WONDERLAND • The Ultimate Wonder Woman Site

	There's a cynical attitude that floats around Hollywoodland concerning beautiful women. It implies that movie stars are callow and narcissistic - "spoiled brats," the saying goes. But one thing is certain: Lynda Carter, former "Wonder Wornan" and once voted "the most beautiful wornan in the world," is not one of the brats.

	As I enter her opulent ($1.2 million) home atop Los Angeles' Benedict Canyon, Lynda shakes my hand warmly. Her face reflects a cotton-candy kind of goodness-pink and white and sparkling. Her hair is casually pulled into a topknot and the only makeup is a hint of mascara that peeks through her glasses. Dressed in Levis and a satin blouse, her lean body and grace are what strike you first as she glides around her den and offers me a cup of coffee.

	Naturally my first question has to do with how she maintains her fabulous figure.

	"I work at it," she emphasizes. "I do every kind of physical exercise you can think of. I run a mile and a half a day. I work with light weights. I do 250 leg lifts in the morning with my husband Ron. I ride a stationary bike and do stretches. I play tennis. If I happen to be on location where there's an Olympic-sized pool available, I can do five hundred laps.

	"My feeling is that half of any exercise is concentration. When I jog, I really concentrate on flexing my tushy muscles instead of simply going through the motions. When you start running, I know the first three days are grueling, but by the fourth day you start feeling good.

	"Exercise has really changed my state of mind. And, when youir body feels good, your mind feels good and your spirit feels good."

	In addition to an almost superhuman exercise routine, Lynda
maintains her not-anounce-of-fat figure by fasting or cating only one mea¡ a day. Contrary to what most nutritionists recommend, she has no breakfast or lunch and believes in eating dirmer by five o'clock. And she "never, ever cats sweets. "

"Once I start cating candy, I crave it every day, so the only way for me is to do without."

She pauses and leans back into an overstuffed couch. Her eyes light upon one of a flotilla of photographs on the table of she and husband/producer Ron Samuels. "We watch our cholesterol intake, we're careful of nitrates and shun convenience foods. " In addition, she refuses to eat microwave cooking. "l just don't trust them," she says.

"I think your cating habits are established when you're young and I'm thankful that my diet included lots of salads and fresh vegetables. We ate little fried foods and not much meat"

Lynda's fervor goes beyond her eating habits. She doesn't drink or smoke, and, although she readily says, 'I'm not a perfect person," her abstinence is based upon a belief that "anything that separates you from God isn't good for you." "And besides,- she adds, ---smokingwill wrinkle your skin faster."

Lynda's appearance is very natural and there's none of the primping mannerisms of some glamorous wornen. She has no -intention of having any face lifts and feels there's nothing more beautiful than a well-cared-for older wornan.

"l don't usually wear any makeup at home. I spend so many hours a day getting poked and prodded by makeup people on the set that I prefer to do my own egg facials when I can-She stresses washing any makeup off before sleep and uses a Milk Wash by Daniel Eastman. She doesn't use alcohol-based astringents and uses Clinique soap and the white "motel-room type" face cloth "so you can really see the makeup come off." She always finishes with cold water to lose her pores.

Lynda is sophisticated beyond het twenty-eight years, having left home at seventeen to pursue a shot at Vegas. She landed a small lounge act but had to use the kitchen entrance since she was underage. Now things have changed. When she appears in Vegas it's in a $1,400-a-week VIP room.

Her Las Vegas act is an extravaganza with a fifty-thousand-dollar wardrobe, a twenty-six piece orchestra and film clips from her past narrated by Eloward Cosell. Last year she released an album titled Portrait and she plans to record another within the next year.

Even as a kid in Arizona she wanted to he a television star. She joined the glee club at fifteen and after her parents had divorced worked earning twenty-five dollars a weekend singing at the Pizza Inn in Scottsdale.

Then came Miss World USA in 1973 and the "Wonder Wornan" role where she won out over two thousand other auditioners." 'Wonder Wornan' was good to me," she says. One day Ron Samuel en. tered the "Wonder Woman" soundstage seeking an old director friend and left Lynda "spellbound." They spent three hours over lunch, decided,they were in love and started sharing housekeeping almost immediately. Now married two and a half years, she went for his "oId-fashioned morality and great smile."

Ron serves as a buffer, handling al] Lynda's contracts and making,the deals. By the time she meets with the writer of a script, "all the bugs have been worked through. "

"He's one in a million," she says of Ron. Samuels, who is also Lindsay Wagner's agent, has now segued into production and is working with Lynda on television and movie projects. This past January she hosted her own CBS television variety show, -LyndaCarter's Special," with guests Kenny Rogers and Leo Sayer. The television script for "The Last Song" lay open on the coffee table and she also has an upcoming film, The Shroud, a motion picture about the Shroud of Turin.

A recent Gallup poll rates her as one of the ten most admired women in the world and her 1978 poster was the second-bestt selling next to Farrah's. Her manner is forthright, but she also shows shades of independence. When her public relations man alludes to cameo roles in some of Samuels' other projects, Lynda Carter balks. "No cameo roles for me," she says. "l want the lead. "