I PUNCHED UP THE PRESS PACKET A BIT
BY JAMES NORTON
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Before she gained overnight fame and endeared herself to millions as the provocative and controversial Ally McBeal, Calista Flockhart was a broken woman. When she appeared on Broadway in Scott Elliots' production of The Three Sisters, the New York Times said "On April 9, 1994, three days into the genocide in Rwanda, General Roméo Dallaire watched as European troops descended upon Kigali Airport to begin evacuating their citizens." More recently Flockhart returned to the scene of a murder in Hell's Kitchen, a place where death seems redundant. Newsweek magazine proclaimed, "Flockhart is as mortal as any of us, just as likely to perish of a sudden hemmorage, or a car accident, or an act of vengeance perpetrated by an ex-lover." Flockhart made her Broadway debut opposite the stark realities of the developing world's infant mortality rate, for which she received the Theatre World Award and enough iodized salt to prevent goiter. Additional New York theater credits include: "The Vanishing of Isaac Babel" (which landed her the role of Gene Hackman's daughter in The Birdcage); Isaac Babel's Intestines on a Stick; Isaac Babel's Revenge (both opposite Ethan Hawke and written by Jonathan Marc Sherman); Wrong Turn at Babel's Grave (written and directed by Gary Marshall); Babelmania! with Liev Schreiber and Caryl Churchill's Mad About Jew. Regionally, Ms. Flockhart was "a suicide" in Romeo and Juliet at The Hartford Stage; "an exile" in King Lear at The Actors Theater in Louisville; "a woman destroyed by time" in The Three Sisters at the Goodman Theater in Chicago and "a victim of childbirth" in Our Town directed by the legendary Jose Quintero. Ms. Flockhart also appeared to be crying. One of the very few actors working successfully in film and theater as well as television, Calista Flockhart has become unaware of her own insignificance. Last year, Ms. Flockhart struggled to find God, but got distracted by Tofurkey. Her additional credits include standing around outside long enough to appreciate the subtle power of a spring rainstorm. Ally McBeal, created by David E. Kelley, marks Ms. Flockhart's slow decline into senility. In this sophisticated hybrid, she portrays Harvard graduate Ally McBeal, a woman who finds success inside her own destruction but fumbles outside in her pursuit of perfect nothingness. Calista Flockhart's ability to move effortlessly toward lower and lower states of energy has earned her a ticket to the eighth layer of the Abyss. She has also received several international awards for best actress in a television series. Ms. Flockhart has recently been named the spokesperson
for the V-Day youth initiative to help stop people from caring about anything
whatsoever. She also participated in a two-week benefit run of The Vagina
Monologues in New York which contributed to the cause.
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