Free Association With TV's Funny Ladies

To hear these leading Emmy contenders tell it, the offscreen life of a comedy actress isn't too far from what audiences see every week on the small screen: equal parts pratfalls, a you-go-girl attitude and a willingness to do anything (even a fellatio scene with Woody Allen) for a laugh. Gathered at the Hollywood Tower in Los Angeles on May 7, these seven actresses -- Christina Applegate (NBC's Up All Night), 40; Julie Bowen (ABC's Modern Family), 42; Laura Dern (HBO's Enlightened), 45; Zooey Deschanel (Fox's New Girl), 32; Julia Louis-Dreyfus (HBO's Veep), 51; Jane Lynch (Fox's Glee), 51; and Martha Plimpton (Fox's Raising Hope), 41 -- reveal the moments they first knew they were funny, the topic that makes them most angry, how they cope with invasions of privacy and where they would retreat if their acting careers ended tomorrow.