Celebrity Mound

A smiling Christina Applegate graces the cover of People magazine’s “Most Beautiful” issue.

The 37-year-old actress, who recently battled breast cancer, certainly has much to celebrate: She says she’s finally found her “perfect type” in her new beau, Dutch musician Martyn Lenoble (Mar-TAN Luh-NOBLE).

Applegate had a double mastectomy last July and reconstructive surgery months later. The star of ABC’s “Samantha Who?” calls Lenoble an “angel” who loves her “from head to toe.”

According to Applegate, Lenoble has been her “rock” and gave her reason to live – and smile.

The annual “Most Beautiful” issue features 100 famous faces, including Michelle Obama, Zac Efron and Cindy Crawford posing without makeup. It hits stands Friday.

Christina Applegate says fighting breast cancer “sucks,” but you shouldn’t feel sorry for her.

“I still have quite a process until this is done,” the actress says in the new issue of TV Guide. “Yes, it’s hard. It sucks. But I’m not a victim.”

She will undergo reconstructive surgery near her 37th birthday, at the end of November. She had a double mastectomy in July.

Applegate – a workaholic who clocks 14 to 16 hour days on Samantha Who – changed her outlook on life after her spring diagnosis.

“I started looking for a beach house the day I found out I had this little disease,” she says. “You just kind of go, ‘What are you waiting for to get the things that you want and the things you dream of?’

“I don’t own tomorrow or yesterday – today is all I’ve got,” she adds. “And if I don’t make today good, then I’m only gonna’ be p–ssed off tomorrow!”

Applegate has also taken time for herself to grieve. Just weeks before having both her breasts removed this summer, two of her cats died and her ex-boyfriend, Lee Grivas, was found dead of an apparent drug overdose.

“To be honest, I think that was even more difficult and more painful than anything else,” she says of Grivas’ death. “It still is a lot of the time.”

She draws from her recent painful experiences for her day job as a sitcom star.

“I think I’m bringing a lot of me now to Sam, just in the sense of, ‘This too shall pass,’ you know?” she says.

Adds executive producer Don Todd: “She hasn’t missed a beat.

“Even though I think she’s probably suffering quite a bit physically, and obviously the emotional stuff comes and goes. It’s just not in her to let what she’s [going through] affect the work. She has that ability to shut it down like a guillotine falling.

Applegate’s co-star, Jean Smart, agrees.

“Christina’s a trouper with a capital T…I feel very maternal towards her,” she says. “Very often, I tell her, ‘We don’t need you sitting off camera for this scene. Why don’t you go to your dressing room and put your feet up?’ She won’t do it.”

Applegate – a co-executive producer on the show – says she’s slowly learning to chill out.

“I’m very much a push-through-it kind of gal,” she says. “But now I don’t. I speak up for myself a lot. If I feel tired, I ask for the time that I need…I’m living such a different like than I did before.”

The actress, currently linked to 39-year-old rocker Martyn Lenoble, says she feels responsible for bringing awareness to breast cancer through her celebrity.

“I think I have a bigger responsibility now, and it’s a welcome one…I love making people laugh,” she said on Good Morning America in July. “But if I can make them think and be proactive in their life, that’s way more important.”

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Christina Applegate is taking the long view of her battle with breast cancer – the really long view. Speaking on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in her first interview since announcing her diagnosis earlier this month, the “Samantha Who?” star said she had a double mastectomy three weeks ago. She’ll undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months.

“I’m going to have cute boobs ’til I’m 90, so there’s that,” she joked in the interview, which aired Tuesday. “I’ll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I’ll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table.”

The 36-year-old actress elected to remove both breasts even though the disease was contained in one breast. She said she is now cancer-free.

Applegate called the operation a logical decision. Her mother battled breast cancer, and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer.

“I just wanted to kind of be rid of it,” she said. “So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one.”

The experience has been an emotional roller coaster, she said.

“Sometimes, you know, I cry and sometimes I scream and I get really angry and I get really like, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes,” she said. “And I think that’s – it’s all part of healing, and anyone who’s going through it out there, it’s OK to cry. It’s OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to.”

The Emmy-nominated “Samantha Who?” star has kept her sense of humor intact.

“I’ve laughed so much in the last three weeks,” she said. “I love living, and I really love my life, and I knew that from this moment on it was only going to be good that was going to be coming. Yeah, I’ll face challenges, but you can’t get any darker than where I’ve been. So knowing that in my soul gave me the strength to just say, `I have to get out there and make this a positive.’”

Applegate’s cancer was detected early through a doctor-ordered MRI. She said she’s starting a program to help women at high risk for breast cancer to meet the costs of an MRI, which is not always covered by insurance.

Applegate is scheduled to appear on a one-hour TV special, “Stand Up to Cancer,” to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.

She has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the ABC show “Samantha Who?”, in which she plays a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory of who she is.

Christina Applegate is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, but the disease was caught early and the actress is expected to fully recover, her publicist said.

The Emmy winner’s cancer was detected through an MRI ordered by a doctor and is not life-threatening, publicist Ame Van Iden said in a statement Saturday.

Applegate is scheduled to appear on a one-hour television special, “Stand Up To Cancer,” to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.

The 36-year-old actress has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the show “Samantha Who?”, in which she plays a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory of who she is.

The show, which debuted last October, marked a return to series television for Applegate, who helped establish the Fox network in 1987 as ditzy teenager Kelly Bundy on “Married … With Children.” The raunchy comedy ran 11 seasons and has been airing in syndication since.

“I’m really grateful that acting is the job that was chosen for me,” Applegate told The Associated Press in April. “I get really lost when I’m not working. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with myself. Thank God for dance class and the New York Times crossword puzzle and ‘American Idol.’ But acting is what I really have to do.”

Applegate won an Emmy as outstanding guest actress in a comedy series in 2003 for her role as one of Jennifer Aniston’s younger sisters in “Friends.” She was nominated for a Tony in 2005 for the Broadway musical “Sweet Charity.”

Applegate began acting in films and television as a child and has appeared in such shows as “Quincy,” “Family Ties,” “21 Jump Street,” “Charles in Charge” and Steven Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories.”

Soon after “Married … With Children,” she starred in “Jesse,” playing a single mother raising a young son. The show lasted two seasons.

Her films include “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead,” “Wild Bill, “Wonderland” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”

Christina Applegate’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Lee Grivas was found dead in his Hollywood apartment Tuesday, TMZ.com reports.

“I am profoundly saddened,” Applegate said in a statement to Usmagazine.com. “Lee was an incredible human being who was an extremely important and beautiful part of my life.

“He is missed beyond words,” she added. “He touched so many and I feel much sadness for his mother, father, brother, and all of his family and friends.”

The 26-year-old’s body was discovered by a neighbor and there were no visible signs of trauma, according to TMZ.

“Christina really loved him,” a source close to the situation told Us. “He was a really nice guy but also very sad.”

The Samantha Who? star, 36, and Grivas were not dating at the time of his death, the source told Us.

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