This fall, Vanessa Williams joins NBC's Boomtown for 10 episodes as policewoman Katherine Pierce. And here's some "TV News" scoop from the current issue of TV Guide magazine: The ex-Miss America shares a same-sex smooch with Rebecca DeMornay, who will be recurring as lesbian jewel thief Sabrina. So does that mean Katherine's gay, straight or just a little bicurious, perhaps?

We're sworn to secrecy, so you'll have to watch and see! Surprisingly, Williams wasn't even aware of any sapphic seduction plot when she came aboard. "The show appealed to me," the 40-year-old actress says. "I signed on, not even knowing what I was going to do and what my character was. So I put myself right in the heat of things, and I trusted [executive producers Graham Yost and Jon Avnet] to do what they do best, which is make exciting television."

You'll note Ms. Williams no longer requires an "L" initial in her credits. She once had to use it because of that other Vanessa Williams (Melrose Place, Soul Food). Not anymore.

"I think it went to [Screen Actors Guild] arbitration," she explains. "And since we were both famous, and I had established myself for over 10 years as Vanessa Williams, and there was another actress named Vanessa Williams, they decided that I could be Vanessa Williams and she could be Vanessa Williams. So it's up to the viewer to decide which one is me and which one is her."

Turns out, the two Vanessas were causin' confusion long before they landed TV careers. Back in the '80s, both ladies applied to the same musical theater program at New York University, which led to some head scratching among the school's admissions officers. "So I knew there was another Vanessa Williams out there since I was 18 years old," she shrugs. "I still haven't met her, but we're both actresses from New York."