Movies: A Supremacy All Her Own

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There are other things Allen has to talk herself into doing. No extrovert, she regards interviews, awards shows and public appearances as part of her job, and just like the good small-Illinois-town girl she is, she performs them with vigor. But not with any joy. She has been nominated for three Academy Awards but hasn't found the Oscars a life-changing event. "It feels like an evening of business," she says. "On the years when I'm not there, I'm sitting at home going, 'I'm so glad.'" She's careful to work her babe traits, wearing for an interview supertight jeans and a snug top with flirty ties at the shoulders. She's as thin as an iron poker and sits twice as straight. Hers is a serene face, on which even small emotions register. She smiles a lot but leaves you in no doubt she would rather be somewhere with Sadie, 10, her daughter. Asked to describe herself, she says, "I'm a working mom."

Most working mothers, however, do not inspire the kind of admiration that has had not one but two filmmakers write roles specifically for them. In 2000, newbie director Rod Lurie wrote The Contender for Allen. She got to become Vice President in that film. She also got to know Mike Binder (he played her communications director), who wrote a romance for her, The Upside of Anger, due out in December. Her love interest is Kevin Costner, who at 49 is only two years her senior. It's almost inappropriate.

Partly because one woman's dignified is another man's straitlaced, Allen seems to be on a mission to appear looser. In another upcoming film, Sally Potter's Yes, she's a woman having an affair that crosses racial and religious lines. And finally, the shyest girl in the class is taking on the fastest-talker's job. She's co-producing a film about a group of working-class Irish women who go to Lourdes, France. Her job has been (partly) to get Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates to sign on. "I've never been on the phone so much," she says. "We're behind on preproduction." With that, two movies to promote and a daughter to care for, what Joan Allen really needs is a wife.