POWER, SIZE PETITE

In a world of submissives, Lucy Liu reigns like a pair of spike heels. Although this former N.Y.U. student stands just a shade above five feet tall, Liu seems to tower over the slimy excuses for men who quake at her feet each week on Fox's Ally McBeal, where she plays the testy and litigious Ling Woo, mistress of the erotic arts. With her whiplash hair and imperious disdain for "horny toads" (more commonly known as men), Liu has become the most popular fetish object on TV since Diana Rigg cat-suited up on The Avengers. As an actor, Liu has other ways of practicing persuasion; she has shown herself more than able to open her own jar of homemade whup-ass. Adept in a form of martial arts called

Kali-Eskrima-Silat (which deploys sticks and knives and makes every barbecue an occasion), she put a hurtin' on Mel Gibson as a dominatrix in Payback, roughhoused in Play It to the Bone, and will no doubt be dispensing Austin Powers-like judo chops in the upcoming Charlie's Angels movie. (It does no dishonor to the reputation of the original TV series to recall that its stars all ran like ducks, something Liu and her co-stars, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore, might want to study before making their first sprint across the parking lot.) In her off-hours, Liu entertains herself and others by playing the accordion, keeping the memory of Lawrence Welk alive for a new generation. —JAMES WOLCOTT

JAMES WOLCOTT