HOLLYWOOD -- These network parties are a killer.

Sure, you get to schmooze with big-shot celebrities and network executives. But you try balancing a plate of gourmet food, a fruity Crantini and a tape recorder all at the same time. Sometimes two Crantinis.

ABC threw their annual all-star party Tuesday night at the Hollywood Highlands, a rooftop night spot right next to the famous Chinese Theater. Inside was a room full of talent, publicists and network handlers all just dying to meet themselves. Like all the parties down here, reporters work the room with tape or digital recorders trolling for sound bites. You need strong, steady arms to lunge past the shoulder of the guy from Albany, N.Y., or to reach around the Chicago critic. The star clusters get so crowded that sometimes you can't hear what was said until you play the tape back later.

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Fortunately, I got right next to Carla Gugino, or, as I like to call to her, the next Mrs. Brioux. Best known as the secret-agent mom on those Spy Kids films, she stars this fall in Karen Sisco, a new ABC thriller spun off from Jennifer Lopez' Out Of Sight.

Gugino wore a drop-dead gorgeous black number with a neckline that plunged so deep maintaining eye contact became an Olympic qualifier.

Gugino first came on the radar after playing Michael J. Fox's spunky girlfriend in the first few episodes of Spin City. After a fun and flirty pilot (I can still see happy Fox poking his head under her jersey), Gugino disappeared, leading to speculation that Fox's wife, Tracy Pollin, told him to get rid of the little hussy.

"There were all these sort of speculations," says Gugino, but it really came down to the producers and the actress seeing more potential in the office -- where there were so many other characters and storylines -- than in the bedroom. "I think it was one of those honest growing pains of a show."

Later, listening to the curvy Florida native on my recorder, I was struck but how sharp and articulate she sounded. At the time, I was more struck by how even her tan was on at least 90% of her front upper body area.

Gugino's TV co-star, Robert Forster (so brilliant in Jackie Brown), who plays her dad on Karen Sisco, knows where his bread is buttered. "She had the hardest job," he said. "I worked on the railroad, I worked as an iron worker and nothing is as hard as carrying a television show."


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