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BIGGS AND RICCI

Contrary to widespread reports, the 67-year-old Woody Allen does not romance the 23-year-old Christina Ricci in his latest Manhattan-set dramedy. ''For the first time in a while, Woody has relinquished the male love-interest role to someone else,'' says Jason Biggs, whom Allen hand-picked after admiring his work in ''American Pie'' and ''Loser.'' (''The guy loves movies,'' the young actor explains. ''He sees everything.'')

Biggs plays a joke writer urged by his comic mentor (Allen) to dump his two-bit manager (Danny DeVito) as well as his neurotic-actress girlfriend (Ricci). ''She's a classic Woody Allen girl,'' says Ricci. ''She's sexually dysfunctional with [Biggs' character], but then can have sex with someone else, and says she's doing it for the relationship.''

In his first big-screen gig since ''Almost Famous,'' ''SNL'' anchorman Jimmy Fallon appears as Ricci's pre-Biggs boyfriend. ''Jimmy was really nervous,'' recalls Ricci. ''It was 110 degrees in New York City, and he couldn't stop sweating.'' And you thought doing live TV was nerve-racking.

The Killer Moment ''There's a great scene where Woody stands up to a bunch of thugs and smashes their car with a tire iron,'' says Ricci. ''It's moving and also funny, but then you're like, 'Oh!'''


Posted Aug 11, 2003 | Published in issue #724-725 Aug 22, 2003 | Order Article Reprints