Sharon Case
		New Attitude Sharon Case (Sharon) alters her outlook

	THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS’ Sharon Case (Sharon) has mellowed. Fans can see the changes in her appearance, as she playfully alters the cut and color of her hair with some frequency. And her admirers even can sense the shift in her in the way that she answers questions about her love life. (Whereas she once was very guarded about her romances, she now admits, "I broke up with my boyfriend, but it was good for both of us.") In fact, she seems so content now to take life one day at a time that she even allows her highly prized Emmy to be out of her sight. When she first won it in 1999, she told Soaps In Depth that she planned to keep it at her desk, where it would be "the first thing she saw each morning and the last thing she saw" before diving under the duvet. "It travels [these days] — it’s at my friend’s house," she jokes. "We even have a schedule." Actually, the golden statuette is moving around because Case currently is remodeling her home. "I didn’t want to put the Emmy — or my paintings — in storage. So my friends are hanging onto them. Of course, we rotate when people tire of the baby-sitting!" Home Improvement Case’s house is almost finished — even as she decides on a different design element mid-construction. "I see things as they’re building, and they’re not what I envisioned, so I make a change. Like the lighting in my master bath… I ended up opening the ceiling, which of course set us back. But I want the house to be right." As any homeowner eventually discovers, remodeling is an all-consuming task. "It is a full-time job, which means I have way more on my plate than I need to be dealing with. But it will get finished." Career Conflicts Largely, it is Case’s new, let-it-come attitude that is getting her through life. Last year, she had to bow out of one movie and say no to another because her schedule just wouldn’t accommodate filming — but the Michigan native took it all in stride. "I couldn’t get it to work. My Y&R schedule got so busy that I lost both films by May. On one, I was finishing negotiations while I was in New York [for the Emmys], and it just fell through. "I came back to this hectic schedule, so I decided against doing anything else. I was working four and five days a week, and just realized trying to squeeze in a movie wasn’t going to work." Life Plans Case opted to stop looking for other roles until things settled down. At this point, she notes, "I’ve had a break, so I can see getting back out there and getting more work." Looking for a good film doesn’t mean she’s planning to exit Y&R, though. "I don’t know that I could come to terms with leaving Y&R. Not that I visualize myself as this soap opera diva, someone who will be on the show all my life. It’s just that I can’t leave these people. "Really, it’s not about my career," she concludes. "Wanting to stay is about my life, because it feels like family here." — Karre Jacobs