Teri Hatcher: Trying Not to Eat Burnt Toast

May 4, 2006 — -- Despite her successful acting career and the current fame she is enjoying with her starring role on "Desperate Housewives," Teri Hatcher says she can still feel "very fragile and very insecure."

In fact, the title of her new book, "Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life," is a metaphor for women who too often take the leftovers for themselves.

"With women, we can all relate to our lunch ends up being whatever's left on the kids' plates," Hatcher said. "Oh, I'll just eat that. I'll eat that. I'll eat that. And the idea of burnt toast is sort of like in the morning if you make all the toast and it just seems like typically women will [say], 'Oh no. You take the good piece and I'll just take what's left. I'll take that piece.'"

The illustrations in the book also use the oven as a metaphor for Hatcher's dating life.

"Once burnt, twice shy, and all the men are in the oven," she said of the drawings. "And I'm basting them."

Hatcher, who has dated Ryan Seacrest and George Clooney, said all of her girlfriends had tried to set her up, but hadn't done a good job.

"I had a girlfriend -- and this is in the book -- who literally set me up with what turned out to be a con artist," she said. "And he was making our date reservations as he was arrested in her driveway. You know, that happened to me. Like, who does that happen to? You can't make that up."

In the book's introduction, Hatcher jokes that she wrote the book -- which details her struggles and foibles -- because she needs to read it. She also hopes to help and inspire other women.

"There are some really great things that I need to hear about how to take care of yourself, you know, how to not go down the dark, deep rabbit hole of pain, and how to pull yourself out of that," she said. "That's really in there."

Hatcher said she hoped her daughter, Emerson, would break the burnt-toast cycle.

"I hope so, but she doesn't think about it like that," she said. "You know, she doesn't analyze it, I guess, the way I do. And I'm getting better at not eating the burnt toast. I haven't stopped eating it all the time. I think I probably never will."