When Tammy Faye Messner was Tammy Faye Bakker, she helped build the three largest Christian television networks in the world: CBN (The Christian Broadcasting Network) with Pat Robertson, TBN (The Trinity Broadcasting Network) with Paul Crouch, and PTL (Praise The Lord) network with husband Jim Bakker. Shortly after launching PTL in 1974, the Bakkers found themselves heading a televangelist empire, hosting popular network programs and receiving millions of dollars in member contributions.

Then the empire fell apart; Jerry Fallwell ousted the Bakkers from PTL after Jim Bakker’s affair with Jessica Hahn was revealed, and Jim went to prison for fraud. Tammy Faye was left to battle cancer, depression and prescription drug addiction alone.

Years later, the remarried Tammy Faye Messner made a comeback, writing I Gotta Be Me and Run Towards The Roar, as well as her recently completed autobiography, Tammy: Telling It My Way. In addition to recording more than 25 albums of songs, she has hosted the television show “Tammy Faye’s House Party” and 1996’s “Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show” with Jim J. Bullock. She is a minister of the gospel, ministering in churches around the nation, and presently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband, Rob Messner.

Tammy Faye’s quirky career highlights and fondness for mascara have made her a common pop culture reference and a gay icon. In 2000, a documentary called The Eyes of Tammy Faye was released. Narrated by Ru Paul, the film is a campy, sympathetic portrait of Tammy Faye’s rises and falls in the public spotlight. In the film, named Best Documentary of 2000 by the Boston Society of Film Critics, Tammy Faye comes across as a cheerful and irrepressible survivor of many calamities.

After a twelve-day stint on WB’s “The Surreal World,” she will visit Current Affairs bookstore in San Diego to sign copies of her new memoir, I Will Survive… And You Can, Too!

Tammy Faye Messner: No, no, I wasn’t shopping for makeup. I went to the Burlington Coat Factory and I got a fake leather jacket, which cost me 10 bucks. It’s awesome. You cannot tell it’s fake at all — because if I can’t tell, nobody’s going to be able to tell.

TFM: Well, I’ve always been a bargain hunter. In fact, way back when they had CB radios [in cars and trucks] my [call] name was “Bargain Hunter.”

TFM: The book company came to me and asked me if I would write a book. So I just sat down and began to write. I typed it on my old-fashioned typewriter, and I wrote it off and on for about eight months.… I felt like my heart was pouring through my fingers as I typed. I really did.

[The book] is kind of my journey of survival and I’m teaching other people how to survive when everything’s been taken; everything is gone and you’ve got to start again — how do you survive that? I learned how to survive it, because you have to when people are dying all around you — you know, my best friend, my sister and my Dad all died around the same time. And I thought I was going to die. I had to learn how to survive when death becomes a part of your life, which at my age it does.

So I talk about grief and how to survive grief. I talk about how to survive all of the major things that happen to you in life, because all the major things have happened to me; I’ve had cancer; I’ve been where most people have yet to go. I’ve been to the top and I’ve been to the bottom and now I’ve ended up somewhere in the middle, which I’m very happy with. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.

The book is full of fun tips — it has makeup tips in it, it has tips on fun things to do with nail polish. They have nail polish now in every single color that you can imagine. I mean, I went out and fixed a scratch on our car with nail polish. When my shoes get scuffed I fix them with nail polish. I fix everything with nail polish. If you’ve got scratches on just about anything you can find nail polish that will [fix it]. And you can decorate everything with nail polish. If your jewelry is one color and you don’t like it and it is just [costume] jewelry, paint it with nail polish the color you need it.

[The book also] has some fun recipes in it.

TFM: I think that idle hands are the Devil’s workshop [laughs]. Of course it got me through it. I think that when you’re going through depression, to stay busy is the healthiest thing in the world for you. I was always taught to stay busy. When you’re depressed and you don’t know what to do, just get something and start doing it.

I’ve been making cigar box purses. I string the beads and put the hole in the cigar box, and I glue things on it and I cover it with stuff that will protect it all. I make the most awesome cigar box purses you’ve ever seen. Everybody says, “Why don’t you sell them?” I don’t sell them because I have more fun giving them away to my friends.

GLT: Are you looking forward to “The Surreal World?”

TFM: I’m excited about it and I’m nervous about it, you know, because [of] being in a mansion with six people that [I’ve] never met. The difficult part will be being away from my husband, my dogs, my grandkids and my kids for twelve days. Being out in an unfamiliar place — they won’t let you have credit cards, they won’t let you have any cash, you can’t have a cell phone. I think it’s a challenge for me at my age — I hope I’m up to it and I won’t be the most boring person on the planet.

TFM: I’m getting ready to do my own television show, which I’m really excited about. It’s just a chance to get back with the people again. I love being with the people. It’s what I think I was born to do, because television is really easy for me — I’ve been doing it for 35 years. It will be great to get back to where I belong, where I feel most comfortable. It’s going to be called The Tammy Faye Show….

The reason I want to get back on TV is because I think television is literally destroying the minds of our young people. These reality shows are making fun of people; they’re making fools out of people. I think they’re destroying lives, and I think it’s a very sad thing when our country has to go to something like that in order to be entertained. That seems to be what it takes now — the more shock value, the more entertainment. And I think that’s a horrible thing. I think it’s a sign of what is happening in our country. That people have to see somebody hurt or embarrassed; they have to see somebody groveling.

Yes, I’m going to be on a reality show, but I hope I am going to be light on the show, rather than darkness.

TFM: Well, I can’t hardly believe it. I’ve always loved the gay community. I think they’re the most talented people that have ever lived. I think they’re some of the kindest people that I’ve ever met, and I care about them deeply. I’m very honored that they would choose to care about me, too, because we’ve really agreed to disagree on the gay issue. They know my feelings on the gay issue. And yet I say, we’ve agreed to disagree.

I think that if the Christian churches would be fair with the gay community, then the gay community could accept the Christian churches — if the Christian churches would accept them. I think that it is sad that so many of our churches will not accept the gay community because there is just a misunderstanding there. What I’m trying to do is say, “Hey, we’re all just people.” We all live in this world and we all have a right to choose. I’m trying to educate both worlds about what it takes to get along together.

TFM: I don’t have to reconcile anything. Everybody has the choice to do what they want to do. I don’t have to reconcile that in my mind. I live one day at a time. I do my part and I try to help other people, and I try to educate people in the process.

TFM: Oh my lands, all the time. I do a lot of AIDS benefits, here in Charlotte and other places, too. I think that is very important. I am surprised that I don’t get to do a lot of benefits because I would love to; I have done every benefit anyone’s ever asked me to do. When I care about a cause, I truly care about it.

My heart is open for teenagers; that’s where I want to go with my life — helping the youth of America. I think what young people want today is just someone to be honest with them, for someone not to feed them just a bunch of crap. Somebody to just tell it like it is, and say, listen, kids, if you do it this way it will help, and if you don’t, I still love you. They need unconditional love and understanding from the older adults, which I don’t think they’re getting.

Tammy Faye Messner will be signing copies of I Will Survive… And You Can, Too! Saturday, Nov. 1 at 3:00 p.m. Admission is free. Call Current Affairs bookstore at (619) 795-9899 for details.