The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 38

A38 THE MORNING CALL, SATURDAY. AUGUST 3, 1996 Entertainment' Tr-. I vised a grab of his tush and a handful of lines that turned her walk-on part into a bonafide speaking role. Seeing him at the Golden Globes inspired Drescher once again. "I went over to him he was in the middle of this interview and said, 'Are you as good in bed as you are on the dance recalls Drescher.

"He remembered me instantly, but his wife was clueless that I was doing my line from the movie. Her mouth practically hit the floor." Drescher has that effect on people. She landed her starring role on "The Nanny" by making the most of a first-class seat next to a CBS honcho bound for Paris. "Where was he gonna go, cracks the actress. By the time the duo touched down at Charles De Gaulle Airport, she had snagged the executive's interest.

A little more than a year later, she was starring in her own show as Nanny Fran Fine. "I've always had a lot of chutzpah," acknowledges Drescher. "I hate living with regrets. Very early on, I had an experience where I went up on an audition and I was almost embarrassed to let myself go for it. I was so self-conscious.

I said, 'I'm never going to do it again not in an audition and not in life, because it's worse living with the Born and raised in Queens, Drescher spent most of the early 1980s as "the girl you can't forget in movies you can't remember." She was Mandy Patinkin's wife in "Ragtime" (1981), a publicist from hell in "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984), and the mouthy spouse of Robin Williams in "Cadillac Man" (1990). In "Jack," Drescher does the impossible: She steals scenes away from Williams. The comic plays the title role of a boy aging four times as fast as normal. Drescher is a single mom who's looking for love in all the wrong places. "My character tries DRESCHER Continued From Page A37 Williams in "Jack," opening next week in area theaters.

And she's looking forward to the paperback publication of her best-selling autobiography, "Enter Whining." Drescher isn't whining today. Or is she? Mention the snowballing success of "The Nanny" and Drescher begins moaning about CBS's decision to move her hit series from its cushy 8 p.m. Monday berth to 8 p.m. Wednesday. "Just when I was starting to coast and groove on Monday nights, they're moving us because they want us to bust open a new night," laments the 38-year-old actress, who is decked out for this morning's interview in lime green capri pants, a pink sleeveless shirt, white leather jacket and vinyl sneakers.

"It's a feather in our caps that we were this little engine that could and now they're relying on us. But for us, it's a lot of work. I've got to bust my a to get everyone to switch over to Wednesday nights, but I gotta do it and I'll do it." Drescher's just-do-it attitude can be contagious. On the set of "Jack," director Francis Ford Coppola was impressed with her ability to go toe-to-toe with Robin Williams during improvisations. "She has no angst," says an admiring Coppola.

"No agony. And she's always open to trying something new." Sometimes, Drescher's fearlessness gets her in trouble. Case in point: last year's Golden Globe Awards, where she happened to spot her "Saturday Night Fever" co-star John Travolta across a crowded room. Drescher hadn't spoken to him since 1977, when the duo shared a spin on the dance floor. Back then, she had impro- and always with a great deal of protection, love and compassion." The actress says she has the instincts of a survivor.

"I've always been very enterprising," she smiles. "When I was 5, 1 was writing a children's encyclopedia. I've always had a mind that moved me. I have a Road Runner in my brain." Since the late 1970s, Drescher has lived in Los Angeles with her high-school sweetheart, executive producer Peter Marc Jacobson. The couple will be spending some time apart this autumn when she heads to Prague to finish shooting "Beautician and the Beast." Like "The Nanny," the movie is based on her own original idea and will bear her executive-producer imprint.

"It's a spin on 'The King and L' says Drescher. "I play a beautician who through this mistaken identity thing winds up as a teacher in a formerly Communist Eastern European country that's now trying to democratize and Westernize. They don't know she was once a teacher at a beauty school, and she doesn't know they were once an Iron Block country. Of course my character makes men-sens out of everybody." So far, the idea of traveling to Czechoslovakia has presented Drescher with only one problem. "I have to fly a chef in from Tuscany," she mopes.

"My agent saw one of the menus and was instantly on the phone with Paramount chairwoman Sherry Lansing, saying 'We got to get a chef in for I'm just a diva in the making." Speaking of divas, Drescher can't resist dishing about Elizabeth Taylor, who guest-starred on "The Nanny" last season. It seems that La Liz impressed everyone by sitting still for rounds and rounds of pictures. But when Drescher called for a copy of one of the shots, she was told that Taylor had killed all of the photos unless someone was willing to pay for airbrush-ing. "I asked the guy, 'How much is He said, 'It's $125 to get Miss Taylor retouched. Then you can have the I said, Til give you $250.

Re-touch me He said, 'What do you I said, Til have what Liz is Amy Longsdorf is a free-lance writer. Fran Drescher will star in the film 'Beautician and the which is due out in December. to seduce Jack without realizing his true situation, so it's a little 'Tea and As for reteaming with Williams for the first time since "Cadillac Man," Drescher says, "It was heaven We do the dance really well together. There's a warmth and closeness that we share, which I think comes across on screen" In last year's autobiography, "Enter Whining," which is primarily a light-hearted account of her life, Drescher wrote candidly about her triumph over a 1985 rape. Drescher discussed the incident for the first time on Howard Stern's radio show a couple of years ago.

"More people responded to my interview on 'Howard Stern' than all my other interviews combined, 1:30 9:35 I 7:30 1 NUTTY PROFESSOR (PG) 13. tramp Mpo "A MADLY ENJOYABLE KNOCKOUT!" 7u "OLIVER COMPANY" COURAGE UNDER FIRE GO ft "THE CABLE GUY" PG-13 SAT. 1:20, 3:20, 5:20, 7:20, 9:20 4m HjHWon 437-6065 MOVIE GUIDE FOR FAMILIES "GENERAL AUDIENCES." All ages admitted. PG: PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED." Some material may not be suitable for children. PG-13: PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED.

Some material may be innappropiate for children under 1 3. RESTRICTED. Under 1 7 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. NC-17: NO CHILDREN UNDER 17 ADMITTED. (Age limit may vary in certain areas.) -Motion Picture Association ot America ULUi 3 Sat 7:15 bWOptn 4320S88 3 Lone CSar Cominn intrust lEth 1 tmmi, a rv.u Kit lvui nuj ami GROWN-UPS CAN HOWL AT TOGETHER!" titnlM HOG IV SUTTtf "A Family Classic For All Generations! n.V:.

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