Peter Gallagher: Peter's Principle

Peter Gallagher and Michelle Pfeiffer are husband and wife in Jo Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, but due to a heart-wrenching story line-- she's dead; he isn't--the pair barely lock lips.

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Did Gallagher's wife have script approval? "No, Michelle's husband did," jokes the actor, pointing out that David E. Kelley was the producer on board. If the audience misses out on sex, at least they fulfill their crying quota by the movie's end. "I heard a lot of sobbing when I saw it, which was very satisfying," says Gallagher, who calls this "the part of my career."

But hasn't he been proud of his assemblage of work, which includes parts in sex, lies and videotape, Short Cuts, The Player and While You Were Sleeping? Gallagher has two words to describe his characters thus far: "plot devices." Not only that. Being the poster boy for directors Robert Altman and Steven Soderbergh wasn't very lucrative, either. "If it were true that you are really only as good as the salary you make, I'd hang myself," says Gallagher.

In truth, Gallagher has shunned big-bucks projects and movie-star fame ever since the crash-and-burn of the movie meant to launch him as a new star, Summer Lovers. The sweet I'll mènage á trois tale he made with Daryl Hannah haunts him still. A few years ago, when he returned on vacation to the Greek islands where it was filmed, he was accosted by two guys from New Jersey as he was strolling with his wife and her friend: "They're going. 'Jesus look--he's still here, and he's still got two women with him!'" Clearly, nothing could entice Gallagher to return to those suntanned days gone by What if a brilliant director proposed a sequel? "I can't imagine Scorsese would want to do Summer Lovers 2, but if he did, I guess..."

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Rachelle Unreich