JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU’VE SEEN THE LAST OF SHELIA

She’s the woman you love to hate on not one but two soaps. “I was worried when they had Sheila steal the baby and then try to kill her own mother,” says Kimberlin Brown (Sheila on both “The Bold and Beautiful” and “The Young and the Restless). “I figured this is it, it’s time to look for another job. Then Bill Bell told me, ‘Don’t worry.’ Of course, actors always worry. But Bill really did have something up his sleeve.”

Is it hard going from one soap set to another?

“Nope. First, they’re in the same building. It’s like having two soap families. Sometimes I fear walking onto the wrong set.”

“Working with John McCook is a dream,” says Brown, referring to the actor who plays her character’s latest target; Sheila’s in love with Eric Forrester. “He’s so funny and very sexy. When Tracey Recht (Lauren on “The Young and the Restless”) crosses over, everyone says, ‘Here comes the terrible twosome.’ He laughs a lot.”

Since actors have to justify the most heinous deeds in order to play a character, how does one deal with the fact that Sheila has murdered, kidnaped, blackmailed, rigged genetic birth tests and given her mother more grief than Ma Barker’s sons?

“I try to play Sheila as someone desperate for love. She’ll do anything to get that love and keep it. Sheila is very insecure and she can’t believe a man would love her just for herself. In the beginning, when Sheila was in love with Scott, she was a good person ... I think. Then she felt scorned. She wants to be a good person, but her past and insecurity keep getting in the way. She’s never with a man she doesn’t love. I think she’s a case of ‘what I did for love,’ although what she does is the wrong thing.

“At home, my husband and I laugh about what Sheila did. But underneath it’s really sad. If Sheila could have anything in the world, I would wish she could have someone who loves her and make her feel secure in that love. But I know that security comes from within, not from someone outside yourself.”

“The Young and the Restless” airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on CBS; “The Bold and the Beautiful” airs weekdays at 12:30 p.m. on CBS.