Gail O'Grady's looking frosty, and it's not just the air-conditioning in the Beverly Hilton's main ballroom, where parkas would not be inappropriate.

The press conference for ABC's "Hot Properties" just kicked off with a reporter asking O'Grady how she went from the idealized mother of NBC's "American Dreams" to, well, a slut.

("Hot Properties" is supposedly a comedy about real estate agents, but in the pilot, real estate and comedy seem to be taking a back seat to cheap sex jokes, and O'Grady's character is kind of a slut, although a newy married one who may be trying to clean up her act.)

"I think I'm just playing a different kind of role," said O'Grady evenly.

It must have worked, because no one's following up or asking how Meg and J.J. and Patty and Will would feel about their TV mom talking about sex on ABC.