Eve Plumb, aka 'Jan Brady,' tries to avoid the limelight

Chicago Tribune (MCT) - Eve Plumb is not the "Brady Bunch" daughter who's been in the headlines. That would be Maureen McCormick (who played older sister Marcia) with her lurid memoir "Here's the Story."

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Plumb also isn't the one who displayed his love life on reality TV series and is hosting the new syndicated game show "Trivial Pursuit: America Plays." That would be Christopher Knight (Peter), though Plumb, Susan Olsen (Cindy), Mike Lookinland (Bobby) and Barry Williams (Greg) just participated in the show's "Brady Week."

Now 50, the actress who played middle sister Jan occasionally resurfaces in Brady-related events but otherwise keeps a low profile living in Laguna Beach, Calif., with her husband and enjoying a second career as a painter of still lifes.

Q. You've kept the Brady stuff at an arm's length, but occasionally you get sucked back into it. You're like Al Pacino in "The Godfather: Part III."

A. Exactly. That's exactly been my quote: "They keep sucking me back in!" It usually has to do with money.

Q. How did this "Trivial Pursuit" appearance come about?

A. This is a perfect job for Chris, to be a game show host, because he's not cheesy, because he's so charming and so smart and funny and fast, and he worked so hard to learn how to do this. So when he called and said, "Let's do this," I was all over it.

Q. Maureen McCormick didn't do it.

A. No.

Q. You're tired of being asked about her book, I bet.

A little. But you know, I congratulate her on her success. Not everybody gets a book on the New York Times best-sellers list.

Q. When you have Marcia Brady on crack, that's a headline.

A. My book would be massively dull, because I'm happy and healthy, and I've been painting a lot and had some success with that. You know, boring.

Q. Tell me about the art you've been doing.

A. I've been painting off and on for about 20 years, and then about three years ago it just took off. I have no paintings in the house right now. I'm painting right now, because all of my paintings are in galleries, and they've been selling.

Q. Was there a journey you went on of resisting but then accepting and embracing your "Brady"-ness?

A. No. ... People always brand me as this person who is anti-Brady, and I don't think that I ever have been, except that occasionally I would like to talk about something else that I'm doing. (Laughs)

Q. Ever think of being on a reality show like Chris Knight was?

A. Oh, no, no. ... Chris is very smart because he hooked in that this was the new thing and that this was the new style of being on TV. But for me, being sort of a private famous person, I couldn't imagine allowing cameras to look at me, and I have no interest at all in showing any kind of dirty underwear.

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Q. Did you do a double take when you heard that Michelle Obama was a "Brady Bunch" fan?

A. You know, it's everywhere. Everybody references it. I did a painting called "Sports Page 2." It's a coffee cup and a sports page, and I did the painting because the colors are pretty, but I guess the basketball player in that painting (New Orleans Hornet Chris Paul) is on a team that Barack likes, and Michelle likes "Brady Bunch," so we're trying to figure out a way to get that painting to him.

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