FOUR years ago, Pia Lindstrom packed up and left home – or at least the one she’d lived in for 20 years – WNBC-TV.
She did what very few women who’ve made it to TV in a major city would have the guts to do: She went home. Literally. To her own apartment to regain a sense of herself.
Now, four years later, she’s back with a whole new life. In March she quietly walked back onto a set – this time on Fox’s “Good Day New York” as their theater reviewer – and may branch out into movie reviews as well.
But not before she changes her life even more: This summer she’ll marry her longtime beau, attorney Jack Carley.
Why so long gone from the tube?
“I had a rest, a break,” she said. “Sometimes you just need to lay fallow. I spent the time doing the things I’d always wanted to do but just couldn’t. I took classes – writing, painting, even jazz dance classes.”
“I discovered there is life after TV,” she laughed.
“And guess what? There are plenty of people who still like you, even if you don’t have an association linked to your name. You know, like ‘Pia Lindstromchannelfour or
Pia Lindstromtheatercritic.”
“I’m forever grateful to WNBC,” she said from her new location at “Good Day.”
“They sent my kids to school! I had so many wonderful years there. But when they offered me another contract, I decided not to take it.
“I think I’d done all I could at that point. I needed some time off to be with my kids, my friends,” she said.
So why did she decide to go back in front of the camera? “For one thing, I’ve worked with many of the people before, Jim Ryan and the producer, Gail Yancosek. And I missed the camaraderie of the workplace. You kind of just miss the belonging, the warp and woof of the city.”
Man! I wish I talked like that!
But Lindstrom does have an upbringing advantage over most of us. Or so it seems to an outsider.
As you probably know, she is the daughter of two-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman, and the sister of Isabella Rossellini.
Can you imagine having the legendary Bergman for a mother? I mean, what do you say, “Hey, Ma! You ruined my best sweatpants in the wash?”
But life wasn’t a walk in the park for her, either.
For one thing, there was that scandal. In case you got stuck in the isolation booth of “The $64,000 Question” in the ’50s, you know that Bergman had a child with director Roberto Rossellini while still married to Dr. Peter Lindstrom.
“When your mother is alternately idolized and condemned at different times in your life by the same people, people you don’t even know, it takes a great deal of sorting out,” she said.
“We talked about it, but as adults. You can talk it out and even explain, but it doesn’t change it. You need to become an adult yourself, make mistakes, to understand.
“When your mother declares her loyalty to another country and another man, it’s much more complicated.
“I felt different as a child, as though everyone was staring at me. Was that accurate? I will never know.
“What I’ve discovered now though, is that everyone feels slightly different. It’s part of growing up and just growing.”
Lindstrom’s going to be doing some more growing this summer when she gets hitched to Carley, whom she’s known for 12 years.
Will they be planning a big breakout, Hamptons-type extravaganza now that they’ve bought a home out there?
“Hardly!” she said “Just a cozy gathering. Just family.” Then she paused.
“Of course when you have seven siblings – three Rossellinis, and four Lindstroms – parents, kids, Significant Others, it’s 40 people!”