Rebecca De Mornay and Hillary

I can't make up my mind as to whether I first came to like Hillary Clinton because I thought she resembled Rebecca De Mornay, or I became interested in Rebecca De Mornay because something about her reminded me of Hillary Clinton.

Those multitudes with taste inferior to mine will be amazed and disdainful to hear of such a match-up.

This linkage is partly explained when you hear that I first became aware of Rebecca De Mornay when I saw a film in which she played the most alluring trial attorney that I have ever seen, in a movie, and certainly that would also go for the millions of real trials that it has been my overwhelmingly great good fortune never to have seen. Part of that effect was achieved by the simple, sheer dress that her character wore, in place of the usual business suit or some such -- a garb belted at her waist in such a way as to memorably suggest the virtues of her anatomy, which, at De Mornay's current age of 45, seem to be present in almost exactly the same quietly harmonious proportions.

I don't remember the name of that film or anything else about it. It could have been "Guilty as Sin," made in 1993, with Don Johnson.

I was also struck by her presence in "By Dawn's Early Light" (1990), in which she collaborated with Powers Boothe in piloting an Air Force B-52 and narrowly avoiding a nuclear apocalypse.

I might add that I also think Rebecca De Mornay has the most beguiling name in all of filmdom, approached only by that of Lolita Davidovitch, who just happens to rival her closely in many other key respects as well.

But in recent years I haven't seen Rebecca De Mornay in much, and I hope that she isn't having to struggle to free herself from that terrible La Brea-type acting tarpit that has engulfed so many so-called "older actresses" just when they are, in fact, entering their prime of everything. I last saw her in the highly bizarre HBO series of last year, "John from Cincinnati," and that was troubling. In it she played an endlessly irascible grandmother, if you can believe it. I didn't, and I was deeply disturbed by the fact that her character, Cissy, was scarcely allowed to be on the screen even for one second without being totally pissed off about something. It was intensely jarring and discordant also because De Mornay still endlessly looked great.

Recently Rebecca De Mornay was arraigned on a charge of drunk driving.

The L.A. cops seem to be having a field day lately, grabbing showbiz figures for drunk driving. That is no surprise. Drunk driving is such an easy and tempting crime to commit, and if what I've read is true and that at any given time, one in every 25 drivers on the road has had one too many, then there must be many more Hollywood figures tooling dangerously around on the freeways who haven't been similarly nabbed.

I have to admit that if I was an L.A. cop in a cruiser car and I saw Rebecca De Mornay weaving about in a machine, I'd stop her, too, partly for her own protection, but mainly just to see what she would have to say for herself. Surely she was only charged because when the cop flagged her down, she flipped out and, having still not recovered enough from having immersed herself so thoroughly in the role, she was powerless to stop from going back into character for "John from Cincinnati."

I hope that soon a movie will be made about Hillary Clinton (with Big Dog tagging along). There shouldn't be any doubt whatsoever about the best person to play her.