Leight's Sleeper

As a Mademoiselle advice columnist Warren Leight tried to divine the etiquettes of modem love—a gig which must have inspired scenarios for his movie, The Night We Never Met. Starring Matthew Broderick as one of three strangers who share a Manhattan apartment on alternate nights, Leight's script first circulated in 1987, but then took a dive into "development hell." Finally, he put himself up to direct: "I figured I could certainly attach myself to a dead project." A Cinderella reading with Broderick in a freezing theater got things rolling in March of last year. The movie bows this month, and Leight, used to a writing life, must endure a career as an accidental auteur. It takes stamina, he says. 'The alarm rings at five A.M., you actually have to get out of bed. So cruel."

DUNCAN BOCK