HOLLYWOOD -- Forget what some astronomers might say, French Stewart knows the planets are in perfect alignment.

His hit TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun is going into its fourth season; he has a new wife and stepson; a new house at Big Sur and he's the star of the unromatic comedy Love Stinks that opens Friday.

"My life is a cakewalk. It's all about fatigue. I can't call what I'm doing work," says Stewart, who plays spaced-out alien Harry Solomon on 3rd Rock.

"I was 19 when I came to Los Angeles. I'm 35 now and 3rd Rock was my first big break. Not only is it a quality show, it pays great."

Stewart, who hails from Albuquerque, N.M., fell into acting by accident: "In my senior year of high school, I was drafted into a speech meet. Our team eventually went to the finals and I was awarded a scholarship."

While he was studying speech, Stewart worked at a western wear store.

"It was my job to stamp people's names on the back of the fancy belts they bought. I warned the manager I was a bit dyslexic. He believed me when I managed to turn the Bs the wrong way on Bob."

The following year, Stewart headed for L.A. He can laugh now at the succession of ignominious jobs he had to take before he even got extra work on movies and in television.

"My worst was working at a huge grocery store. I was the garbage boy. It was my job to get into rain boots and rain coat and stomp down the garbage in the dumpster so they could pile in more."

Eventually he got work as a party clown.

"Small kids are afraid of you and the big kids love to spit, kick and pinch you. Your dignity takes a walk really fast but you keep telling yourself it's an acting job."

All Stewart's auditioning finally paid off and he got work as a regular on The New WKRP in Cincinnati and began guesting on shows such as Seinfeld, Mad TV and The Larry Sanders Show. He also nabbed small roles in such films as Broken Arrow, McHale's Navy, Leaving Las Vegas and Stargate.

On the 96th episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun which brought last year's season to a close, Harry discovered that he'd fathered a child with an Earth woman.

"I don't know where things are going to go with the baby and I have no idea what it's going to look like. The logistics of things like that are too boggling for little old me.

"I just trust in the writers."

Like his alter ego Harry, Stewart found true love on 3rd Rock when he met and married actress Catherine Lanasa.

"Catherine played the woman who first introduced Harry to human sex. We soon discovered we had more chemistry than the characters we were playing."

For Stewart meeting Lanasa was relationship bliss. In Love Stinks, he explores the opposite.

Stewart plays Seth Winnick a successful TV sit com writer, who thinks he's found the perfect woman when he meets Chelsea Turner (Bridgette Wilson) at a friend's wedding.

At first, everything about Chelsea is heavenly but when Seth balks at her suggestion that they get engaged he learns she's a devil in disguise.

"I've had my share of freak-out scenes in relationships. Some were even wilder than what happens in our movie. I think most people can empathize... ."

Jeff Franklin, who wrote and directed Love Stinks, admits that "every studio on the planet passed on the script and I couldn't get funding to do it as an independent movie until Stewart agreed to star.

"The money came in because French came in."

This past summer, Stewart teamed up with the Sesame Street gang for the TV special CinderElmo in which he plays the prince.

"I start out as the household dog and get transformed into the prince by Oliver Platt, who plays the fairy godfather. Keri Russell (Felicity) is Cinderella."

Stewart will also be heard this season as the voice of Bob on the animated series God, the Devil and Bob.


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