The point is, the show is becoming a hit. And that makes the question all the more imperative: Which is it? A groundbreaking postfeminist television anthem for the New Woman of the '90s? Or a giant leap back for all womankind? Even a judge as wily and seasoned as Ally's Whipper (that's Dyan Cannon under those black robes) might have trouble with this one. But maybe the following will help the court of public opinion render a decision.
McBEAL V. THE REAL WORLD (Or does she have the legs to stand on?)
"I embrace everything about Ally," Flockhart says. "Maybe it's because I'm playing the part, but I don't particularly see her as a whiner. One week she's tough, the next she's really weak. I love that. She's human."
It's a drizzly January morning in L.A., and Flockhart, 32, is perched at a patio table outside a coffee joint on Sunset Boulevard. Four months ago, she was a veritable unknown outside New York theater circles (she played Natalya in Three Sisters on Broadway) whose closest brush with Hollywood was a small part in The Birdcage and a couple of high-profile screen tests (she was up for Courtney Love's role in The People vs. Larry Flynt and Cameron Diaz's in My Best Friend's Wedding). Today, she's the subject of nationwide watercooler discussions, the center of the most talked-about show of the season--and, as of last week, the recipient of a shiny new Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy series. She's also become something of a sex symbol, that rarest of all TV anomalies: a brainy babe. Some fans have even suggested a resemblance to Kelley's movie-star wife, Michelle Pfeiffer ("I always feel like I should call up Michelle and apologize when I hear that," Flockhart says).
These are not public roles the "psychotically private" actress seems all that eager to play, which may be why she sounds like she's living in oblivion these days. "You know, it's like I'm in a glass tube when I go home from work," she says of her new life. "I go home and take an hour to walk the dog and chill out. Then I pick up a script and memorize my lines for the next day. Then I get up early and do it all over again." She takes a sip of cappuccino. "I guess I have a pretty myopic point of view right now."
Here's another point of view, from some of the show's toughest critics. Ironically, the Ally backlash seems to be strongest among professional women in their 20s and 30s--women, in fact, a lot like Ally herself (which, by the way, is also precisely the demographic the series is aimed at). "Those short skirts really annoy me," says 30-year-old lawyer Joanne Watters. "Even in New York, I never see women in court wearing skirts like that. Also, she isn't all that professional. She's not confident or aggressive. She seems like she's always waiting for her knight in shining armor. I wouldn't hire her for my attorney." Agrees Susan Carroll, a 32-year-old New York lawyer: "They're always turning her into a sexpot, like in that cappuccino scene. It's all about her appearance and her social life. It's pretty sexist."
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