August 14, 1999
Graham's a tough cookie
By STEVE TILLEY
NEW YORK -- Whether she likes it or not, Heather Graham's sex symbol status is carved in stone. Oddly enough, she seems to be pretty much OK with that.

While some actresses might bemoan the price of fame - the autograph seekers, the paparazzi, the journalists exposing the skeletons in their closets - Graham shrugs it off with a surprisingly girlish grin and giggle.

Thanks to her role as CIA agent Felicity Shagwell in Mike Myers' Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Graham's profile has never been higher - or her face (and body) more in demand for magazine photo shoots.

With her biggest previous movie part being that of the porn star Rollergirl in the critically lauded indie flick Boogie Nights, Graham says Austin Powers has her dealing with a whole different kind of exposure.

"Little kids recognize me, which is really funny, because I never really had that," says Graham. "I don't think a lot of kids saw Boogie Nights."

Still, Graham admits playing sexually liberated women is more fun - "depending on the movie you're making" - than buttoned-down prims.

Thus she didn't have much trouble stepping into the shoes of Daisy, the oversexed wannabe actress looking for a break in Bowfinger, starring Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy. It opened yesterday.

Bowfinger, directed by Frank Oz (In & Out), is the story of a failed film producer (Martin) who decides to trick a big-name actor (Murphy) into becoming the star of his ultra-low-budget film.

Graham's Daisy, fresh off the bus from the Midwest, proves to be surprisingly adept at sleeping her way to a better role in the movie, going through everyone from the camera operator to the director.

While Graham, needless to say, would never stoop to such behaviour (unless you count her part in the upcoming Irish cop flick by her boyfriend, actor/filmmaker Edward Burns), she knows those who have.

One Daisy-esque young starlet, eager to land parts, would ask if she could read with the casting director instead of the assigned reader during auditions.

And if there was a kissing scene, she'd throw herself into it wholeheartedly. Tongue and all.

"I think she got a few jobs off of it, too," says Graham, refusing to identify the culprit.

"You almost have to admire her, she's so audacious."

In her own career, Graham is trying to balance out high-profile silliness like Austin Powers with smaller, more demanding dramatic roles. She recently finished shooting Committed, in which she plays a young wife who refuses to believe her marriage is over, even after her husband dumps her.

Boyfriend Burns, who wrote and directed The Brothers McMullen and starred in Saving Private Ryan, also plans to act in his latest project, about Irish cops who refuse to give in to the temptation of corruption. Graham will play Burns's character's girlfriend, who later becomes his wife.

Graham confesses she had never seen Burns's movies until after they started dating, though she's not sure he's seen all of her films, either.

"I think he might have watched Boogie Nights again," says Graham. "The other night, Lost In Space was on and I'm like, 'Ahhhh! Don't watch it!' "

A critical and box-office bomb, Lost In Space taught Graham a lesson - in a special-effects movie, a solid script is the foundation everything else must be built on.

"I think if you do a science fiction movie or a movie with a lot of effects, that you want to make sure you're just dying to do it, and it's a great story.

"Otherwise you're just sitting around for days doing nothing, waiting to say one line while they do an effect on a blue screen."