MUCH ADO ABOUT CALISTA; `ALLY MCBEAL'S' FLOCKHART SHRUGS OFF INTENSE SCRUTINY ABOUT HER WEIGHT AND LOVE LIFE, STAYS GROUNDED IN FILM ADAPTATION OF BARD'S `A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Writer

The rising debate about violence in the media hasn't yet taken into account a certain kind of violence the media perpetrates.

It's not exactly deadly, of course, but it can still be harmful. Just ask Calista Flockhart.

``They're awfully fickle, those press people,'' chuckles the star of TV's hit ``Ally McBeal'' series and a new film adaptation of Shakespeare's fantastical comedy ``A Midsummer Night's Dream.'' She makes a lot of jokes, in fact, some at her own expense and others about the absurdly intense media scrutiny of her weight.

But there are serious things to say about her ordeal.

``The exploitation of human beings is astonishing,'' says the actress, 33. ``Yet, you think, why? Is it because we, the public, want it, we want the gossip? I believe we do, but is it also because that's what they're feeding us? What came first? Who knows?

``Also, we don't really have one religion that everybody believes in, so we sort of have these gods of idolatry that we make, these celebrities,'' she adds. ``And then we want their dirty laundry. Since we made them gods, we want to humanize them a bit so they're more like us. Also, it seems all glam and exciting, celebrity love rumors and affairs, even though it's not even happening. People can live sort of vicariously through them, somehow. I know I do!''

Romance rumors about Flockhart have been flying recently. A New York tabloid reported she was seeing comedian Ben Stiller the same week a British tab linked her with Sam Mendes, the director of the recent, acclaimed ``Cabaret'' stage revival. Flockhart wants to keep her love life private and says that both men are friends.

But concerns about possible anorexia - which the naturally thin, size-2 actress has been denying since they first surfaced after she appeared somewhat emaciated at last September's Emmy Awards - won't go away. She's addressed the subject in countless magazine articles and newspaper interviews since then.

Earlier this month, Flockhart canceled an appearance on NBC's ``Today'' show when it became apparent that they wanted to harp on the weight issue, too.

``Enough is enough,'' her press representative said, not illogically. Especially when there's so much else worth talking about.

In only its second season on the Fox Network, ``Ally'' has become the most discussed show on television and a frequent Nielsen Top 20 finisher. The wacky lawyers show's outrageous mix of comedy and courtroom drama, surreal asides and sexually provocative story lines, poignant character insight and post-feminist incorrectness, have made it both controversial and adored. It's that rare television phenomenon that people tune into without ever knowing what to expect.

Then there's the star-studded ``Midsummer'' movie. It marks Flockhart's first post-``Ally'' film appearance (she was prominently featured in ``The Birdcage'' and a few small independents before the TV show hit). It's also a return to her beloved Shakespeare; the Rutgers-trained actress has played Juliet, ``King Lear's'' Cordelia and ``Much Ado About Nothing's'' Hero on stage, not to mention classic heroines from Chekhov, Inge and Williams.

In the film, Flockhart plays Helena, a lovelorn woman who gets embroiled in a bizarre love quadrangle with three other young lovers one night in a fairy-infested woods. English actors Anna Friel, Christian Bale and Dominic West play the befuddled fellow romantics Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander.

In other frolics, Kevin Kline plays the ham actor Bottom, Michelle Pfeiffer (who is married to Flockhart's boss, ``Ally'' creator David E. Kelley) is the fairy queen Titania, ``My Best Friend's Wedding's'' Rupert Everett plays the resentful fairy king Oberon, and Stanley Tucci is his trouble-making trickster, Puck.

Set in Italy 100 years ago, the movie was filmed on Roman soundstages and in the Tuscan countryside. For Flockhart - who grew up in various Midwest and Northeastern locales and has spent most of her adult life in New York City - one of her few trips outside of the country was a great break from ``Ally's'' demanding taping schedule.

``I was in Italy for six, maybe seven weeks,'' she recalls fondly. ``I had never been there before, and I especially loved Rome. I walked miles and miles, just got lost among all the street life, did all of the sightseeing, loved the cafes and restaurants and people and the chaos. I'd just moved out to L.A. and I was very homesick for New York, and it was reminiscent of that for me, I felt back in the city. And Tuscany was just so beautiful.''

It wasn't entirely a joyful indulgence of Italian landscapes and Elizabethan verse, however.

``Well, the corsets were fine, unless you wear them 18 hours a day,'' she says of her otherwise exquisite, Victorian-era costumes. ``Corsets are tight; it doesn't matter what size you are.''

Flockhart admits that Shakespeare's Helena and TV's Ally share certain characteristics, like a love that drives them to absolute distraction. Still, she's not too concerned about people confusing the two characters.

``Shakespeare didn't know about Ally McBeal,'' she notes. ``I would say that he wrote a theme that we all identify with. People get fixated, and people fall in love and, maybe, become obsessed with it.

``If I was thinking in terms of both characters, I don't think that Ally would ever go quite as far as Helena does. But through `Ally McBeal' permeates a playfulness, and I think that `A Midsummer Night's Dream' is very playful. They're both about things that get kind of frivolous, but it's always anchored in real human emotion. That description could apply to almost anything that's good.''

``Midsummer'' adapter and director Michael Hoffman hadn't seen ``Ally'' at all when he cast Flockhart.

``I knew her from the theater,'' Hoffman says. ``I didn't understand that I'd cast this television megastar. To me, it was the way she ascribes to the archetype of the waif, the orphan. Somehow, she's this frail thing with this great spirit inside of her. For Helena, that was so fantastic, because she's not really a victim, however much she may seem like one.''

Whatever else she is, Ally is no victim. She's been known to kiss one of her married law partners - and get into catfights with his wife, who also works at the firm. Judges have thrown her out of their courts for wearing her skirts too short. And her self-revealing dialogue is sometimes so raunchy that it sparks national debate, despite not being printable in a family newspaper.

``People have said that women aren't like that, and they take offense to it,'' Flockhart acknowledges. ``Yet I always say that this is not representing all women. This is one woman, this is how Ally McBeal behaves.''

Sometimes, though, even Flockhart is taken aback by that behavior.

``Occasionally, things will come up that make me go, `Oh great, David, get me into trouble again. The tabloids are gonna run with this one,' '' she reveals. ``But I can't really say that Ally would never do this because she would, and that's what David wrote.

``But we all just have so much fun,'' she adds. ``And I hope we're broadening the boundaries of TV a little bit. It seems to me that David Kelley has raised the bar, and it's going to end up challenging people to write great television.''

Flockhart herself says she shares neither Ally's nor Helena's mating obsession.

``I'm not preoccupied with it, I'm not panicked about it,'' she says. ``I just feel that it will happen if it's supposed to happen, and it will happen in good time. But I'm so busy now, it's just not what I'm focusing on.''

She's happy enough in her new L.A. home with her dog of many years, a stray named Webster that a former New York roommate rescued from a dumpster. She's learned to love` what L.A. has to offer: hiking trails, world-class museums and mega-bookstores where, she says, she's still able to browse and read for hours without being disturbed.

``Some people do come up to me, but they're so nice that it makes me feel very nice,'' she says. ``Nothing particularly invasive or cruel or weird. It's tranquil.''

Which is a nice contrast, to say the least.

``At first, I took it personally a bit,'' she says of the press panic. ``I was shocked, I couldn't believe it. What happens is that, once one has the story, they all want the story. You're just a victim of that machine.

``But then something happened to me. I don't know how to explain it or what happened, but I just turned around and really ignored it and maintained my sense of humor about it. I realized it has nothing to do with me and it was out of my control. It's gonna have to go away at some point.''

And even if it doesn't, Calista Flockhart seems to have more than enough self-awareness to keep it in perspective.

``The story that made me laugh the most was the one that said my dog was also an anorexic,'' she says with a hearty laugh. ``Now that is so clever, you have to admit.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) `Dream' lover

Calista Flockhart romances the Bard

(2) no caption (Calista Flockhart)