EDITORIAL ROUTING 8-17-93 To: ENTERTAINMENT The acting bug Harrold ponders moves not made By Frank Lovece She's beautiful, funny, soulful — and she's dating Larry) Sanders? What is this? Science fiction? “Oh, stop!” Kathryn Harrold chides, giving a laugh, The actress is trying to explain the sex appeal of fc tional talk-show host Larry Sanders, star of the equally fictional “Larry Sanders Show,” the show-within-a show on HBO's satirical comedy, “The Larry Sanders Show.” (You fo lowing?) Harrold joined this season as Larry's first ex-wife and current itlriend, Francie. But since the not very-handsome Larry is a neurotic, ‘obnoxious distillation of Shandling’s needy comic stage persona, what on earth is the attraction? “I think she's attracted to how funny he is and how smart he is, and | think that deep down inside they're very similar,” Harrold reflects. “Plus, they have great sex!” ‘Now there's a thought too horrible to contemplate. But Harrold, at 43, understands. “Francie's gotten to a point in life where she knows all the mistakes people make in relationships,” Har- told reasons. "She realizes she still loves him, that she always loved hirm, and that he's sort of the love of her life — as hard as you find this to be lieve. It's like — I'm not in my 20s, anymore, either, so there's a lot of stuff I just don't have time for.” That's a reasonable explanation though Shandling, in real-life, is en aged to a beautiful, young Playboy model “whose simplicity,” as one magazine put it, “contrasts with Shandling’s compleaity.” Yet Harrold, for her part, is indeed as emotional: ly rich as her character: She took up with longtime boyfriend, Lawrence O'Donnell, “when he was a struggling writer and not making a cent, and just the smartest, greatest guy in the world, I told myself, “This guy's the agreatest guy in the world, and I don’t care if he has any money, I don't care about any of that stuff, just wanna bbe withthe greatest guy in the world ‘And now,” she adds with a bemused chuckle, “he’s chief of staff for the Senate Finance Committee.” Harrold comes to “Larry Sanders” from the NBC drama “I'l Fly Away,” Which is up for eight Emmy Awards this year — coincidentally, the same number as her new show. “Larry Sanders," which airs first on Wednes days and reruns a few times each week, is up for the Outstanding Comedy Series award, and Shandling is up for Comedy Series Actor. Co: stars Jeffrey Tambor and Rip Torn are each up for the award in the Sup. porting Actor category. It's a class act. 1 knew when I was a little girl | wanted to act, but | never told anybody — | thought they would die laughing. It was like saying | wanted to be a fairy princess. So is Harrold, who was both lovely and sexy as Christina LeKatzis, a principled defense attorney in the 19505 South of "Tl Fly Away.” Yet Harold's patrician good looks and un- affected elegance are self-made: She ‘grew up in rural Appalachia where Some classmates’ homes had no indoor plumbing and one 14-year-old fourth-grader left school because she'd gotten pregnant. “I's as if ‘grew up in another century, in a way, Harrold muses, Affluent enough — her father, a Harvard-edueated mining engineer, owned a coal mine — Harrold even tually went to boarding school “be cause the local high schoo! wasn’t accredited,” she remembers. She went on to Mills College in Oakland, Calif, and an acting career that has included appearances on shows like “The Rockford Files,” and lots of TV. She made her film debut with the flop “Nightwing” (1979), and she was Steve McQueen's love interest in his last film, "The Hunter” (1980). But despite & couple of good small lms Sch as "Modern Romance” (1981) and “Heartbreakers” (1989), and Schwarzenegger vehicle, "Raw Deal” (1980), she's always seemed just on the border between “recognizableire spected” and “big star” "What you had to do when 1 was ‘younger and probably even now,” she says, “is to take your clothes off if ‘youu wanted to be & big star real fast. remember when Jamie Lee Curtis took her top off in “Trading Places” She was a good actress before that, and a huge star afterward. And now Sharon Stone shows us her privates, and Uhat makes her a huge sta ‘Was Harrold ever in an, Um, pos: tion to be a huge star? “In "Modern Romance’T fee like that was the big mistake of my career.” Doing nudity? "Not doing ft” she answers. the one seene, I took my robe aif and got into bed so quickly, you could not see 2 thing even with freeze frame. And T thought afterward that if Td just stood there a couple of seconds, it ‘would've been really great for my career.” Her career's just fine, thank you, especially with all the ertieal aclaim “Larry Sanders" is reaping, And Har- roid does love what she does re always Said that acting is like birth defect,” she believes, "I's just Something you've got knew when T was a litte gil T wanted to act, but Thever told anybody — I thought they ‘would die laughing. It was lke saying Twanted to be a fairy princess.” ‘And now, of course, she's a Larry Pets NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN. 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