Steve Guttenberg

''My character in Diner has become a reference point for male stupidity and sexism,'' says Steve Guttenberg of his role as Eddie Simmons, the sports fanatic who subjects his fiancee to a prenuptial football-trivia quiz. Guttenberg parlayed Diner into a meal ticket, playing likable dim bulbs and big lugs in light movie hits such as Police Academy (1984), Cocoon (1985), Three Men and a Baby (1987), and their sequels. Though the 39-year-old L.A.-based actor is single and has no kids, he has spent much of the '90s in his ''kid phase,'' appearing in children's films (1995's It Takes Two; a 1997 made-for-video Casper sequel) and directing a CBS Schoolbreak Special in 1993. Guttenberg is about to enter another phase or two as star of a pair of upcoming independent films: as an action-adventure hero in Airborne (filmed last year in Toronto) and as a suicidal psychologist in the comedy-drama Love and Fear, set to shoot this spring. Still, Diner remains one of his favorite projects: ''The other actors and I were a bunch of young guys -- good friends hanging out in Baltimore, trying to figure things out.'' Just like in the movies.