HOLLYWOOD -- Madeleine Stowe's list of leading men reads like a Tinseltown's who's who.

She starred opposite Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans, Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis in Twelve Monkeys, Jack Nicholson in The Two Jakes, John Travolta in The General's Daughter and William Hurt in The Proposition.

In the sci-fi thriller Imposter which opens Jan. 4, Stowe adds Gary Sinise to her impressive list.

Stowe plays a physician whose husband (Sinise) is accused of being a robot bomb.

"Gary is a really fantastic actor whose roots were in live theatre. Because my character isn't certain if her husband is a cyborg bomb, Gary chose to keep a lot of himself hidden from me much in the same way his character was doing to mine.

"The thing that impressed me most in our scenes was that I could actually sense Gary's panic and adrenaline. That's how deep he was in his character."

Stowe recently completed filming the Vietnam drama We Were Soldiers in which she plays Mel Gibson's wife.

"Mel is amazing. He doesn't bring any of his star trappings to the set. He's a mega-star but he's not the least bit controlling. He's the first on the set each day and he doesn't hide out in his trailer when he's not needed.

"I was expecting him to be questioning (director) Randall Wallace because Mel is an Oscar-winning director himself, but he didn't. When I talked to him about it he said he'd been hired as an actor and that was the end of it."

Stowe knew Gibson's reputation as a master prankster.

"I got Mel. My second last day on set, I snuck into his trailer and stole his street clothes. He thought some deranged fan had done it and was actually quite nervous. He had resigned himself to the fact he'd have to wear his costume home until I turned up wearing them.

"He loved the joke. I gave him back his clothes but forgot to include his shirt. He was too much of a gentleman to ask so he went home without it."

Stowe also shot the mob comedy Avenging Angelo with Sylvester Stallone.

She plays the estranged daughter of a mobster (Anthony Quinn) who hired Stallone as the bodyguard to watch over her.

"Once again I was completely surprised. Sylvester is so sweet, nice, funny and charming. He was the first to joke about his track record with comedy.

"It was Anthony's last movie. I kept hearing he was losing his voice. The producers and director thought he had serious lyrangitis.

"I have no scenes with him in Avenging Angelo, but we'd worked together in '89 on Revenge so he wanted to meet me. He brought his five-year-old daughter with him. I could see instantly how ill he was. I left our little meeting crying and he died a few weeks later."


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