Christine Baranski arrived at Michaels,the media hangout at 12:30 p.m. on the dot. A somewhat later arrival would have guaranteed an entrance,a gust of warm curiosity,but as she passed the empty tables at the front,the few patrons nosing their menus,I realised,or perhaps remembered,that such impromptu moments were best not left to chance. I should have reserved for 1 p.m. Apparently,she didnt feel the need to contrive scenes,least of all small ones. Occasionally,over the next three hours,her voice hit a haughty keyDiane Lockhart in The Good Wife raising a triumphant glass of Scotchbut this was to be expected and savoured. For 27 years Baranski,who is 58,has been married to the actor Matthew Cowles. Eventually the couple moved to Litchfield,Conn.,where Cowless family had an old homestead,so they could raise their two young daughters with fewer hassles. For several years in the mid-90s,when she was playing the mouthy Maryann in the sitcom Cybill,she commuted to Los Angeles. She begun the conversation by saying,I got here in 1970, and delighted in recalling how she received $1,000 for being the most hard-working economically needy student in her class,with the expectation that it was to be used for living expenses in the coming term. And of course,I took that money and was at the passport office the next morning, she said with a laugh. I was able to go to Europe for two months. I remember 10 days in Paris at the cheapest hotel. she sighed. I just felt such a sense of pride that I did that. I was 19. And I did it alone. Yet in another way,her career seems uniquely positioned to comment on fame. Her career has had a strange imperishability without ever really ripening. Not only is she in a hit television show,The Good Wife on CBS,but is also playing a dramatic role,after years of doing comedy and musical comedy. As she herself once noted,she seems in a perpetual state of being discovered. This first time was legitimateas Shakespeares Helena. Then,in 1995,at the age of 42,she took the plunge into sitcoms with Cybill. Fans reacted to her deadpan and taste for fashion as if she had buzzed down from Mars,one writing,Who are you? Where did you come from? But Cybill led to Mike Nichols hiring her for The Birdcage,the 1996 film in which many people first discovered her charms. When she got the role in The Good Wife she said the dramas creators,Robert and Michelle King,didnt ask her to read for the part of Diane Lockhart. But she heard that the pilots director had some reservations. He didnt know my work, she said. So,she had a meeting with him and later got the job. But not being a beautiful woman,she has had to keep people interested in other ways. I attribute the longevity of my career to the fact I didnt have to carry that mantle, she said. I was never beautiful so Im not unbeautiful. I may not have been a leading lady,but I had great clothes and funny lines. I think I had more flexibility,Cathy Horn
