Alyssa Milano covers the June/July issue of Maxim to promote her new ABC show, “Mistresses,” which isn’t doing so well in the ratings, but perhaps some of you have watched it and can make a prediction on whether or not it will survive into a second season. Regardless of her current show’s fate, Alyssa has enjoyed a fruitful, lengthy television career of which most actors can only dream. She started out with several years on “Who’s the Boss?” (which is where my girlcrush started) and then put in eight years as the only real reason to watch “Charmed.” Plus, she’s 40 years old now, and check out this Maxim cover. She’s pretty ageless, right? Even though she’s been hitting the Botox lately, I still think Alyssa’s far less tweaked than most actresses her age and several of those who are much younger. Here are some interview excerpts:

On growing up on camera: “It wasn’t weird, because I didn’t know any different. You know, I went through puberty like everyone else; it only got embarrassing when the show would take what was going on with me and write it into the show, like ‘Samantha’s First Bra.’ It was like, ‘OK, guys, do we really need to do this?’ But what an awesome time stamp!”

On 1980s child stardom: “That was an era when TV child actors just didn’t work after their show was over. I think Christina Applegate and I are the only two who maintained some sort of career path past the shows that launched us. But I have a great family, and I look at a lot of these kids who struggle in the industry and think they’d have struggled no matter what they did.”

On “Mistresses”: “Honestly, after the first few episodes, the title is kind of irrelevant. In the first episode, my character cheats on her husband but the rest of the season is about her dealing with the fallout.”

Here’s a confession — as a pre-teen, I really, really wanted to be Alyssa Milano. That was back when she was dating Corey Haim when he was the next big thing too. Poor Corey met a sad fate, but Alyssa is still going strong. I read somewhere that she still has some of her “Who’s the Boss?” earnings in the bank, which leads me to believe that she’s definitely got her head on straight. Even if her new show doesn’t work out, she’ll be just fine. And this Maxim shoot might be a little bit too shameless to promote a “comeback” role, but it fits the sultry theme of “Mistresses,” I guess. She looks fantastic. What a body.

Photos courtesy of Maxim