For actress Claire Forlani, the past two years have been a dizzying combination of highs and lows. After steadily building a career with secondary roles in films including The Rock, Mallrats, and Basquiat, she nailed the leading lady position opposite Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins in Meet Joe Black.

That, obviously, was the high; unfortunately, at the same time Forlani began shooting the film (early in 1997), her mother became terminally ill. Dealing with the illness and death of a parent is certainly a life-altering experience for anyone, but dealing with it as you make your breakthrough film, a film that happens to be about Death coming to Earth in the body of a mortal man, is an especially ironic experience.

"I’ve had to ponder it a lot, over the past two years," Forlani says softly, looking slim and beautiful on this chilly fall day in New York City. "It was so strange that my mother got very sick when I got the film. So I had the dual experience happening, the personal one and the work one. The story of the film, to me, has actually been incredible. Even now I’m seeing things in that story, that register with me now. It hit a lot of truths for me. In my journey and my life personally, the story of the movie has crossed over and interacted. I felt that it did help, it really showed me some important things. So the past two years has been an incredible, incredible time for me."

The actress can’t escape seeing the parallels between the plot of Meet Joe Black, in which she plays a woman whose father is facing the fact that he is about to die, and her real-life situation with her mother. Nonetheless, Forlani insists that she succeeded in keeping the two very separate while she was making the movie.

"I didn’t use my mother, I absolutely did not use my mother, I did not think about her situation, not once during the filming -- I don’t think I would have survived it if I had," she says thoughtfully. "I made it specifically about my father [who is still very much alive] and my imagination. I did not dabble in that arena whatsoever."

Instead, the 26-year-old focused on the positive, using the opportunity of starring opposite Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins to expand her acting horizons.

"Tony is the most dynamic man you’ve ever met," says Forlani. "He’s the energy ball like I’ve never seen. He’s such an example. Focus, appreciation, humility, enjoyment -- he’s enjoying his life so much, and he kind of turns around and says to you, ‘Can you believe all this, Claire? Isn’t this marvelous?’ It was so enlightening to work with him every day for six months, I can’t tell you how much I learned just by being around him," Forlani gushes.

And Brad? What about acting in love scenes opposite the man many women consider to be the ultimate sex symbol? Well, those were just normal working days, according to Forlani.

"Brad was generous and supportive right off the bat, and he continued to be that way," she says. "And the sex scene? It was a tough emotional scene. Emotionally, there were a lot of levels to get right. I felt that the love scene was like every other scene, it was always about having so many different scenes, each one that you have to work hard at to make believable."

Actually, Forlani admits that the bedroom scene was a bit harder to film than most of the others. "It took a couple of days to shoot, and it wasn’t easy," she reveals. "I'm personally not comfortable taking anything off and we'd been filming for five months already when we did that scene. So it was like every other scene, but with the added dimension of the hurdle of taking off your clothes in front of a room full of people. It’s not fun -- it’s more something you had to overcome as an actor, that fear."

But don’t get Claire Forlani wrong. Despite all the various fears, anxieties, and sorrows that the last two years have churned up in her heart, she’s ready to face the future, with all it has to offer.

"My mother’s death was an experience like no other, because she, in a way, she taught me to live life through her dying," Forlani says. "I’m not afraid of anything any more."

Claire is one of those exceedingly talented actresses who also happens to be in a bunch of movies like -- she plays a beautiful Beat-generation sweetheart in The Last Time I Committed Suicide, a girlfriend in Basquiat and a Russian translator in Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow. Okay, I didn't see the last one, but I'm sure it was great. The way Claire handles her beauty onscreen -- almost clumsily, like she's not quite sure what to do with it, is really endearing, too. So it's no surprise that her latest endeavor -- as love interest to a sexy grim-reaper (played by Brad Pitt) in the just-released drama Meet Joe Black -- places her again as another object of weird affection.
Why Claire will be wooed by every major designer soon: Hollywood types are claiming that Meet Joe is her breakout role, mostly because she's starring opposite the Pitt-ster. What about her excellent acting ability?

While Claire Forlani and Brad Pitt were looping Meet Joe Black, tagged as perhaps the most expensive (at a reported $90 million) Hollywood romance ever made, "she was obsessing about something," director Martin Brest says. "I was teasing her about it, and I said, 'C'mon, Claire, don't turn into Frances Farmer on me!'" Surprisingly, Brest's eupemism for nutcase did not go whizzing past the young actress's radar. Quite the opposite: Forlani let everyone know that, in fact, as a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl in London, she had read Will There Really Be a Morning, Farmer's harrowing account of her decent from stardom to drug addiction and institutionalization.

What's more, Forlani reread it a few years later, after she and her family moved from England to the San Francisco Bay area. Unlike the rest of Young Hollywood, this 26-year-old knows her old movie stars.

"It was a little one-uppy there for a second," Brest says. "I thought she wouldn't have any idea who Frances Farmer was. I mean, what would possess a thirteen-year-old girl to read Frances Farmer's autobiography?"

Chatting over tea at an upscale deli on Santa Monica's yuppified Montana Avenue, the actress has a good laugh over the Farmer connection. "Her book was the first that literally made me feel pain, made me feel sadness, made me feel tragedy," Forlani says. Her voice maintains the same fragile, nearly breathless tone whether she's bestowing praise, going on the attack, or beating herself up, which on this oppressively sunny afternoon appears to be her major M.O. She is the kind of actress who can show up for an interview looking gorgeous sans makeup, in black jeans and a matching tank top, and reply to a question about not doing nude scenes by saying, "If I had a great body, I'd be naked all the time."

The self-deprecation doesn't stop there. Mention something about the notoriously chauvinistic British press's trashing her for going Hollywood, and she says, 'Why would they? I'm not that well-known, so there's nothing to resent." Bring up a few of her darker moments on film, such as Mallrats and Police Academy VII: Mission to Moscow, and she instinctively covers her face: "God, my filmography!" And as for Brest having cast her without seeing any of her best work (Basquiat, The Last Time I Committed Suicide), she isn't offended. "Not at all. He didn't know about me. He wanted someone else from day one."

Brest, on the other hand, insists that he had no mysterious dream pick for the role of Susan, the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur (Anthony Hopkins) who falls in Love with Death, a.k.a. Joe Black (Brad Pitt). "I couldn't find anyone," he says. "I just held out hope that there was somebody nobody knew yet." Finally, he saw Forlani on another actress's demo reel. "Claire appeared for maybe three-quarters of a second in a long shot" from Basquait, and Brest had to know, "My God, who his that?"

His quest eventually led to Forlani's making love to beautiful Brad, but as she tells it, even that ego pump turned out to be a real downer. "It's not like I was making out with Brad Pitt," she says, taking the movie very seriously. "I was kissing Death."

And since we're on the subject, she wants to set the record straight

So is Forlani -- when she's discussing Pitt. She's far more relaxed when trashing some of her movies, such as The Rock, in which, as a girl named Jade (!), she had to tell her long-lost convict father (Sean Connery), "I don't think that we should romanticize something that happened between you two in a bar after a Led Zeppelin concert and my being the result!" It was her one big scene, a fact that thoroughly amuses her. "You read the lines sometimes," she says, "and they just sound so awful, and you think, How do I not look like an asshole in this scene? I did so much homework with that thing. I worked on it for weeks."

And then there's Basil, a British costume drama in which Forlani costars with Jared Leto and Christian Slater. Originally scheduled to be released this year, it's going straight to the Romance Classics channel. "I just walked away from that film after I did it. There was so many infights that we didn't get to shoot what we needed to shoot to make a movie."

"That's not true," Basil director Radha Bharadwaj says when told of Forlani's remarks. Although the film's producers, Kushner-Locke, "wanted to hijack the film from the beginning," Bharadwaj claims, "the director's cut had everything." Still, she describes Forlani as a totally committed actress, perhaps a bit too much so. "She was worried the very first day: 'How many takes am I going to get?'" Bharadwaj recalls. "Hopefully, the one thing she came away with from Basil is that she doesn't need all those takes. She can do it straight away."

So the verdict is in: Claire Forlani is a tad obsessive. Even about where she lives. These days, it seems that every self-respecting Young Hollywoodian makes his or her home east of La Brea, and Forlani can't wait to move back to her old apartment in Beachwood Canyon, where, she says, "Lauren Bacall's husband lived." It's a strange lapse for someone so well-versed in Old Hollywood. She thinks a moment, then it comes to her: "Bogart." But after all, he's no Frances Farmer.

We polled the nation's entertainment pundits to predict which breakout actresses will burn up the big screen in 1999 -- from the latest certifiable bombshell to the Monica you'll be talking about next year.

CLAIRE FORLANI
Who: As the Grim Reaper's girlfriend in this month's Meet Joe Black, literally flirts with Death (Brad Pitt). Next: The Mystery Men, a superhero spoof with Fargo's William H. Macy.
Think: A ballsier, less brittle Gwyneth Paltrow.
Why she'll be big in 1999: "Meet Joe Black could do for her what Jerry Maguire did for Renee Zellweger," says Juan Morales, executive editor at the hip culture mag Detour. "She's soft yet strong, and she's generally been better than the movies she's in. Even opposite someone like Sean Connery in The Rock, she always stands out."

-- Reported by Kitty Bowe Hearty

Claire FORLANI

She has impeccable transcontinental credentials -- her mother is British, her father Italian, and she studied dance and drama at the Arts Education School in London before moving to San Francisco five years ago -- but Forlani, 26, slips into an American accent when she auditions. "The fact that people didn't know I was British did work for quite a while," she confides. After playing Sean Connery's daughter in The Rock, the artist's girlfriend in Basquiat and a suburban daddy's girl in Mallrats, she graduates to the big time as Brad Pitt's lover in November's romantic fantasy Meet Joe Black. This time, the accent belongs to Susan, and upper-middle class doctor who falls in love with death incarnate -- Pitt at his most blondly glamorous. "The tricky part," says Forlani, "was to get to a place where you believe the relationship between Joe and Susan. I never really thought about the fantasy aspect."

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Ben Stiller, who appeared in three movies this summer, has been hired to star in Mystery Men, an offbeat comedy about loser superheroes.

The Universal project begins production Oct. 21 in Los Angeles, with commercials director Kinka Usher helming from an adaptation of Bob Burden's comic book.

Stiller will play Mr. Furious, the angriest and craziest of a band of self-proclaimed superheroes. Fueled by a rage that stems from his parents' neglect, Furious and his not-so-super mates, Blue Raja (Hank Azaria) and the Shoveler, band to fight their archenemy, Casanova Frankenstein, played by Geoffrey Rush. Paul Reubens, Claire Forlani, Janeane Garofalo and Lena Olin have also been cast in the picture.

He most recently starred in There's Something About Mary, Your Friends and Neighbors and Permanent Midnight.

With Mystery Men now on Stiller's slate, it's unclear whether he will still star in the live action/computer animation hybrid Monkey Bone for Fox Animation Studios.

The actor-director also is scheduled to host the Oct. 24 episode of Saturday Night Live. He hosted the MTV Video Music Awards last month.

Or, Meet the Brad Pitt You Feared You'd Never See Again. That's right, the psychotic conspirator of 12 Monkeys, the self-pitying Irish terrorist of The Devil's Own and the Nazi Buddhist of Seven Years in Tibet will be distant memories once people see Pitt as the romantic, soulful, mysterious and georgeous star of this loose reworking of the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday. In a movie that might tanatalize the Academy, the once Oscar-nominated Pitt (for 12 Monkeys) plays two roles -- sort of. First he plays a young man who's in love with a beautiful woman (Claire Forlani), and then he plays the same young man inhabited by the Grim Reaper, who falls for the same woman. The isn't really the kind of film that gets the Academy's juices flowing, but if the early market screenings are any indication, popular response to the movie will be so passionate that everybody in it and behind it could end up looking brilliant. That would include Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins, who plays the aging businessman with whom Death has delayed his dealings. It might also include the gifted young actress Claire Forlani, whose possibly breakout performance is just the sort of thing for which the Academy often bestows a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Several screenwriters are credited on the film, but two-time Oscar winner Bo Goldman was the polisher, and the last time he worked with this director, Oscar-nomiee Martin Brest, the result was the Oscar-honored Scent of a Woman.

The Pitch: The undertaker of the afterlife (Brad Pitt) takes a holiday in the land of the living, where he shadows a business tycoon (Anthony Hopkins) and falls for the big wig's beautiful daughter (Claire Forlani).

The Big Picture: "Death looks good," Forlani (Basquiat) admits of her co-star, who makes for a not-so-Grim Reaper. Though Pitt's personal life was not looking so good for much of the New York-based shoot, what with a well-publicized breakup and his father's ill health, Forlani admired his work ethic. "He was such an example not only of professionalism, but of heart and soul," she says. Director Martin Brest (Scent of a Woman) assembled an early cut of this romance - "inspired by" 1934's Death Takes a Holiday - that was rumored to be three hours long.

"It's a big, weepy, beautiful film," Hopkins says. Forlani remembers the moment cabin fever took hold during the five-month-long production: "Tony was playing the piano; Brad was doing contemporary dancing; Jeffrey [Tambor, of The Larry Sanders Show] was doing a running commentary; and Marty was pullimg his hair out trying to block a scene," she recalls. "I was standing there thinking, Everyone's gone completely mad." (Universal, November)

More films have been added to the lineup of the fifth annual FilmFest Kansas City, scheduled for Oct. 9-15 at several area theaters:

BASIL: In Victorian England, a repressed young aristocrat (Jared Leto) living under the thumb of his domineering father (Derek Jacobi) breaks away and is befriended by a commoner (Christian Slater) who introduces him to a world of freedom and passion. Young Basil soon finds himself in a secret marriage with a beautiful but distant woman (Claire Forlani).

Director Radha Bharadwaj based her screenplay on the novel by Victorian author Wilkie Collins, widely regarded as the father of the psychological suspense genre.

It's amazing what a little R&R can do for the Grim Reaper. In this darkish romantic drama, inspired by the 1934 Fredric March classic Death Takes a Holiday, Death assumes the handsome visage of a recently killed young man (Pitt) so he can figure out why people fear him. In his newly warmed-over state, Mr. Reaper temporarily leaves behind the nasty task of taking people's lives and starts living it up himself, quickly realizing the appeal of making good money, experiencing new sensations (ah, peanut butter!), and encountering gorgeous women -- namely, Forlani's character, the daughter of a powerful businessman (Hopkins).

Of course, Pitt isn't exactly the face of death most people envision. That's intentional. "Our big challenge in this," says Brest (Scent of a Woman), "was having a character called Death without being gruesome or heavy-handed or cliched. And basically, I thought Brad had that slightly otherworldly presence we needed."

Brest's multi-take modus operandi stretched the shooting schedule out to six months. Sounds pretty somber. But Hopkins insists that the shoot was "lighthearted and unpredictable". And Forlani notes that the longer they worked, the nuttier everyone became. "After about six months into it," she says, "I'd stand there in the corner of the set and realize everybody was acting like a freak. Brad would do these contemporary dance moves, then Tony would play the piano, then Brad would join him, singing some obscure musical tunes from the 1940s. And I'd be off on the side wondering, Where did everyone go?"

The movie's themes sparked some bizarre conversations, too. "There was much talk of death on set," says Hopkins. "How we would like to die, things like that. I don't normally contemplate death too much. When you're younger, you don't want to face things like that. But now that I'm older, I feel very comfortable with it. Every day's a bonus, and I'm just glad to be aboveground."

The Lowdown
Please. If Death really looked like Brad Pitt, none of us would be aboveground.

Further evidence that times are changing in Hollywood: It's no longer just the action-packed, explosion-laden shoot-'em-ups or sinking ocean liners that are costing the big bucks. Romances and dramas are now pushing the financial envelope.

The family friendly Parent Trap is rumored to have cost upwards of $80 million, and now the New York Times reports that the long-anticipated Brad Pitt movie Meet Joe Black is running way over budget. The paper says production costs have hit the $90 million mark, a record for a romance.

Agents and producers familiar with the movie's financial structure tell the Times that Black ran about $30 million into the red, a figure Universal Pictures, the studio behind the Martin Brest-directed pic, denies.

Casey Silver, chairman of Universal Pictures, admits to the paper that the film, which also stars Anthony Hopkins and Claire Forlani, is over budget, "but not insanely over budget." He would not say what the movie ended up costing. Pitt reportedly received about $17.5 million to star.

"Marty Brest is a perfectionist," explains Silver. "It's a great movie, a complete home run. It's over two and half hours in length and didn't go anywhere near $30 million over budget. That's nonsense."

In the film, which is loosely based on the 1934 Fredric March film Death Takes a Holiday, Pitt plays a recently deceased young man whose hunky body Death decides to use to take a break and walk among the living. On earth, he meets a business tycoon (Hopkins) and falls for his beautiful daughter (Forlani).

According to the Times, Brest, the man behind Midnight Run, Scent of a Woman, and Beverly Hills Cop, is so meticulous that he can sometimes spend years on a project. Sources familiar with the production tell the paper that a slow-paced shooting schedule delayed the film's release by about five months. The film allegedly ran at least two months over schedule, causing higher salaries for the cast and crew. Add to that the cost of building a massive set, complete with swimming pool, to serve as Hopkins' character's mansion.

Compared to other romances, Black's reported $90 million budget seems like overkill. You've Got Mail, the upcoming film reteaming of Sleepless in Seattle stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, reportedly cost around $65 million, while Clint Eastwood's Bridges of Madison County came in around $35 million.
Meet Joe Black is due out Nov. 13.

Morrow starred in the long-running CBS series Northern Exposure. His feature credits include Mother, Last Dance, Quiz Show and the upcoming feature Into My Heart, [previously titled Elements, co-starring Claire Forlani and Jayne Brook] which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival [on September 11th].

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Claire Forlani has joined a large ensemble cast in Mystery Men, a picture about an unlikely group of superheroes.

She plays Monica, a diner waitress who falls in love with Mr. Furious, one of the superheroes who has not yet been cast. Hank Azaria, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Reubens, Geoffrey Rush and Lena Olin also star in the Universal film.

In November, Forlani will be onscreen opposite Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins in Universal's Meet Joe Black. Her other credits include the indie feature The Last Time I Committed Suicide, Basquiat and The Rock.

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Hank Azaria, last seen on the big screen trampled in "Godzilla," is in final talks to play the Blue Raja in upcoming The Mystery Men for Universal Pictures.

Paul Reubens (formerly known as Pee-wee Herman) and Claire Forlani also are in discussions for the picture about a band of misfit superheroes forced into a final confrontation with archrival Casanova Frankenstein, played by Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush (Shine).

The film is being directed by Kinka Usher. Fargo co-star William H. Macy was reported earlier this week to be in final negotiations to play one of the not-so-superheroes.

Azaria recently wrapped production on The Cradle Will Rock, opposite Susan Sarandon, John Cusack and Vanessa Redgrave.

He will next be seen in Mystery, Alaska, the David E. Kelley-scripted comedy. Azaria's other credits include The Birdcage, with Robin Williams.

Earlier this week, Azaria was selected to receive an Emmy for his voiceover performance as convenience store operator on The Simpsons, for which he also does the characters Chief Wiggam, Moe and Dr. Nick Riviera.

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - In a highly unusual move, the 1998 Toronto Intl. Film Festival has invited the director's cut of the Christian Slater film Basil to screen after it was yanked from last year's event at the last minute by its distributor.

It's not clear the film will ever make it to Toronto, however.

The distributor, Kushner-Locke, recently sold its own cut of the film to American Movie Classics' sister cable channel Romance Classics, where it is scheduled to have its U.S. premiere in October.

And although Slater, one of the film's producers, has offered to put up half of the $200,000 budget needed to complete the director's cut, Kushner-Locke so far has refused to release the original elements to the filmmakers.

"Toronto is the only chance for people to see the film the way the filmmakers intended," said the film's director, Radha Bharadwaj. "It's a godsend second opportunity."

Basil, a romance mystery set in the Victorian era, stars Jared Leto as a young aristocrat who, on the advice of an older friend (Slater), marries a mysterious young merchant's daughter, played by Claire Forlani. Derek Jacobi also stars.

"We were delighted to invite this film for the 1997 film festival and deeply regretted its withdrawal," says Piers Handling, executive director of the festival. "We were impressed by its innovativeness, emotion and beautiful performances. The invitation still stands for the 1998 festival."

Even before the film went into production, Bharadwaj and Slater clashed with Kushner-Locke executives over both creative and financial matters.

According to Bharadwaj, Kushner-Locke principal Peter Locke tried to get her to add scenes of female nudity to the film, reneging on an agreement to let her original version of the script stand unchanged.

She also says the company slashed the budget and shooting schedule just prior to the shoot, and that she and Slater had to put in $200,000 of their own money in order to make the film.

Kushner-Locke executives did not return phone calls.

Based on a rough video version of Bharadwaj's cut, the film was invited to show at Toronto last September. The picture was set to screen on the final Friday of the festival in the Special Presentation series along with such highly anticipated films as The Apostle, The Spanish Prisoner, Henry Fool and Boogie Nights.

But Kushner-Locke chieftains insisted on substantial cuts to Bharadwaj's 102-minute version, and refused to approve the director's chosen composer, according to Bharadwaj.

Then, two days before a scheduled sold-out screening, Kushner-Locke pulled the film from the festival, saying it wasn't ready.

Kushner-Locke subsequently screened its cut of the picture for domestic theatrical distributors, but found no takers.

Saying that Kushner-Locke's version is not the film she intended to make, Bharadwaj is now attempting to have her name taken off the picture, and have it released as an Alan Smithee film.

"I've tried every way imaginable to get the movie back to its original form to no avail," said Slater. "I'm very sad about the events that took place and pray that the film that will be viewed is the director's vision."

While it's unusual for a film to be invited to the same film festival two years running, it is not unprecedented.

Kayo Hatta's Picture Bride was pulled at the last minute from the Sundance Film Festival in 1994. It returned the following year.

From Twickenham to Pacific Palisades with the 26-year-old co-star of The Last Time I Committed Suicide.

Is suicide an impulse you can understand?
It was something I had to find. Depression is close to me, but suicide hasn't been.

Why is depression close to you?
Isn't depression close to everyone?

No.
(Laughs) Alright, so I'm a manic depressive. What do you want from me?

Was it a culture shock when you moved from Twickenham to LA five years ago?
I remember being shocked at many things when I got here that, unfortunately, I've become jaded to -- like the racism.

Do guns bother you?
Well, when I go over to my friend's house and watch him polish his gune I get a bit of a shock (laughs). No, they don't now.

Have you missed England?
I haven't at all. I was happy to leave and I'm happy to visit.

You must miss something. What about Marks & Spence?
I do miss M&S -- especially for the underwear.

You've been working with Anthony Hopkins. How was that?
Just fucking amazing. You walk away feeling terribly undignified.

Not a man believes in doing a lot of takes.
No, but that's because Tony...

Tony? Not Sir Anthony?
I was fortunate enough not to have to call him that every three seconds. When you work with Sir Anthony there are days when he will do a lot of takes if he's really enjoying a scene.

What was John Cusack like as a boyfriend?
Er, fine.

He always seems like a funny man.
Yeah, Johnny can be funny. I'd rather not talk about it, to be honest.

What's been your greatest extravagance?
I've just got a new house in Pacific Palisades. It's really cute.

Cute? Isn't it really big?
No, no, no. It's a little house with a view and a garden. It looks over a canyon -- the palisades.

What exactly is a palisade?
Yeah, what does palisade mean? Now I feel like a moron.

Finding that out can be your project for the day.
I feel like just walking to the bookshop and looking in a dictionary right now. Thank you for giving me a project for the day.

After playing Sean Connery's daughter in The Rock, do you think he'd be a good dad in real life?
That's the only thing I don't think Sean Connery would be good at. That's a terrible thing to say! Would I want Sean as my father? No. Would I want Sean as my friend? Yes.

Is a career more important to you than starting a family of your own?
I think you can juggle them both. I'll probably fail dismally, but I'll give it a shot.

What are you doing the rest of the day?
Unpacking my house and reading scripts.

So it's career for the time being.
You know, you've got to find your partner first who you can create kids with, so it shall continue to be scripts for now.

BEN MITCHELL

Titanic may be running away with box office records, but a host of other Hollywood films are set to make a splash at the Cannes Film Festival in May. According to reports coming from the Festival's Paris headquarters, John Travolta, Johnny Depp, Cameron Diaz, Susan Sarandon, Robert Duvall and Brad Pitt are among the stars who can start making their travel plans.

Though the announcement of the offical slate is still three weeks away, Travolta's Primary Colors is said to have nailed down the closing night slot (since Cannes is an international festival, it is not uncommon for films that have already opened in North America to screen there). The Hunter S. Thompson adaptation Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas will lure Depp and Diaz to town, and there's talk that Godzilla will put its foot down on the Croisette at this, the 51st annual Festival.

Meet Joe Black, starring Pitt and newcomer Claire Forlani is said to have a non-competition slot, with the highly anticipated Apt Pupil (directed by Bryan Singer of The Usual Suspects), the glam-rock saga Velvet Goldmine with Ewan McGregor and the John Turturro-directed Illuminata (an erotic farce with Sarandon and Christopher Walken) all said to be likely for competition slots.

A Festival sidebar called Un Certain Regard focuses on smaller films, and Duvall's The Apostle and the quirky detective flick Zero Effect starring Bill Pullman are frontrunners to unspool there as are the latest from Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse), Happiness, and a pair of Sundance winners the urban street poety drama Slam and the lesbian art world flick, High Art.

The official slate of films will be announced April 23. That same week, two alternative festivals, the Director's Fortnight and the International Critics Week, which serve as counterprogramming like Sundance-alternative Slamdance, will announce their slate of typically smaller independent films. (French actress Isabelle Huppert will preside over the opening ceremonies at Cannes, officials said Friday.)

Others possible on the official slate include: Jim Carrey's sit-comedy The Truman Show, Warren Beatty's political satire Bulworth, the disco-era 54, Vincent Gallo's Sundance buzz-film Buffalo '66 and the white supremacy exploration American History X with Edward Norton.

Brad Pitt escorted Claire Forlani, his costar in the upcoming romantic drama Meet Joe Black, to present a Writers Guild of America award to screenwriter Bo Goldman in L.A.

Ever since Claire Forlani moved from London to Los Angeles five years ago, she's been more American than most American actresses. She played Shannen Doherty's nemesis in Mallrats, Neal Cassady's Beatnik girlfriend in The Last Time I Commited Suicide, and the waitress who endured her painter boyfriend in Basquiat. "My accent depends on whom I'm around," says Forlani, who this summer stars opposite Brad Pitt in Martin Brest's Meet Joe Black. Meanwhile, the 26-year-old has grown accustomed to her new home -- and its weather. While on the New England set of her new film Elements, "I was one of the freaks running in the snow. I saw this man in a big jacket coming towards me. I wondered what kind of freak would be doing this?" It was her co-star Rob Morrow.

Brad Pitt and Claire Forlani were a duo at Saturday's Writers Guild Awards in L.A.

"They're friends," explains Pitt rep Cindy Guagenti. "Brad gave an award to Bo Goldman and Claire came along for support." She and Pitt star in Meet Joe Black, written by Goldman.

How hot is Claire Forlani? Hot enough that she can get herself axed from one of 1998's first big thrillers and still get her name on a list of the year's hottest faces.

Seems the sultry Forlani and Deep Rising director Stephen Sommers didn't see eye to eye, so he set the European-born beauty adrift. She quickly charted a new course, however, starting with the role of a young woman manipulated into marriage by Christian Slater and Jared Leto in the spring release Basil.

This fall, the twentysomething actress turns up in Meet Joe Black, the highly anticipated remake of Death Takes a Holiday. Brad Pitt stars as Death, who ends up falling for Anthony Hopkins' daughter, played by you-know-who.

Shortly after Forlani recovers from her brush with Death, she'll share the spotlight with Rob Morrow in Elements, in which she plays the unfaithful Nina, who is wracked with guilt about an affair with her husband's best friend after her husband dies.

Need further proof that the half-British, half-Italian Forlani--who moved to the U.S. in 1993--has arrived? How about the fact she's been linked to some of Hollywood's hottest leading men, including Pitt (both maintain they're "just friends") and John Cusack.

(Excerpt) Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue (April), due on the stands March 17 (the week pre-Oscar) will feature Hollywood's "Hot Next Wave" on the cover: Vince Vaughn, Edward Furlong, Joaquin Phoenix, Tobey Maguire, Djimon Hounsou, Rufus Sewell, Natalie Portman, Claire Forlani, Cate Blanchett, Christina Ricci and Gretchen Mol. The ladies are in evening dress, the men in white tie. Annie Leibovitz shot them on the top floor, now vacant, in the Chrysler building.