HOLLYWOOD -- Because there's not a coy bone in Amy
Brenneman's body, she's a refreshingly candid
interview.

During the first season on NYPD Blue, Brenneman
played homicide detective Janice Licalsi, whose torrid
affair with David Caruso's Det. John Kelley changed the
face of primetime TV.

The naked truth is Brenneman and Caruso spent many a
naked moment in front of the NYPD cameras. It was quite
a year: Caruso left the show, Licalsi went to jail and
Brenneman fell in love.

"In lust, actually. Love came a little later," corrects
Brenneman.

One of the guest directors that first season was Brad
Silberling, who'd cut his teeth on such shows as Doogie
Howser, Brooklyn Bridge and L.A. Law.

"Brad directed three episodes of NYPD Blue. Between
episodes two and three, we became an item.

"I knew the moment I met him that I liked him. I even gave
him my phone number, but he didn't follow up. I asked a
few of the crew members to find out if he was gay,"
recalls Brenneman.

What she discovered was Silberling had just ended a
relationship and was nursing his wounds.

"That's all I needed to know. I insinuated myself into his
life. We hung out platonically for almost two months. That
really drove me crazy. Finally, I told him exactly how
interested I was in him.

"We had sex the next night."

Brenneman and Silberling are married and he has since
gone on to direct such films as Casper and City of
Angels. She has just completed filming The Suburbans
with Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Brenneman confesses: "The concerns in our marriage
have always been about me. I've had a much more
checkered relationship history than Brad. He was never
unfaithful."

Brenneman was anything but celibate in her past.

"As a young actress, I travelled with a theatre company. I
used to make do with what was available in the towns we
visited."

Brenneman says it is her checkered past that gave her
the insights for her character in the bleak relationship
drama Your Friends & Neighbors.

She plays Mary, whose husband (Aaron Eckhart) is
struggling with a bout of impotence. In her frustration,
she turns to two of her husband's best friends (Jason
Patric and Ben Stiller).

"Mary loves her husband, but she also wants to be
satisfied sexually. Only when that becomes impossible
does she turn to someone else. I stayed in a relationship
two years too long before I could tell the guy that I
wanted out. We were both too nice.

"I was unfaithful to him because I needed a life."

Brenneman says "women want to be seen, heard and
satisfied. We no longer want to live like our mothers did."

Your Friends & Neighbors was written and directed by
Neil LaBute, who created last year's shocking drama In
the Company of Men. The men in Neighbors are every bit
as misogynistic as the businessmen in Company.

"In my experience, I've discovered that a lot of predatory
men don't really like women. They like to dominate
women and to exploit women, but they don't really like
them."