AN 18TH-CENTURY STAR IS BORN.

Byline: Reed Johnson Staff Writer

There were no stretch limos when Sarah Siddons was the talk of London, no lunching at Spago or agents driving around with cell phones attached to their ears.

But if there had been, it's a good bet the statuesque British actress would've availed herself of those essential modern marketing tools. After all, in her own time, Siddons (1755-1831) was nearly as famous for managing her image as she was for mastering her craft.

By far England's most celebrated female thespian of the late 18th century, Siddons had been a flop at comedy before turning to drama and earning her regal moniker, ``the Muse of Tragedy.'' At the peak of a career that stretched from 1772 to 1812, her painstaking portrayals of long-suffering heroines in plays such as ``The Mourning Bride'' made men weep, while women had to be carried from theaters in hysterics.

Yet it's Siddons' backstage machinations that make her a prototype of modern celebrity.

Like some Age of Enlightenment Madonna or Princess Di, Siddons courted rich and powerful patrons, conspired with England's brand-name painters to turn her into a popular icon and handed out engravings of herself to fans and tastemakers as if they were 8-by-10 glossies.

When the actress toured Scotland in June 1784, commentators began using the phrase ``Siddonimania'' to describe her phenomenal appeal.

In turn, Siddons' portraitists boosted their own reputations and finances. Some, such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, were marquee names in their own right. Siddons' fame spelled the beginning of today's log-rolling mass-media culture, in which every celebrity endorsement or talk-show appearance feeds the mill of mutual self-promotion.

This month, Siddons is getting the star treatment once again in a joint venture involving three L.A. cultural heavyweights: the J. Paul Getty Museum; the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens; and Center Theatre Group, the production arm of the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre.

Two of the project's components are art exhibitions at the Getty and the Huntington. The third is a new play by Frank Dwyer, ``The Affliction of Glory: A Comedy About Tragedy,'' commissioned by the Getty and CTG, that will open next week at the Getty for a run of only 17 performances.

The Getty show, ``A Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and Her Portraitists,'' brings together for the first time in two centuries two works depicting Siddons posed allegorically as the tragic muse.

The earlier (1784) and greater of the pair was done by Joshua Reynolds and is part of the Huntington's permanent collection, on temporary loan to the Getty. A very similar 1789 painting, with Siddons in an identical pose and accouterments, is being borrowed from the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. Technically less virtuous than the earlier work, it was probably executed by one of Reynolds' assistants in the large studio-workshop the artist used to crank out orders for his wealthy clientele.

The Getty exhibition includes eight paintings showing how other famous artists tackled Siddons' mythic persona. Thomas Gainsborough depicted her as an aristocratic clotheshorse, George Romney as a thoughtful deity and Thomas Lawrence as a high-society grande dame.

As part of the collaboration, Getty conservation scientists gave technical assistance and helped remove a yellowing coat of varnish from the Dulwich work.

Thirty miles away, the Huntington is presenting ``Cultivating Celebrity: Portraiture as Publicity in the Career of Sarah Siddons,'' a survey of prints, drawings and watercolors representing Siddons in dramatic roles, such as Lady Macbeth, as well as in more intimate offstage moments.

This contrast between public and private lives underscores some of the exhibitions' secondary themes.

Siddons' success partially signifies the growing ``feminization'' of popular culture, says Robyn Asleson, a Huntington research associate who organized both exhibitions and assembled the accompanying catalog.

During the bloody upheavals in Colonial America and France, followed by the even more warlike Napoleonic era, ancient Roman values of sacrifice and manly heroism were celebrated in European painting.

Women, on the other hand, were usually depicted in passive, contemplative poses associated with intelligence, religious purity or moral conviction.

``I think it has to do with women being more a kind of cipher'' in that era, Asleson observes.

But with Siddons, a new set of ``feminine'' values - introspection, deep feeling, romantic passion - began to seep into popular culture. Siddons opened the way for the ``full-blown romanticism'' that followed her, Asleson says.

Playwright Dwyer, the Taper's literary manager, says the actress's elevation to a stature previously reserved for kings and queens blurred the line between elite culture and middle-class culture.

She also popularized a new performance style based on emotional projection rather than stylized mannerism.

Today, Siddons' name may be best-known from ``All About Eve,'' Joseph L. Mankiewicz's catty 1950 comedy-drama in which a scheming ingenue played by Anne Baxter is awarded the Sarah Siddons Award after double-crossing her former mentor, played by Bette Davis.

Siddons might blush to see the outrageous trickle-down effects of her ambitious quest for fame. But, as Dwyer says, ``Sarah had 30 years of extraordinary fame and then immortality because of a talent. That's different from having 15 minutes of fame.''

THE FACTS

What: ``A Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and Her Portraitists,'' and a play, ``The Affliction of Glory: A Comedy About Tragedy,'' at the J. Paul Getty Museum; ``Cultivating Celebrity: Portraiture as Publicity in the Career of Sarah Siddons'' at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.

Where: The Getty Museum is at 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood. The Huntington is at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino.

When: Art exhibitions through Sept. 19.

Admission: Getty Museum: admission is free; parking costs $5, and parking reservations are required. Call [phone]. Play runs Aug. 19-Sept. 5. Tickets are $28; $22 students, seniors. Call [phone] for play times and dates. Huntington: adults $8.50; seniors $7; students $5; children under 12 free. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--3) Actress Sarah Siddons promoted her image by posing for some of the best-known painters of her day. From left, ``Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse'' by Sir Joshua Reynolds, a portrait by Thomas Gainsborough and ``Sarah Siddons With the Emblems of Tragedy'' by Sir William Beechley are on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum.