Fire and Rain

There are no fires for Walken to put out on the set this afternoon. All he has to do is pose for CBS and Hallmark publicity photos with Close, but he's in a bad mood anyway.

''Let's be ready,'' he snaps at the photographer, wincing as a costumer adjusts his bow tie. Close takes him aside for a private chat, and when they return, Walken is less surly. The two stand stoically on a cliff overlooking the water as Close's daughter, Annie, 4, plays just out of camera range with her family's two small dogs Bell and Gabby (Chigger is home in New York; he doesn't travel well).

Close turns her right side to the camera. ''He has a flawless face, but unfortunately I don't,'' she says.

''You should see my passport photo,'' Walken mutters.

''I look like Eva Braun on mine,'' Close says.

''Mommy, look!'' Annie says, picking Bell up off the ground.

''Annie, put him down,'' Close says patiently. ''It's not good for him. No wonder he has hip dysplasia.''

''Is it lunchtime?'' Annie asks.

''It is, sweetie,'' Close says softly as the last picture is taken.

After lunch, Sargent shoots a scene on the beach in which Sarah introduces her stepkids to her brother, William, played by James Rebhorn (Lorenzo's Oil). The director is losing the light — and his patience. First Rebhorn accidently calls the family dog, Brutus, ''good girl'' instead of ''good boy.'' Next, a speedboat with Sizzlin' Sal on the side, then a tugboat, and then a barge pass by, making too much of a racket for filming. And finally, nature calls. ''Chrissy Bell has to go to the potty?'' Sargent asks incredulously. ''We don't have time for this! What are all these bushes for?''

By 4 p.m. the day's exterior filming is completed. Only one thing remains: A close-up reaction shot of Close to insert in a calf-birthing scene already filmed in Kansas. ''On the screen, it'll look like we were shooting at that very precise moment in Kansas,'' Sargent says.

As it turns out, that's not the only part of the scene that's faked. The ''newborn'' calf is actually 3 days old. ''It looks so realistic you'll swear Chris Walken is actually pulling a calf out of that cow,'' Sargent insists.

''If this had been a feature,'' Close says succinctly, ''it would have been a real calf-birthing.'' Ironically, two weeks later, a calf was delivered on the Skylark farm. After rainstorms, fires, and hordes of insects, it was the least Mother Nature could do.