POTTER'S FIELD

Vanities

Name and occupation: Monica Potter, ingenue. Age: 25. Soon to be quickening pulses as: Nicolas Cage's wife in Con Air, Billy Crudup's girlfriend in Pre (Robert Towne's version of the Steve Prefontaine story). Inspiration? "Kathie Lee. Everyone I knew was pushing me to be a housewife, and 1 remember watching Regis and Kathie Lee and thinking. Well, if she can do it. I can!' Were there many lean days when you were trying to break in? "You know, when my husband. Tommy, and I moved to L.A.. we were living in a part of town that wasn't even sale. " Then came your latter-day Lana-Tumer-at-Schwab's moment "Yeah, I got cast by Luc Besson in a commercial for a product called Hollymuod gum. Then C AA sort of hip-pocketed me." Very quickly, express your true feelings for Billy Crudup and Nick Cage: "I love Billy. I really like Billy. And Nick was also really great. He said to me, I saw your tape and you were light-years IT wav from everyone else.' And I thought that was really nice."