DANIEL'S BOON

Vanities

Name: Daniel Lapaine. Age: 28. Provenance: Sydney, Australia. Fleetingly seen in: The 1994 Australian hit Muriel's Wedding and Polish Wedding, co-starring Claire Danes and Gabriel Byrne. Now arriving in:Brokedown Palace, co-starring Danes and Kate Beckinsale, and Elephant Juice, a romantic comedy starring Emmanuelle Beart Why, in the future, the role of good-natured doormat might appeal to Lapaine: " I have played quite a few roles where I seem charming and nice but I'm actually not. I worry if people see something going on here. I'm actually a very nice person."

How he and some fellow Aussies have brought an end to the era of Paul Hogan and Yahoo Serious: "I went to see Elizabeth, and to see Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush up there carrying this very British film ... It's funny, after being a colony for 200 years, things have really opened up for Australian actors. Which is good, because there is a tendency to feel trapped living on the other side of the world." Now that you've earned your international indie credentials, can we expect to see you in Armageddon 2: Revenge of the Rock? "Only if the world gets destroyed. I'm still quite green, but ultimately it's my dream to be in a position where I have a choice. It comes down to whether a story is worth telling."

KRISTA SMITH

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