HOLLYWOOD -- Pictures don't lie, but they don't necessarily tell the whole truth.

 The photo of Calista Flockhart in the backless Tyler gown at last year's Emmy Awards opened a Pandora's Box of speculation.

 Headlines blazed the assumption that Flockhart was suffering from the eating disorder anorexia.

 This past weekend, Flockhart met with entertainment journalists to promote A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Shakespeare comedy she filmed last year in Italy with Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Kline, Rupert Everett and Stanley Tucci.

 Dressed in a black pantsuit, Flockhart was luminous.

 Her big eyes sparkled and she punctuated responses with a sweet, demure smile.

 Still, she could be feisty when she wished to deflect a question.

 There's no question Flockhart is thin, but she is neither frail nor emaciated and, without a hint of makeup, her skin glows.

 "If I were unhealthy, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing," explains Flockhart, referring to her gruelling 14-hour days on the popular TV series Ally McBeal.

 She also points out that to play one of the young lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream, she had to "fly to Italy and work for two days on Dream and then fly back to L.A. to work for two weeks on Ally McBeal."

 Flockhart insists that she has finally found peace with herself, her body image and the supermarket publications -- but at a price.

 "When the first stories came out, I was shocked and I was afraid they would damage my career. The stories succeeded in making me terrified. For a time, I was skeptical and I was vigilant.

 "I was afraid to be seen in public and I was afraid to say anything for fear of how it would be twisted."

 In retrospect, Flockhart blames her naivete for her reaction.

 "I had only been in Los Angeles for a year. I knew nothing about the business. I was a complete neophyte. I was not used to the kind of scrutiny that happens when you are on a hit TV series."

 She was understandably hurt because so many of the stories held her up to ridicule. But there was additional pain.

 "The stories began to detract from all the hard work we were all doing on the show," she says.

 Viewers weren't concentrating on the stories.

 They were looking at Flockhart to see if there was any credibility to the stories.

 Flockhart eventually found the strength and the will to fight back.

 "From the beginning, I had incredible support from friends, family and all my co-workers on Ally McBeal. That definitely helped.

 "But I also needed inner strength and it happened. I'm not sure exactly when or how but I got strong enough to ignore the (paparazzi) and just be who I am.

 "I'm happy with who I am and that's all that should ever matter. All the rest is irrelevant."

 At first when she stared down her accusers, they fought back with even more ridiculous and hurtful stories.

 "They wrote stories that said I had become so obsessive about food that even my dog Webster had become anorexic."

 There were also stories that Ally McBeal's creator David E. Kelley was leaving his wife Michelle Pfeiffer for Flockhart.

 "It was most unthinkable and unforgivable when they started involving friends in these attacks on me."


More Artists