MIDDLE SISTER SHE TALKS LIKE A TEEN, BUT DON'T LET BEVERLEY MITCHELL FOOL YOU. THE `7TH HEAVEN' SIB THINKS LIKE AN ADULT. AND SHE'S ONLY SMETHING LIKE LUCY CAMDEN.
Seattle Post - Intelligencer; Seattle, Wash.; Dec 20, 1999; JOHN LEVESQUE P-I COLUMNIST;

Abstract:
Beverley Mitchell, one of the seven sibs on "7th Heaven," wishes her name were shorter. She envies co-star Jessica Biel, not because Biel is taller or because she gets to play older sister Mary on the most popular show in the WB firmament, but because it takes less time to write "Jessie Biel" on an 8-by-10 glossy than it does "Beverley Mitchell."

To her friends she's Bev, but Mitchell signs her full name to all fan correspondence. "It takes 10 seconds to write my name," she complains. But don't even suggest that she sign just one and have a factotum make a few trips to Kinko's. Beverley Mitchell, seasoned professional since the age of 4, proclaims: "I could never do that!"

If she dressed the way she did for a lunch meeting at Palace Kitchen last week, Mitchell would have an even harder time. With her zip-up gray sweater not quite hiding the sort of distraction that makes an interviewer think, "eye contact, eye contact," Mitchell looked 18 going on Pamela Anderson, and nothing like the sweet Lucy Camden America has come to know on "7th Heaven."

Full Text:

Copyright SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER Dec 20, 1999

TELEVISION

Beverley Mitchell, one of the seven sibs on "7th Heaven," wishes her name were shorter. She envies co-star Jessica Biel, not because Biel is taller or because she gets to play older sister Mary on the most popular show in the WB firmament, but because it takes less time to write "Jessie Biel" on an 8-by-10 glossy than it does "Beverley Mitchell."

To her friends she's Bev, but Mitchell signs her full name to all fan correspondence. "It takes 10 seconds to write my name," she complains. But don't even suggest that she sign just one and have a factotum make a few trips to Kinko's. Beverley Mitchell, seasoned professional since the age of 4, proclaims: "I could never do that!"

So, risking the ravages of writer's cramp, Beverley Mitchell dutifully answers the mail that has been pouring in since "7th Heaven" went on the air in the fall of 1996.

Back then, The WB was a year and a half old and Mitchell was 15 playing 12. She looked the part: young, innocent, impressionable, naive. Now a freshman in college and soon to be 19 (on Jan. 22), Mitchell has to work a little harder to pull off the character of middle-daughter Lucy Camden, especially since she's older than Biel, a 17-year-old Hollywood anomaly who actually plays her age.

If she dressed the way she did for a lunch meeting at Palace Kitchen last week, Mitchell would have an even harder time. With her zip-up gray sweater not quite hiding the sort of distraction that makes an interviewer think, "eye contact, eye contact," Mitchell looked 18 going on Pamela Anderson, and nothing like the sweet Lucy Camden America has come to know on "7th Heaven."

Then again, you can see about the same sort of attire in a high school classroom, so just put me down as one of those "you're- wearing-that?" adult units and be done with it.

Mitchell was in Seattle for a promotional appearance on behalf of KTWB/22, the local WB affiliate. The gig included several radio interviews before she appeared Wednesday night at a KISS 106.1 concert featuring Barenaked Ladies, Sixpence None the Richer and Dido.

Having risen at 5 a.m. for the first radio interview, Mitchell hung around the concert venue till about 11 p.m., signing an estimated 500 to 600 autographs and putting the lie to any suggestion that teens don't watch a "family values" show like "7th Heaven."

Mitchell says she is repeatedly amazed at the people who recognize her, even as they blushingly insist it's someone else in the family who actually watches the show. This reluctance to admit a liking for what The WB's CEO, Jamie Kellner, calls "a friendly place where the American family can watch television together" doesn't surprise Mitchell. She's still a teenager. She understands peer pressures and coolness factors. She also knows teens often don't do what they say, and vice versa.

Which helps explain the numbers that KTWB/22 loves to tout: In the Seattle TV market, the 12th-largest in the nation, "7th Heaven" is No. 1 on Monday nights among the 12-to-17 set and among females between 12 and 24.

Nationally, "7th Heaven" doesn't get the sort of numbers that accrue to meghahits like "ER," but it is consistently The WB's best- watched show, reaching between 3 million and 4 million households each week, better than hot-buzz series like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dawson's Creek."

While the ratings for "7th Heaven" aren't Top 20 caliber - the No. 20 show in the Nielsen ratings averages closer to 10 million households - they still mean a lot of folks are tuning in to glimpse a functional California family whose members, believe it or not, really love each other and aren't plotting anyone's demise.

Mitchell, an only child, loves the idea of doing a weekly show about an open, caring, communicative family, and she buys into its positive message completely. She's not just saying that for the publicity department. She thinks her own parents are even more open and accessible, which she credits as the reason Beverley Mitchell is a lot like Lucy Camden.

In her own life, Mitchell is active in two organizations with similar aims, and similar acronyms, for that matter: RAD and RADD. RAD is Race Against Drugs, a nationwide education program aimed at young people. RADD is Recording Artists, Actors and Athletes Against Drunk Driving. As she does for The WB whenever she gets the call, Mitchell lends her celebrity to both causes, happy to be doing good because she happens to be doing well in a tough career.

It's a career that started when she threw a knock-your-socks-off temper tantrum in a shopping mall at age 4. Although her parents were mortified, a talent manager approached the family and said the girl had "Hollywood spunk." Mitchell was soon making commercials for AT&T and Oscar Mayer.

Nearly 15 years later, Mitchell isn't sure how long the role of goody-goody Lucy Camden might run. Though fully aware of the dangers of typecasting, she says she's happy to stay with the show, now in its fourth season, as long as it runs.

"Yeah, I want to do the edgier stuff," she said, "but I feel there's a lot of responsibility in this role. I feel like a big sister to half of these kids (watching me). They have this trust in me."

Mitchell, who talks like, you know, like a teenager but thinks like an adult, knows the celebrity and the fat paycheck could all end in the blink of a programming exec's eye, which is why she's going to college. (She'd rather not say where.)

"I want to be prepared," she said. "I want to have something to fall

back on."

Luckily, she won't have to fall far. She's majoring in film.

"No matter what," she said, "I want to be in the business."

John Levesque is the P-I's television critic. Call him at 206-448- 8330 or send e-mail to tvguy@seattle-pi.com

[Illustration]
Photos; Caption: BILL REITZEL: (1) (Color) Beverley Mitchell: "I feel like a big sister to half of these kids (watching me). They have this trust in me." (2) Members of the "7th Heaven" Camden family include, clockwise from left, Lucy (Beverley Mitchell), Matt (Barry Watson), Annie (Catherine Hicks), Eric (Stephen Collins), Mary (Jessica Biel), Ruthie (Mackenzie Rosman) and Simon (David Gallagher). Rounding out the family are the twins, played by different babies, and Happy the Dog.