SERIOUS DRAG THERE'S NO JOEY TO BE FOUND IN MATT LEBLANC'S WELL-DRESSED SECRET AGENT IN 'ALL THE QUEEN'S MEN'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Watching the usually macho Matt LeBlanc spirit around occupied Berlin in silk, wig and full makeup in the World War II film ``All the Queen's Men,'' the average ``Friends'' hound is inclined to start firing off barbs at semi-automatic speed: Sheesh, dude, would the often-desperate Joey Tribbiani (the struggling actor LeBlanc plays on NBC's ``Friends'') stoop to these lengths? Isn't doing drag ... well ... kind of a drag?

Yes and no, admits the 35-year-old sitcom star. No fan of even drag classics like ``Some Like It Hot,'' LeBlanc initially didn't want to touch ``All the Queen's Men,'' even if it did mean a career stretch.

``At first I was like, 'Oh God, I finally get this big spy movie and I've got to wear a (expletive) dress?' '' says LeBlanc. ``As much as I liked the character and the story, I didn't like the drag aspect of it. I thought, 'Can't they just not have that? Can't they just take that out?' ''

In fact, they couldn't, and LeBlanc soon saw why not. You can't make a movie about a daring attempt to crack the Enigma code and eliminate the very ruse upon which the mission is based. ``Queen's Men,'' an Atlantic Streamline-produced film written by David Schneider, takes its inspiration - if not its plot - from real events. Allied soldiers were sent on decoy missions even after the Enigma code had been broken.

And, yes, some agents for the Office of Strategic Service did wear women's clothing to do their work in Eastern Europe.

``That was the only way you could get around,'' says LeBlanc. ``If you were a man walking around in Germany, you were a suspect. If you were a woman, you could come and go as you please.''

The premise established, LeBlanc signed on with a determination to preserve the thematic integrity of ``All the Queen's Men.'' Its humorous aspects notwithstanding, the film is a drama, insists its star.

``I sort of mutinied the whole cast. Nobody played it for the jokes,'' says LeBlanc, who shot ``Queen's Men'' two years ago in Vienna and Budapest. ``Everybody played it under the radar. The stakes are so high: If you're caught, you're dead. So make it believable and look like a girl. Don't wink at the camera - and don't camp it up.''

The cast quickly fell into line, according to producer Marco Weber.

``After a couple of days on set, the guys didn't even get out of their dresses when they had a lunch break. It became part of their lifestyle during the shoot, and it was interesting to observe.''

But fear not, fans of Joey. American Special Agent Steven O'Rourke, LeBlanc's `'Queen's'' character, doesn't spend the entire movie in a dress. The film opens with a botched effort to steal an Enigma machine. While serving a sentence in a British military prison, O'Rourke - who carries the derogatory nickname ``Special Agent Almost'' for his failure to complete heroic missions - is ordered to lead a team across enemy lines and infiltrate a factory to steal another Enigma machine.

Because the factory is staffed exclusively by women, O'Rourke's team has to negotiate the difficulties of female impersonation, a trickier task for O'Rourke, desk jockey Archie (played by James Cosmo) and code cracker Johnno (David Birkin) than for Tony, a transvestite cabaret performer played by famed British drag star Eddie Izzard. Complicating matters somewhat is the romance kindled between O'Rourke and resistance fighter Romy (Nicolette Krebitz).

There are no ``Tootsie''-like romantic complications here. Romy knows that the disguised O'Rourke is a man. Indeed, you'd need to suspend more than a little bit of disbelief to think otherwise.

``Hey, it's not an exact science,'' says LeBlanc. ``The only ones who are supposed to believe it are the Nazis, and nobody likes the Nazis, so if they're stupid for believing it, that's OK, right?''

And laughs or no laughs, Weber (``Igby Goes Down''), who rescued ``All the Queen's Men'' from 15 years of development limbo, echoes LeBlanc's belief that the film is a ``comedic drama.''

``You're dealing with a very serious back story,'' says Weber. ``We can't say, 'Let's just forget about all the pain and just fool around.' ''

In LeBlanc, director Stefan Ruzowitzky found a prototypical 1940s action hero: suave, charming, attractive to the ladies (when not resembling them, of course). Call him James Bond in a dress, if you will.

Weber's belief that LeBlanc was the right man for the assignment wasn't a result of the actor's work on ``Friends'' (``I hadn't seen a single episode,'' the producer says), but ``Lost in Space,'' the 1998 film version of the TV series in which LeBlanc plays a cocky pilot who romances Heather Graham's Judy Robinson.

The other five members of the ``Friends'' sextet have been busier with film projects during the series' nine-year run. Other than ``Lost in Space'' and the forgettable baseball-playing chimp film, ``Ed,'' LeBlanc has kept his schedule relatively open.

So when LeBlanc found a personal project he wanted to take, the ``Friends'' team was more than willing to accommodate him, even though his participation in ``All the Queen's Men'' involved some creative scheduling. Since LeBlanc was taping the seventh season of ``Friends'' at the same time he shot ``Queen's Men,'' he spent a month taking weekly chartered jets between L.A. and Budapest.

``People think it's all about the money,'' says ``Friends'' executive producer Kevin Bright. ``But one of the reasons we've been able to keep the actors on this show is also that when a movie is important to them, we allow them the ability to make it happen somehow. This movie was very important to Matt, and it's the first time he's done a movie during the filming (of 'Friends').''

The ``Friends'' team, which recently saw Jennifer Aniston depart from her Rachel Green persona to critical acclaim in ``The Good Girl,'' is hopeful that ``Queen's Men'' will help the moviegoing public see LeBlanc in a different light as well.

That's certainly one of LeBlanc's goals. The actor says he deliberately rejects the majority of the scripts that are looking for a Joey clone.

``Maybe I'm a little biased,'' he says, ``but in my opinion, with comedy, it's never going to be as funny as 'Friends.' I've read these scripts where they want me to play some dumb, lumbering guy, and I don't want to do that. It's not a challenge for me.''

LeBlanc took a small part in the blockbuster ``Charlie's Angels'' in part as a favor to longtime friend Drew Barrymore. He'll return for the sequel, ``Charlie's Angels: Halo,'' which gives him an opportunity to spend some screen time with veteran comedian John Cleese, a performer who, LeBlanc says, ``knows right where the funny is.''

``Friends,'' meanwhile, is in the midst of its ninth - and likely final - season. While LeBlanc spent most of the sitcom's early years as the handsome and slightly dim comic relief, Joey Tribbiani has matured and deepened of late. Bright points to the recent love triangle involving Joey, Rachel (Aniston) and Ross (David Schwimmer), a sequence that netted LeBlanc an Emmy nomination in September.

``As the show went on, we became more aware of the range of Matt's acting skills,'' says Bright. ``There's a sensitive side of Joey that really brought the character out.''

Which is not to say that, sensitive guy or otherwise, LeBlanc isn't in for some friendly ribbing for his drag work.

``There might be some hazing this week,'' Bright says. ``Having not seen him in a dress yet, I couldn't say. His legs may look great, and I may have nothing to say.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Girl-`Friend'

Matt LeBlanc drags out a womanly wardrobe for `All the Queen's Men'

(2) Matt LeBlanc insisted that the actors in ``All the Queen's Men'' not camp it up and play the movie's drag aspect for laughs.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(3) no caption (Matt LeBlanc in drag)