Lahti's career takes comedic turn with 'Women vs. Men'

PASADENA, Calif.--Christine Lahti felt her career needed somelaughs.

"I wanted to do a comedy desperately," says the actress,explaining her choice of "Women vs. Men," a farce about maritalerrors and misunderstandings.

The Showtime movie provided a sharp contrast to the "dramatic andintense" CBS film "The Pilot's Wife," in which she starred lastApril.

But although "Women vs. Men" is "frothy and fun," Lahti says itdoes explore real issues that can arise in long-term marriages, "sothere are some painful things you have to access even though it's acomedy."

In "Women vs. Men," which premieres at 7 p.m. Sunday, Lahti playsDana, whose husband, Michael (played by Joe Mantegna), seeks whatLahti calls the "false intimacy" of a strip club as a tonic after aquarrel at home. Paul Reiser and Glenne Headly play another couplealso affected by philandering.

Writer David J. Burke developed the farce through a series ofinformal readings with Lahti and other actors, reworking scenes andtweaking dialogue as they went along. Lahti says that allowed her to"flesh out [Dana] a little more, to make it seem that it was aspecific time in her life, not just a general mid-life crisis."

The movie marks the screen directing debut of actor ChazzPalminteri, who says he appreciated Lahti's extra effort.

"With Christine, we would say, 'You know, that was really great,'but Christine would say, 'Let me go a little further.' And I wouldsay, 'Go a little further,' " Palminteri says.

Chatting in a Pasadena hotel, where she looks elegantly at ease inan amber and gold flower-patterned sheath dress, Lahti says bothsexes behave in "a very adolescent way" in the movie.

"What unites them all is a common need to be loved, to feel adoredin their marriage, and like many of us they don't know how to ask forit, they don't know how to get it, they don't know how to give it,"she says.

Lahti, 52, has been married for nearly two decades to directorThomas Schlamme, an Emmy winner for his work on several series,including "The West Wing."

"It takes common sense. It takes communication," she says of hermarriage--qualities that are missing from the relationships in "Womenvs. Men."

The desire to be in Los Angeles with her three children ofteninfluences Lahti's career choices.

"Women vs. Men" was filmed in California, but she did travel toLithuania earlier this year to play the lead role in a Showtimemovie, to air next year, about Gisella Perl, a doctor forced to workin Nazi concentration camps.

Probably best known for her Emmy-winning role as Dr. Kate Austinfrom 1995-99 on CBS' medical drama "Chicago Hope," Lahti thinks itunlikely she'll return to the demanding schedule of series televisionwhile her children are still young.

She says she's sometimes mistaken now for Allison Janney, whoplays White House press secretary C.J. Cregg on NBC's "The WestWing."

"I can always tell because they say, 'I love your show,' asopposed to, 'I loved your show,' " Lahti laughs. "Never in a millionyears do I think we look alike, but we are both tall and have redhair, I guess."

The first role Lahti remembers playing was "a tree" in a grade-school play in her hometown of Birmingham, Mich.

"I don't remember what the tree did or whether it had any lines,"she quips.

In sixth grade, she played the Virgin Mary in a Christmas pageantand was hooked on acting.

She survived stints as a waitress in New York and much "Off-Off-Off Broadway" theater before attracting Hollywood attention oppositeAl Pacino in l979's "... And Justice For All." She was nominated fora supporting actress Oscar for 1984's "Swing Shift."

Also a director, she won the 1996 Live Action Short Oscar for theromance "Lieberman in Love," and helmed the 2001 feature film "MyFirst Mister," starring Albert Brooks and Leelee Sobieski.

She finds directing even more satisfying than acting and islooking for another project: "I'm still a student in terms of what todo with the pesky camera, but I know what to do with pesky actors."

AP