David Duchovny Files a Return

David Duchovny could cheat and spend the rest of his career doing what comes easiest. ''I know I can write well,'' he says. ''My acting, I need people to tell me I'm good.'' (Well, not always: ''I remember a Kevin Sorbo quote that went something like 'Yeah, I read for Fox Mulder and I think I'd have done a better job.' I was like, 'F--- him, I'm much better for Mulder.''')

He's told friends he doesn't really want to act and won't act forever, but, as fellow career hyphenate Bonnie Hunt points out, it can ''be invigorating to do something you feel insecure about. It's a good feeling to walk over the coals quickly and get to the other side.'' And most likely Duchovny will follow a path similar to hers, juggling writing, directing, and acting. ''I'd love to work with Garry on something,'' he says. ''He told me Dennis Miller said Garry and I and Jeff Goldblum and Warren Beatty should do a remake of Ocean's Eleven because we're all kind of the same, variations on the same thing. But I think it's already being remade.'' (Indeed it is, with Clooney and Julia Roberts. There's always Robin and the Seven Hoods.)

Membership in a Rat Pack for the 21st century — there are worse fates. And let's face it, stardom has its privileges. In May, Duchovny will be one of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's first celeb contestants (''I hope they dumb down the questions for the dumb celebrities,'' he says with unnecessary modesty, having ''kicked ass'' on the far more challenging Celebrity Jeopardy!). And last year, the brainy stud's charms were extolled in Bree Sharp's minor pop hit ''David Duchovny [Why Won't You Love Me?],'' which spawned a video starring a slew of random celebrities. ''I was like, 'Oh my God, Pam Anderson knows who I am?''' he says, before confessing to a mild case of egomania. ''There were moments when I was listening to the song in my car and singing along and I'd think, What if somebody catches me? I'd roll the window up so I could play my own little song in my own little world.''

(Additional reporting by Lynette Rice and Brian M. Raftery)