they said, 'Just give us all the money in your bank account.'" She also criticized the Church's counseling practice called auditing, when she said "They're telling you, 'Don't spend $100 an hour on a shrink's couch, it'll ruin your mind.' Auditing is so much better?"

For the most part, Canova has retired from acting and is living in Connecticut. Her last role was in the 1998 movie One True Thing. She occasionally voices for cartoons in video shorts but now mostly works on various plays in Redding, Connecticut for local public schools. Her and her second husband Elliot Scheiner, who is a record producer, fell in love with the area. When Diana was asked what keeps her in the sleepy suburb, she answered: "So many things keep me here — the trees, the birds, the quiet, the short road to New York City — but most of all, it's the kids I get to work with year after year"...