To her, pretty’s not good enough

“Pretty is as pretty does” is an old adage one rarely hears these days.

But supermodel Cheryl Tiegs still believes it. And she lives it.

Though Tiegs has been a top model since she was 16, she never quite forgot her roots.

“I don’t know how the business saw it, but I personally thought it made a difference what kind of person you were,” she says.

“In fact, I’m German and from Minnesota and I’d come early and stay late if they wanted me to because I was so grateful for the money I was making and the great job.

“I think over the years – not to brag – but I think I did get the reputation of being nice and easy to work with, so then I think people want to work with you.”

That perception will be put to the test tonight when ABC premieres “True Beauty” (10 p.m., KXLY-4 in Spokane), a reality show that pits four gorgeous men and women against each other.

But it’s what they are underneath that counts, says Tiegs, who’s one of the judges.

“I think true beauty really does have to do with an inner light that does shine,” she says. “People ask, ‘What is star quality?’ I don’t know the answer to that, nobody does, but my idea of it is someone who has something to offer. …

“They shine. When they walk in a room you’re literally attracted to them because they have something to say, they’ve done something with their lives, and that’s what I kept looking for in contestants, really looking into their eyes to see what was going on.”

A lot has been going on for Tiegs, who is a public speaker for health and fitness, sports her own line of skin care products, has authored “The Way to Natural Beauty” and is rearing her 17-year-old son, Zachary.

She stays in shape with meditation, yoga, walking and avoiding “anything white – sugar, pasta, bread.”

Tiegs is a veteran of four marriages (“The last one doesn’t count, it was so not a marriage,” she says).

But she’s still friendly with all four exes, especially her third husband, Tony Peck (Gregory Peck’s son), who is her best friend and Zachary’s father.

Her twin boys with her fourth husband were born through a surrogate.

“My ex has custody of the twins because he’s Jewish and he wanted to raise them Jewish,” Tiegs explains. “We also have an agreement to keep them out of the press. He was adamant about it, and I said it was fine with me.”

Adds Tiegs: “When I started this family at 43 I thought, ‘Either this is going to make me very old, or it’s going to keep me young.’ Children keep you young. They do try your patience but that’s OK, it’s a way of learning about yourself.

“They think outside the box. My box, I know exactly what makes me happy. I know what I want to do, and then they come along and it’s, ‘Why don’t we do it this way?’

“If you don’t learn and grow from that and become a better person I don’t know what to say because you really have to dig deep.”

The birthday bunch

Actor Robert Duvall is 78. Talk-show host Charlie Rose is 67. Actress Diane Keaton is 63. Actor Ted Lange (“The Love Boat”) is 61. Guitarist Chris Stein of Blondie is 59. Actress Pamela Sue Martin is 56. Actor Clancy Brown is 50. Singer Marilyn Manson is 40. Actress January Jones is 31.