Fresh from a long day of filming followed by several hours of packing, Lara Flynn Boyle strode over to our table on the patio of the Polo Lounge. Dressed in black from head to toe, she was nondescript behind a pair of trendy thick-rimmed glasses and a voluminous overcoat. "It's so nice to meet you," she said with a smile as she took off her glasses.
    Although it was late November, the evening temperature was pleasantly mild. Still, it would have been worth braving a nip in the air just to take in our luxurious setting. The patio of the Polo Lounge, itself the crown jewel of the Beverly Hills Hotel, was filled with color—a mixture of azaleas, camellias, impatiens, and star jasmine. Mixed among the flowers were lighted palm trees and a smattering of bougainvillaea vines.
    "I've had quite a day," the petite actress began, and she proceeded to relate the hectic pace that had her up before dawn, rushing home after shooting had finished, and tackling the task of packing up her house in Sherman Oaks, Calif., in preparation for a move to a new home. Yet, while the breakneck pace of her day may have shown in the few loose hairs that had broken free from her signature pulled-back hairstyle, her energy level showed no sign of flagging.

Blessed with Success
At the age of 29, Lara Flynn Boyle has a career that would be the envy of many in Hollywood. Starring as assistant district attorney Helen Gamble on television's The Practice, Boyle has the privilege of working with Hollywood's golden boy, director David E. Kelley. And in between her busy shooting schedule, she has also appeared in several feature films, adding to her already impressive roster of movie roles. Her most recent outing, in the film Chain of Fools, with Salma Hayek and David Hyde Pierce, is scheduled for release in the New Year. To top it off, for the past six months Boyle has been dating screen legend Jack Nicholson, the latest in a string of actor boyfriends, which has included Just Shoot Me's David Spade, her Twin Peaks co-star Kyle MacLachlan, and Richard Dean Anderson of MacGyver.
    All this seems a far cry from her days growing up nearly destitute with her mother in Chicago. "We were a bad movie of the week," Boyle once told Harper's Bazaar. Born in Davenport, Iowa, Boyle was the only child of Sally and Mike Boyle. While she was still an infant, Boyle and her parents moved to Chicago, where her father became an alderman. Yet all was not happy in the Boyle home, and her parents divorced when she was only 6 years old. "To put me through school my morn had to work, so I was a latchkey kid," Boyle recalled. It was during these early years that she first became aware of her Irish roots. "Being Irish was a big thing for me, particularly growing up in Chicago," she said.