Soldiers and blondes, it was once said, have one great thing in common. They will both go to considerable lengths to avoid being thought stupid. Sarah Jessica Parker played the airhead SanDeE* with such perfect lightness in L.A. Story that she's had to spend some time living it down. Since Steve Martin did her that great favor, she's been up against Nicolas Cage and James Caan in Honeymoon in Vegas, and stressing her background in serious stage and TV drama—spanning The Innocents, directed by Harold Pinter, and the ultra-gritty In the Best Interest of the Children, NBC's take on the world of dysfunctional momhood.

Between takes, she turns out for Rock the Vote and was an early and keen Hollywood Clintonista. Time was when she turned out for good causes in the company of the young Robert Downey and, confirming her taste in Jrs., with the young John F. Kennedy. This summer comes Hocus Pocus, a black-magic comedy from Disney where the other two witches are Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy. In the fall, she goes undercover with Bruce Willis in Striking Distance, a river-police shoot-'em-up in Pittsburgh. No evidence of typecasting there. She's a rising star, stupid.

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