Maura Tierney: She's Smokin'

The NewsRadio alum tells the truth in Liar, Liar.

______________________________________

Last night was pretty much typical. Her recurring insomnia drove Maura Tierney from the bedroom (and her sleeping husband), so she curled up on the sofa and spent the wee hours smoking and reading The Private Life of Chairman Mao. Now it's 11:30 a.m., and the weary, throaty-voiced Tierney is in a booth at Houston's restaurant sipping a Bloody Mary laced with horseradish and craving a cigarette.

She's a feisty, urban babe, Boston-born, educated at NYU, and she seems quite at home in this dim, leathery habitat. The Bloody Mary, she assures me, is atypical. Tierney had been laboring in the relative obscurity of a TV sitcom called NewsRadio when she beat out a slew of other actresses and nabbed one of the year's most coveted roles, that of Jim Carrey's ex-wife in the film Liar, Liar.

"It must be hard to be that famous," she says of her costar, who is, at this moment, the highest-paid funnyman in the world. "Did he have an entourage?" I ask. "Not a big one," she tells me. Next she plans to do The Broadway Brawler with Bruce Willis--if they can firm up a production date that meshes with her schedule (he called and asked her himself, a conversation she recalls conducting from her bathtub). Even after her leap to the big screen, Tierney's still a regular on NewsRadio.

"What did you do when the _Liar, Liar _shoot was over?" I ask. "I ate a grilled sourdough burger and onion rings at Jack in the Box."

"What do you eat during a shoot? Tofu?"

"I'd rather not eat than eat tofu."

"If acting hadn't been your career, what would you be doing?"

"I'd like to be a lobbyist. I like politics. My father was a politician. I'll bet Washington is a very interesting place."

I suggest, "So now that you're famous you must have to deal with lots more Hollywood predators."

"Hollywood creditors?"

"No, predators! People coming on to you."

"It doesn't happen often. Sad, isn't it?"

______________________________________

Jeff Lantos