I have a terrific fanatsy life.... 

"Give me those great big eyes, Stefanie," the husky redheaded boom-mike man croons to a still form in a zip-up oxygen tent. "Never mind the lips, you can keep the body; I just want a glance from those eyes...."The face in intensive care looks up with an intensive stare and a small, moderately rude noise. At the same time, Tom Mankiewicz, one of the Hart to Hart directors, looks from his camera's point-of-view at his star with what he attempts to pass off as professional detachment. "There are 600 moving parts to that face," he says.The parts may move, but they show few signs of wear and tear. What are politely called smile lines have yet to settle around Stefanie Powers' brown eyes.

If love is supposed to be the ultimate cosmetic, looking at Powers you could make a case that success also carries a tangible aura all its own. It is success she is tasting at long last. Powers has wanted to cross into that world and its perks since her first series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E, and that was in 1966. The Feather and the Father Gang brought her no closer, nor did the miniseries Washington: Behind Doors. Now, however, its within sight: audiences seem to love watching Stefanie and Robert Wagner court and spark, nip and nuzzle their way through other-wise largely forgettable mystery-adventure, watch-dogged by the greatest pit-bull of all time, Lionel Stander, as their chauffeur Max. Some weeks, more people were watching high life and love chez Hart than pioneer-family-togetherness in Little House on the Prairie, the family trials of Eight is Enough, or even the offbeat comedy Mork & Mindy.

What does Stefanie Powers bring to Jennifer Hart? More than anything, the gist of professionalism, the ability to pace herself to the rigors of a series. Powers, knows, within millimeters, what she's doing and how much energy to expend doing it. Her years as a self-styled workaholic, the years of television shows back-to-back, the movies, plays on the straw-hat circuit and in repertory have heightened her craft.

That some professionalism has, on occasion, has made her impatient with anyone less efficient. Director Alex March, after calling her marvelously pliable, a jot to work with, always prepared, always receptive, and a generous actress, chuckled at the memory of a Sunday-night mystery show the two did some years ago. "She can be intolerant as hell if you're winging it. I saw her tell an actor off in no uncertain terms, so that he was totally destroyed in front of a crew. He's been fooling around all morning and finally she's had it. Wooh, did she tell him off! This gorilla- he was a big man- was just destroyed.

Series co-executive producer Leonard Goldberg, a lean, handsomely grey-bearded man whose office wall is enlivened by crayon drawings by his kids, thinks that Powers brings "importance" to a scene. "When she's speaking, you listen," he says. "Her contributions unique: we needed a mature woman, not a little girl, who has great intelligence, style, class, a good sense of high humor, was a good actress and had believability. Also, it didn't hurt that she was pretty.

Our situation is unusual: both Powers and Wagner were our absolutely first choices. What we banked on was a relationship. When you looked at the Harts, you smiled. They made you feel good. Stefanie is nice . Women like her. There are actresses other women resent, who are overly sensual, not sensitive or vulnerable. She touched you."

One of the most elaborate Hart to Harts yet is in its last three days of shooting. They've just come back from Vail, Colo., where they shot snowmobile chases, ski-lift scenes, fatal ski-runs and horse-drawn sleigh rides; between the show's wardrobe and what the cast and crew have dragged home from Vail, there's enough Nouveau -Western gear- boots, coats, hats, belts- to make Ralph Lauren's eyes mist over. The hot-tub love scene, a sauna scene and ski-lodge dance will be shot with less expensive overhead on the Spelling/Goldberg sound stages at 20th Century Fox.

At the lunch-break Powers heads for one of the trailers that series star confers, the one affectionately marked "Starbaby", and straight for a baby of her own. Nesting among the towels in her bathroom cabinet is B.B. her bush baby, a tiny, irresistible monkey-like animal with rounded amber eyes, a chinchilla's soft coat, the delicate round eyes of a field mouse and the attack of a circus aerialist. B.B hurls himself fearlessly from shoulder to curtain, from lunch plate to a visitor's lap; his sound like a gurgling chitter. Powers expertly removes his mouth from her wrist. Mrs. Hart's long-sleeved turtleneck neatly covers Miss Powers' love-bites and scratches from B.B.

She takes a mouthful of chicken and avocado salad, hands a piece to B.B. and continues. "The last year has been a lot of hard work. The greatest gratification is that there's been some success. I've been in this business since I was 15, and this is the first success I've had. Now I know the difference in the attitude....in your credibility in the industry. I might be able to get my own projects off the ground." Directing? "Producing. Creatively producing. I'd like to have more of a hand in things, working with the writing, the directing, helping to shape it."

What does she see herself doing in 10 years? " I don't" the answer comes back firmly. "I don't make those prognostications.What would I not be doing is a television series. I would hope by then that I would be able to act when I want, rather that act to live." She has, since 1973, been keeping company with William Holden whom she met at a celebrity tennis match. They and two others have a business importing art and artifacts from the East. What has this relationship taught her? She says she prefers not to discuss it. But her next words, and the intensity with which she says them, are a comment of their own.

"I once heard a psychologist say something that made great sense. "God saves us from relationships based on need." How often do you hear "Oh well, opposites attract; she needs what he has? What about adult choice? What about two people who decide to be together who really don't need each other? They get along by themselves; they choose to be together because they want to be together, without the interdependence that eventually creates a weakness because one or the other outgrows that dependency, and that's it."

Her words bring to mind the comments of Robert Wagner. After the usual testimonial to Powers- terrific sense of humour, complete professional- Wagner said admiringly: "Stefanie's got a little circus going on in her head. You have the sense that she can get out of anything. If she has to run through reeds or swim up a river, she'll be there, you never have to look around for her- you always feel her presence."

And although she may not speak directly about Holden, the 62 year-old actor has, on occasion, spoken about her. To Rodrick Mann of the Los Angeles Times, Holden said, "Its tough finding a woman who can travel with you, who will put up with all the problems and hassles. Stef does it wonderfully; I've taken her on safari, sleeping under the stars, and she's loved it. Most of my life I have had to take care of people, but with her I don't have to do anything. How many women would accompany a man up-river in northern New Guinea and wind up with dengue fever and not complain? Not many."

Groaning about her "tonnage's" (which seems gratuitous since at 117 pounds her 5-foot-7 frame is a slim as an eel), Powers bends upside down, brushes her thick auburn hair briskly, relines her lipstick and is off. It has taken her less time to get ready for 6 hours in front of the camera than it takes most women to schlump off to the supermarket.

The next day's shooting is an intricate sequence at the ski-lodge, with the cast's five principals and a large cast of extras assembled. Behind the scenery, it looks like a civil defense emergency: the young dancing extras, vainly fighting the old ennui, litter the carpeted backstage flat on their stomachs. They're savings themselves as though they were about to do the opening number from "All that Jazz".During the wait, Powers thinks more about the question of success.

"I don't want to become public property. I enjoy my anonymity, which of course one loses more and more as one achieves success. Now a layman might say- I've even heard my mother say this and she knows the business- 'What is all this? Now they've gotten what they want, they want to be left alone?' "Well, it may appear that way. But for a start, there are certain things you're required to do that may embarrass you. There are things called the People's Choice Award and they have awarded it to me. Now, I will tell this to you in complete candor and at the risk of sounding like a complete idiot and opening my mouth when I shouldn't, but I don't know where the People's Choice Award comes from . I've never seen a survey. All I know is every once in a while a new award is invented so that someone can sell a TV special. What is it if its not hype? Now, I think its very nice and lovely, and I've never won anything but a radio once in a raffle, but I had a tremendous amount of difficulty explaining why I didn't want to go [to accept the award] and now it appears that if I don't go... well, its the road of least resistance to go I find."

Her voice is soft, but she's only warming up. "I didn't get into this to see my photograph on the cover of a magazine. I like to act. If I wanted to have my picture on the cover of a magazine then I would have been a model, but I don't look like that. I feel uncomfortable as an actress on the cover of a magazine. That's where a model belongs. And I feel uncomfortable seeing a model doing an actress' job. I don't think that everyone who throws a football or takes a pretty picture should be lumped in the same category as actors. It sort of lessens the professionality.

On the question of age, she's even more impassioned. "We've become victimized by numbers. If you put a number on a blackboard and say 'That's how many years I've been on Earth.'. It doesn't man that. What it means is totally different. Everyone says the same sort of garbage to each other: 'Well, we're not getting any younger. My God, I guess I'm going to have a face lift or a few nips and tucks.' We laugh about it, but each day we put ourselves deeper and deeper into this by associating it with ourselves, by accepting any facet of it. It's a lot of work to keep yourself ahead if this thing."

Told that women like her, she smiles, pleased. "I think it's the greatest compliment. I'm not sure what they see-or don't see-, but it may be...part of themselves, without a threat. Thank God we've evolved from that. Now women can look at each other without looking from their head to their toes, but its taken time. I never had any girl friends when I was growing up. I love my women friends now, we have great fun. I'd rather be with my women friends than my men friends now."

They're ready for her. Back she goes, the women extras watching her from the edges of their eyes, the way members of the corps de ballet watch the prime ballerina. Studying, studying.Gravel-voiced Lionel Stander waiting patiently in his trailer to be called... says about his co-star." Steffie's beauty is not from genetics, it's because she is talented, because there's something going on in that brain. Anyone can be great playing great roles- no sweat. I've done it: Shakespeare, Chekov, Brecht. Go ahead and be great." (with a wicked chuckle) "wid' ordinary lines. That takes real technique. She's a very skilful actress, very. I'm delighted for her at the success at the show. It came at the right time, because if this had bombed she'd have been in real trouble. When a woman hits around 40 in this town. I don't have to tell you what happens. The whole set-up is anti-female. It's very tough for women in this racket because the power's in the hands of the men."

Raplh Senensky, who has directed her in three episodes, has come by the set. He watches, his curly hair a grey aureole around his face."She's a love that one. She's strong, she's unafraid, if she gets into something she doesn't back down. She's a very complicated lady, far more complicated than Jennifer has ever a chance to be. Just by the nature of TV, it can't encompass anyone as complicated as Stefanie.