By BRUCE KIRKLAND --

HOLLYWOOD -- Alicia Silverstone, the flaxen-haired, pouty-mouthed, 18-year-old actress who is one of the hottest new things in Hollywood, calls what is happening to her "the craziness of this!"

When she is asked what "this" is, she giggles and shrugs it off saying: "I don't know!"

But "this" is the collected energy of millions of hormonally challenged guy geeks who are using cyberspace to download her image for purposes of fan worship and fantasy overload. That puts Silverstone in the same league as Drew Barrymore - which is a worrisome thought.

"This" is also the kinetic and sexually charged image she generated by making her movie debut in The Crush, a movie adults ignored but teens embraced as a cult religion. At the MTV Movie Awards, Silverstone won two awards, one for best villain and the other for best breakthrough performance, smashing Oscar nominee Ralph Fiennes for Schindler's List. Ironically, Silverstone doesn't even watch MTV herself; and she also prefers David Bowie and Sinead O'Connor to bands like Aerosmith, although she admires them.

But reinforcing the "babe" image were three Aerosmith videos - Cryin', Amazing and Crazy - which featured Silverstone as a sensual creature and as an empowered teenager. Even her screamfest in the bizarre horror film Hideaway clinched her as an incendiary young thing.

Now, in Clueless (opening Friday), a hip new teen flick from Fast Times At Ridgemont High director Amy Heckerling, she reinforces the sexual stereotype - by dressing in provocative Lolita-like fashions - but flips it sideways and backwards - by remaining a true innocent.

Heck, her character Cher is, in the parlance of the movie, "hymenally challenged." Which means she's a virgin - and proud of it. At the same time, she can act impulsive and worldly. Cher is, again in the language Heckerling has unearthed for the movie, "a hottie!" Which is defined as "a gorgeous girl" or simply "a babe."

The strangest part of this tale is that Silverstone herself is more the innocent than the tart. She prefers sweatpants and sweaters to body-hugging dresses and flesh-revealing fashions. As clued in as she obviously is - Silverstone is involved in all her own business decisions - she is also very much the sweetnatured, warm-hearted teenager her character turns out to be by the end of Clueless. Which is not at all what her hot-blooded young fans will want to hear. But it is the key to understanding how Silverstone might escape the fate of the Drew Barrymores of the world. The pressures of fame turned Barrymore into an alcoholic - before puberty.

"My mom taught me, right away, my principles," Silverstone waxes poetic at one point in a rambling but rather poignant interview. These principles, gleaned from the wisdom of her mother, include: "Appreciating and loving and giving and being kind to animals." Silverstone offers this without a trace of irony or sarcasm. Take it at face value. "I had a very earthbound upbringing," she adds, beaming.

When she discusses Cher's virginity in the movie, as well as her dismissal of students who overdo drugs, especially at school, Silverstone radiates more warmth: "I think that's great! Young people will go and have a great time and then when they walk out they'll have this subtle bang over the head about drugs and sex."

The trick, says the young actress, is that Heckerling doesn't turn Clueless into a simplistic message movie telling teens not to do drugs or have sex. That message would just be ignored. "I know that, with the kids I grew up with, anyone who was told `no' was doing everything and everyone who was given freedom was fine." Freedom with limits, of course, and that's what Silverstone had growing up in the San Francisco Bay area with sojourns to her parents' home country of England.

Now, speaking of sex, Silverstone doesn't. Speak of it, that is. She denies even having a "sexpot" image, or at least being aware of it. "I'm actually a very sheltered girl," she told US magazine this month. "I really don't know that much about sex."

Today she tells me that her innocence applies to Clueless too: "I'm never ever trying to be sexy in the film as Cher. That's not important." Even Cher's sexy wardrobe is simply a fashion choice, not a come-on. "I don't think she knows. It just happens to be fashionable and she just happens to be the most perfect girl in the world. It's not her fault that she looks good in the clothes."

So maybe it's not Silverstone's fault that Hollywood image-makers have exploited her sensual side, without her knowing. "I don't think I've ever had a sexpot role," she says in all earnestness. It's just a media-made image, she claims. "I don't think it was accurate because, even in the Aerosmith video Cryin', I don't think I'm ever being sexy in the video. I think it's just a girl that kids really relate to because she's just toughin' it out, you know. It opens an awareness for a strength in teenagers. They're to be taken seriously. There's a lot of smart kids out there and, in this video, it was just attractive.

"And every character I've done has been so different. I'm not really concerned about what my image is and what my next movie is going to be. Because I don't think I have an image. I'm just doing my work and being who I am. I feel normal. I don't feel crazy right now!"


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