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''ROOKIE OF THE YEAR? What's that all about?'' asks Alicia Silverstone over the phone. You can almost hear her roll her eyes. ''Honestly, it felt like every other year. Busy, very busy.''

As if! The 19-year-old blond with saucer eyes and pneumatic lips has, granted, been busy in the past. She tossed her hair in a trio of early-'90s Aerosmith videos, and a generation of Beavises swooned. She curled her lip in 1993's thriller The Crush, and the Internet nearly melted down. But this was the year Alicia Silverstone charmed even that part of America no longer battling acne. This year, she starred in the surprise comedy hit Clueless as an Alaia-obsessed Valley Girl named Cher. Part adorable puppy, part sex kitten, her deftly calculated comic portrayal proved she could actually act as well as jazz teenage hormones.

Hollywood got the clue. Columbia Pictures gave her a $10 million deal to star in and produce two movies. Yes, produce. (''I've taken a million meetings,'' she sighs.) Next up is Excess Baggage, a road tale of a girl who kidnaps herself. It's rumored she'll glide onto the next Batman as Batgirl. And the press is lavishing buckets of ink upon even her smallest projects -- like The Babysitter, a newly released straight-to-video drama she did pre-Clueless.

Still, in real life, Silverstone continues to play the part of insecure teen. She insists on describing herself as ''a klutz and a goofball.'' She says she got ''a really bad stomachache'' while watching Clueless. And she confesses that acting terrifies her. ''Every time I step into something, I'm convinced I'm going to fail, and it's really horrible. But it's also what keeps me going.'' We have a feeling she'll keep going for a long time.


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Posted Dec 29, 1995 | Published in issue #307-308 Dec 29, 1995 | Order Article Reprints