Busy Briton

For Finola Hughes, the romance-laden, crime-fighting environs of Port Charles are giving way these days to European-set splendor and swashbuckling.

Several days each week, Hughes leaves “General Hospital” to play a 17th-Century duchess (opposite her TV “husband” Ian Buchanan) in John Clifford’s romantic comedy “Losing Venice,” now playing at the West Coast Ensemble Theatre in Hollywood.

Actually, Hughes hasn’t left “GH” to do the play--she’s just added it to her schedule.

“Soaps go 52 weeks a year,” she explains. “We’ve been at the theater till 2 a.m., then I have to get up at 7 (to go to the studio). So I’m taking a lot of vitamins.”

Her soap opera character, straight-shooter Anna Devane, isn’t coping nearly as well.

“I have a bit of a problem--inasmuch as soap opera actresses always have a bit of a problem,” she said. “My husband Duke is with the mob, and I’ve just found out. So I’ve asked him for a legal separation. Lately I’ve been going around looking suitably pained in my dressing gown.”

It’s been five years since Hughes relocated from her native Britain (“All I knew about America were the programs on television; I figured everyone would be like Starsky and Hutch”) and landed the role of the haughty prima ballerina toying with John Travolta in the film “Staying Alive.”

“I loved playing the bad girl,” she said. “There was nothing at all redeeming about that character. Except perhaps her party dresses were redeeming.”

Although Hughes was originally a dancer (she appeared in the London company of “Cats”), dancing is less and less a part of her life. Another thing she’s definitely not spending time on is trying to lose her British accent.

“I can’t do American,” she said. “I’m totally inept. But really, I don’t see the point. (If producers want someone without an accent), there are 60 million American actresses out there.”