In Step With Jessica Capshaw by James Brady

Make way for another Capshaw.  She's Kate's daughter, now in her first season on the long-running hit The Practice.

Her mother is the actress Kate Capshaw, and her stepfather is Steven Spielberg, but brainy and beautiful Jessica Capshaw, 26, seems to be doing it on her own with a new role on ABC's hit series The Practice.

"I've never played a lawyer before," Jessica told me, "so I've had to bone up.  My character is a young woman who's always been up in the air - Yale and Harvard and the Law Review, with impressive scores - but she really wants to do criminal case law, and she needs to be roughed up a bit.   The absurd seems to follow her around.  The show is going into its seventh season, and I've been with them since June."

Any parallels between playing the new lawyer at the firm and being the new actress in the cast?  "From the minute I arrived, everyone was incredibly welcoming," Capshaw said.  "There are moments when you chat, others when you just sit and observe.  My character, Jamie, and I are very similar.

One of the things that distinguishes Jessica (besides the impressive family connection) is that she made the mature decision to put acting on hold and enroll at Brown, the prestigious Ivy League school, where she majored in English.  While an undergrad, instead of spending summers on the beach, Jessica studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.  Back in the States, she played lead roles onstage at Brown.

After a couple of forgettable film roles, Jessica starred in the short-lived ABC comedy series Odd Man Out, and last year she had a small part in Minority Report, including some scenes with Tom Cruise.   In September, she was the lead in a film called The Mesmerist.   "It's loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe," Jessica said.  "Dark and macabre, with deathbed scenes."  And next year, she will be in the film A View From the Top, with Gwyneth Paltrow.

Our interview was delayed a week because Jessica had scratched her eye.  "I freaked out when I woke up the next morning and saw it," she said.  Did she hurt herself acting?  "No," she said, laughing.  "I have to admit, all is vanity.  I speared myself in the eye with a mascara wand.  But it gets worse:  The doctor said I'd scratched my cornea, and besides that, I need glasses."  Is she going the contact-lens route?   "No," Jessica said.  "Old-fashioned spectacles."   She'll look like the most beautiful librarian in town.

Brady's Bits

Jessica Capshaw lives in L.A. with her Labrador, Lucy.  The Practice is shot in a studio not far from the ocean.   But the beach where Jessica spends the most time is 3000 miles away on Long Island in East Hampton, N.Y.  That's where her mom and stepdad have a gorgeous home.   "I spend a couple of weeks there each summer," says Jessica.  Which, with all her half- and step-siblings (eight at my last count), must be pretty lively.   Since her mother was in the smash hit Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I asked Jessica if she was more impressed that Mom was co-starring with Harrison Ford or being directed by Steven Spielberg.  "I was only 6 at the time," she replied.  Last year, Kate and Jessica did an ad together for the Gap.  How did that come about?  "They asked us.  I like their ads, and it was a chance to work with my mom."  And when she has a day off from The Practice, what does she do?  "Well, I was off yesterday," said Jessica, "and it was so beautiful, I went for a walk on the beach."