WONDERLAND • The Ultimate Wonder Woman Site

She thought she was alone. Lynda Carter, TV's Wonder Woman, walked out on the sunlit balcony and basked in the soothing warmth. It felt wonderful. She double checked, convinced herself no one could see her, then took off her blouse. Barechested, she relaxed in the Miami sunshine, closing her eyes and letting herself drift off ...

A stir suddenly brought her back to reality. Lynda opened her eyes in a panic. She desperately tried to cover her nudity. But, spotting the man lurking nearby, she realized it was already too late. He'd seen her. The stranger ogled every inch of her gorgeous flesh. If you could picture his thoughts, you'd see perverted fantasies going on in his mind. He was 'raping' her with his eyes, enjoying her curvy body, and Lynda prayed he wouldn't try to rape her in fact! Wasn't there anything she could do to protect herself? Calling on her `Wonder Woman' ingenuity, Lynda grabbed an orange and threw it at her 'attacker'. Startled, he began to run away, but not before turning around and taunting, "You certainly are a Wonder Woman."

As the victim of a Peeping Tom -a man who gets his kicks by sneakily watching people's private moments-Lynda must have vowed that she'd be more careful in the future. Next time she sunbathed at the Miami Jockey Club, you can bet she wouldn't go out topless. Lately, there seems to be an epidemic of weird characters stalking beautiful female stars. Lindsay Wagner, for example, doesn't travel without someone to protect her, and even the three actresses who play Charlie's Angels have special bodyguards on the set. Lynda should be super-vigilant because of her role on Wonder Woman; her incredible physical endowments are played up to the hilt. Just watch the twirling special effects striptease that transforms her from plain Diana Prince to the sexy superheroine clothed (barely) in star-spangled hot pants and golden breastplate. Male viewers love watching the scantily-clad actress on TV and probably have their own X-rated fantasies about her. Ninety-nine: percent of the fans are content just to dream about their idols, but a star never knows when she'll run into a crackpot. Lynda herself doesn't kid herself over why the show is a success.

Realizing Wonder Woman could be her big break, Lynda's tried to get the most out of the series, learning everything she could about acting and production. In fact, she wasn't even the first choice for the show when the network officials first decided to make a series out of the popular comic strip. The first Wonder Woman pilot featured another actress, a delicate blonde model-type, named Cathy Lee Crosby, with a script set in modern times: The show bombed. But one of its producers, Douglas Cramer, believed so strongly in the concept, he convinced the network to give it another shot.

"Let's stop fooling around," Cramer blurted after the first Wonder Woman flopped. "The networks liked the comic strip, so let's just do a live-actor version of the original. We'll put it back in 1942, an age of innocence when you could tell the good guys from the bad guys; and we'll get a dark-haired girl who looks like the girl in the strip. She should be built like a javelin-thrower, but with the sweet face of a Mary Tyler Moore."

In Lynda, Cramer found exactly the type he was looking for. A six-foot tall beauty from Phoenix, Arizona with a 38-inch bust, the 25-year-old actress was a former 'Miss World' competitor who had headed out to Hollywood to take acting lessons and, like other hopefuls, to build a career in movies or on TV. She didn't have to wait long for her big break, either. Physically, she was perfect for the role, and when the first ratings for Wonder Woman came rolling in, everyone all around was pleased.

"Starting out as a star is a very comfortable position to be in," she relates. "It's fortunate." However, she has no illusions about her development as an actress at this point. "I won't consider myself a star until I've had more experience," Lynda philosophizes. "I think the real stars are people like Streisand, Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Hepburn. These are the people who put in the time and have the experience and the personality. Hepburn is my favorite. She epitomizes to me what a star should be, getting there with experience, exposure in doing different things, putting it on the line continually."

And, she's realized, there's more to being a star than acting expertise. "I wasn't aware of the political system in the studios and at the networks. It's incredible," she observes. "But I want to cope with it, to be as good as I can be, and commit totally to what I'm doing. Total commitment is part of the realities of being a star."

Her attitude, plus the experience of having worked on a hit TV show when she was barely out of acting school, should give Linda's career a healthy boost. Already, she's considered a hot property around Hollywood, and her manager/ boyfriend Ron Samuels-the same Ron Samuels who got Lindsay Wagner that super contract for starring on Bionic Woman-ought to give her the kind of guidance that will eventually make her a superstar. Lynda couldn't ask for more, right now, and you can bet she's looking forward to the future.