McBeal a big deal

HOLLYWOOD -- Jane Krakowski won't soon forget what she calls "the best hair day" of her life.

"It was back in March. I was starring on Broadway in Once Upon a Mattress and had just been cast in (the feature film) Dance With Me when I got a call to fly to Los Angeles to audition for a new TV series called Ally McBeal," recalls Krakowski.

The New York-based musical theatre star was understandably nervous about her first big TV audition in Hollywood.

To her amazement and relief, Krakowski's fellow passenger on the flight was Calista Flockhart.

"Calista had been my very best friend Liane Kamena's roommate in college and Calista and I had worked together in summer stock theatre at the Williamsburg Festival.

"Calista was starring in The Three Sisters on Broadway at the time, so that's why we had to fly out on a Monday, which was our only day off."

The chums commiserated and fantasized all the way to Los Angeles, little realizing just how exciting the return flight would be.

"We both learned that day we'd got the roles we'd been flown out to read for. We were in such a state of disbelief, we didn't really need that plane to fly back to New York. That's how high we were.

"The whole flight back we talked about how we were going to have to uproot ourselves and move to L.A."

Flockhart, 29, got the role of lawyer Ally McBeal and Krakowski the role of the office busybody Elaine Vassal.

Ally McBeal -- which airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on DE and c -- is one of TV's brightest hits. It won the Golden Globe earlier this year and has been nominated for 10 Emmys, including a nomination for Flockhart.

The nominating committee might have overlooked Krakowski, but McBeal fans certainly haven't.

"People stop me all the time in supermarkets and malls to tell me they are Elaine in their offices. People seem to love Elaine's negative behavior.

"Don't let anyone with the show ever tell you they had any inkling Ally McBeal would connect with audiences the way it has. We're all still pinching ourselves on a regular basis."

Krakowski says actors only receive their scripts a week in advance, so she has no idea if Elaine will get a boyfriend this year. She is certain the show's famous dancing baby will not be back.

"He's become too famous. He'd detract from the show rather than help it."

In the romantic drama Dance With Me, Krakowski gets to dance with both Kris Kristofferson and Latin heartthrob Chayanne.

"My parents are so pleased I got to dance in a big-budget movie. It sort of justifies all that money they spent on dance lessons for me."

Krakowski made her Broadway debut at 19 as one of the singing rollerskaters in Starlight Express and went on to star in Grand Hotel and Once Upon a Mattress.

She says Chayanne is "one of the kindest, most gracious men I've ever met. He sees the bright side of absolutely every situation. You begin to feel positive just being around him."

Krakowski insists she never stepped on Chayanne's toes, but confesses she "bopped him in the head a few times.

"Our big dance sequence is a ballroom ballet with several very complicated lifts. I took a little ballet but Chayanne was learning on the spot."

In Dance With Me, Kristofferson foils a big lift, so he and Krakowski crash to the floor.

"We had to fake that fall because Kris could do it really well. Poor Kris was so nervous about dancing. He shook like a leaf the days we filmed the dance sequences.

"Kris is such a sexy man."

Krakowski is not retiring her dancing shoes, hoping she might get to use them sometime this year on McBeal.

"The producers didn't know I was a singer. When one of them came across one of my CDs (Sondheim at the Movies and The Burt Bacharach Album), they let Elaine sing I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa at the office Christmas party.