Vanessa L. Williams

Show: "Ugly Betty"

Character: Fashion editor Wilhelmina Slater

Most dastardly deed: Her quest to take over as the editor in chief of Mode magazine by seducing Bradford Meade, the owner, and breaking up his marriage.

Best line: In the Christmas episode, Mode editor Daniel Meade is on a politically correct rant about the holiday season. Wil takes him down a peg by tartly inquiring: "Did you just gesture at me when you said Kwanzaa?" (For her Christmas gift to the crew, Williams gave them all mugs with a picture of Wilhelmina and the line printed on it.)

Ploy for pity: Aw, she has an adult daughter. Which means she's old enough to have an adult daughter. Gasp! "She's aging, and trying to hold on to her sex appeal while always surrounded by young and beautiful people," Williams said.

Inspired by: Let's see ... Williams was Miss America, a successful recording artist and has been photographed countless times. Exacting, nitpicky photo editors past and present, she salutes you. "I drew from people I worked with on photo shoots," Williams said. "Allure, Vogue, In Style — the people who conduct these shoots care about the makeup, care about the hair, it's passionate and exciting: 'This blouse's collar is genius! Brilliant!' "

Trademark tic: The disdainful, derisive, domineering stare from Williams' steely blue eyes. "The stares happen genetically," she said. "My mother is the master of the stare."

You know you're in trouble when ... Wil has a beauty treatment that goes wrong; Wilhelmina lost her eyesight after a botched job involving duck sauce in Chinatown. She takes her fey assistant, Marc, to Fashion Week to act as her "seeing-eye gay." It's the line that Williams said she gets shouted at her most often on the street by fans.

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