FILM: INTERVIEW: MEET THE STILLERS; RISING STAR CHRISTINE TAYLOR TALKS ABOUT HUSBAND BEN, MOTHERHOOD AND THEIR NEW FILM DODGEBALL.

Byline: JAMES MOTTRAM

Without wishing to tempt fate, up and coming star Christine Taylor seems to have found something with Ben Stiller that's rare in Hollywood - a happy marriage. And, after four years together, she couldn't be more delighted.

As she walks into the plush suite of a Los Angeles hotel, it's little wonder that goofy Meet The Parents actor Stiller was hooked. Wearing a chic black dress, Christine is slim, has bright blue eyes and blonde hair that tumbles past her shoulders.

While Stiller is currently the most bankable comedian in Hollywood, his wife is becoming his regular screen partner. After appearing together in the comedy Zoolander, their latest collaboration, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, has taken pounds 80 million in the US.

Based around the American school game of the title, Dodgeball is gag-a-minute stuff. Christine plays a sassy lawyer called Kate who joins a team of no-hopers - led by Vince Vaughn - who come together to save their gym. The misfits take on a team of hard nuts - led by Stiller as repulsive owner White Goodman - to win a top competition.

Since giving birth to daughter Ella Olivia two years ago, the new film is Christine's first time back in front of the camera. "I made the choice to be at home with the baby," she says. "I took time off specifically, and had the luxury to do that. Once this little creature comes into your life, they really turn it upside down. It's hard to be away from them. I'd love to continue working, but I will choose wisely.

"If it's going to be something that will take me away from her or Ben, it will have to be something that is stimulating for me. I'm in a lucky position in that I can be with her, which is so important."

Taylor first met Stiller in 1998, and he popped the question a year later while filming Meet The Parents. In a case of art imitating life, Stiller's initial encounter with his fiancee's businessman father was not as smooth as it could have been.

"It was definitely a strange situation," Christine recalls. "Ben had this set plan to propose to me. But then my grandfather passed away and we all had to fly back East, so his plan got screwed up. He'd met my brother and mother, but not my father. He'd only spoken to him on the phone.

"But the first time Ben met the extended family was at a funeral - of all places - which was when they fell in love with him. He won them over.

"It was my grandfather's way of getting Ben to come back and face my dad in person, and ask for my hand."

But what is life with Stiller like? While you might expect a man who has seen his genitals caught in a zipper in There's Something About Mary to be a constant joke machine, his wife says not.

"The thing that struck me the most about Ben when I first met him was that he looks you right in the eye when he talks to you," Christine says. "He listens. He's not thinking of the next joke. He is a serious guy, for sure, but that's not to say he doesn't have his funny moments, or act like a complete buffoon to make our daughter laugh. He had a diaper on his head, marching around playing one of her toy instruments. Anything to get the child to laugh!"

Born in Pennsylvania, Christine's upbringing was decidedly normal. She only developed an interest in acting after her mother took her to see musicals in theatres on New York's Broadway, and then began experimenting at school.

Now based with Stiller in Los Angeles, Taylor's life seems comparatively normal to some Hollywood high-flyers. Yet any suggestion that she and Stiller are an A-List couple leaves her shocked.

"Ben has a different perspective, because his parents (Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara) were a famous comedy team, and I just grew up in middle America suburbia. Two polar-opposite upbringings - so we're trying to find the balance.

"I think we can find some comfort in that we can fly under the radar a bit."

With the success of Dodgeball, this may no longer be an option for Christine Taylor.

- Dodgeball opens today.

CAPTION(S):

COUPLE: Christine and Ben together; HAVING A BALL: In her latest film Dodgeball; AFFAIR: Christine met Ben on Zoolander