Gentle Ben

Vanities

miable BEN CHAPLIN leans across the Formica tabletop in Duke's Coffee Shop on L.A's Sunset Strip, eager to say that he's taken to making movies America like, well, the proverbial duck to water-and this is oniy his second trip across the pond. "In England, when you do a film, you work such long hours, and you're under budget," says the earnest 26-year-old. "But here, because it's a huge industry, it's quite sensible." Chaplin, who is no relation to Charlie, is the sort of fellow who knows what he's talking about. So far, he has worked with Merchant Ivory (The Remains of the Day and Feast of July), and now he stars in The Truth About Cats and Dogs (April), which with a little luck may make him as famous as his co-star, the distinctly undoglike Uma Thurman.

JAN BRESLAUER