"She’s clearly a composite, not a single person. She’s every bad behavior of every diva," insists Annie Potts, who is essaying the title role in "Diva," which opens Jan. 20 at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Maybe, but you’d better believe the fact that the scathing comedy was written by Howard Michael Gould, who was a staff writer on "Cybill" — as in Shepherd — has tongues wagging. Potts is clearly enjoying herself, whoever the TV series star diva she’s portraying may be: "She’s so crazy and naughty. It’s divinely funny."

For instance? "She’s very free about how many and who she has slept with, and there’s a line that happens to be one of my favorites, when one of the characters is being warned about getting involved with her: ’She has her own little Vietnam down there. A lot of good men have gone there and not come back the same.’"

After "Diva" ends in February? "Pilot season is coming up," notes the popular veteran series star. "I love episodic television, so I’d love very much to do that again. I took a break. I was missing my children, so I’ve been tending to them for the last three years, and now I find that they are sick of me and don’t need me any more, so I’m back."

QUICK STEP:

John O’Hurley certainly deserves credit for making hay while his "Dancing With the Stars" success is fresh in our minds. Not only is the affable talent starring as Billy Flynn in "Chicago" at Broadway’s Ambassador Theatre beginning this week, he also has three films in the pipeline as a producer and a plethora of other activities underway.

"I like to keep very busy and do a lot of different things. Actors are at the bottom of the totem pole in this business. I like to own things so I don’t have to depend on someone else for work," he notes.

He says there’s a final script for the bio-pic of stock car racing legend Richard Petty that he has set up at Disney. That project will probably go first. Then, he has "Ahab’s Wife" in development — as in the No. 1 New York Times Best Seller. "Then, there’s a light comedy based on the popularity of fantasy football," says O’Hurley — who expects to take roles in all three pictures.

The performer, who shed some 25 pounds during his "Dancing With the Stars" adventure, has taken part in the AOL/Good Morning America program called "America Takes it Off." For 30 Days, AOL is providing special tips for folks on getting trim, and John is providing a tip of his own through www.americatakesitoff.com. He also notes that he and his TV dance partner, Charlotte Jorgensen, "have a dance DVD coming out. We filmed it about a month ago at that grand old ballroom in the Roosevelt hotel in Hollywood, so we kept some of the elegance I love about ballroom dancing."

And then, there’s his latest commercial for Progressive Insurance — in which O’Hurley’s hosting a supposed Miss Antarctica pageant, surrounded by penguins. One of the critters bit him, he confides. But, we always thought penguins were nice to work with. "Well, I got too close," O’Hurley says. "He was just protecting his territory."

L IS FOR LETTING GO:

Erin Daniels reports her "biggest challenge" in playing her character’s struggle with breast cancer in the recently launched new season of Showtime’s "The L Word" was "getting it right. I wanted to make sure I portrayed it with the most dignity and honesty possible because its something millions of women face," says the actress, who plays tennis pro Dana Fairbanks, on the show. "I did loads of research, interviewed people who’d been through it, read books, spent time in chat rooms. I would come home from work and go online and keep going."

As her character succumbed more and more to the disease, Daniels says "the hardest part was not bringing it home with me at night ... I believe there is a mind-body connection, and you can’t deny that to pretend that you’re immune." Daniels says there were "some days I’d come home crying, and I’d have to sit down and meditate for 15-20 minutes, or take Epsom salt baths and watch a little crap TV to really make myself feel we were two different people." Daniels can’t reveal the fate of her character. But she says, "I’m pretty proud of it. I felt honored and flattered that Ilene (Chaiken, the show’s creator) chose me to portray this story line."

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE:

Talk about juggling. Sarah Michelle Gellar, who has "The Grudge 2" en route to production in Tokyo at month’s end — also has "The Air I Breathe," which is due to roll late in the month in Mexico City, with Kevin Bacon, Brendan Fraser, Diego Luna and Ken Watanabe.