During a Cultural Weekend involving Broadway, small out-of-the-way quaint bars and Modern Art, I thought of my star-gazing on Broadway. While Casey and I were numbed (she more than I) by Beauty and the Beast, we didn't get to see Jamie-Lyn Sigler during her run. Not that we wanted to. Mom got us the tickets as birthday (Casey's)/half-birthday (mine) gifts and we went on Saturday afternoon. It was decent. The tavern scene (the "Gaston" song) and "Be Our Guest" were the best musical numbers, with the choreography during "Gaston" (particularly the synchronized clanking of tin cups) mesmerizing. I got a little dizzy watching it. But through the first 15 minutes or so, I couldn't help but picture Sigler in the role of Belle. And the woman who played the lead, the Playbill said, is currently working on her first pop album. Naturally.

While I've missed such gems as the original revival cast of The Graduate (seeing Alicia Silverstone in live theater would've been either eye-opening or pleasantly amusing), Nicole Kidman's cha-cha in The Blue Room, Kevin Spacey in the two-day The Iceman Cometh, and Paul Newman in one of my all-time favorites, Our Town, I've seen my share of celluloid heroes in the flesh.

� There was Eric McCormack in The Music Man, which I came to appreciate again with Disney's recent made-for-TV remake with Matthew Broderick and Victor Garber.

� I particularly liked George Wendt (I can't believe IMDB doesn't have a picture), Joe Morton and Judd Hirsch in Art, which I saw back in '98 with Jaime as a college graduation gift from our parents. It was a great play (which, I just found out originally starred Alan Alda, Alfred Molina and Garber!) with a fab cast.

� Ralph Fiennes in Hamlet. It was a sweltering summer day after my junior year of college, I believe (1996), but maybe 1995. The sword fight was amazing.

� Taye Diggs and the original cast of Rent. My sister and I had gone one late May Wednesday for a matinee of Victor/Victoria during the final week of Julie Andrews' run. (The show closed within months of her departure.) Arriving at the theater, we discovered Ms. Andrews was not going to be in the afternoon show, and they were allowing exchanges for the evening performance. Our matinee tickets were in a good location, about five rows from the stage, to the right. We got either box or front-row mezzanine for the night show and spent the day watching a movie (I believe it was Dennis Miller in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) and having an early dinner at the All-Star Cafe (now Planet Hollywood's Times Square home). Returning to the theater, we learned Julie was out of that show too, and because it was her final week we were able to get cash refunds for our tickets. As it turned out, she suffered from a serious throat ailment that kept her from finishing out her run. (I believe this is related to the operation she had and she alleged was done wrong and then sued the doctors, saying it could prevent her from ever singing again.)

� The great Al Pacino in Hughie, a fabulous two-man, one-act play by Eugene O'Neill. The other actor was Paul Benedict, whom you'd recognize if you saw him (again, IMDB fails us). Seeing it at the intimate Circle in the Square theater, I was seated within spitting distance of Pacino, and I was in the fourth row. Afterwards, Mia and I waited outside with the crowds until Pacino came out wearing a Yankees cap, scribbled several autographs (we long for the day when we'll be famous enough to just sign our first names; he signed the photos "Al" with two big, sweeping loops), and ducked into the back of a Ford Explorer.

� It's tough to say which of these last three is the best. All have star power and great stories. Inherit The Wind is one of my favorite plays and to see it with Tony Randall (he produced it) and Charles Durning was sensational. George C. Scott was playing the lead, but illness kept him off the stage when I went, so Randall (who was in the orgininal cast) stepped in.

� He can't get a sitcom to stick, but Nathan Lane has done well for himself in movies and on stage. I saw him � no, not in The Producers � in what may be my favorite musical, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Hilarious. Brilliant. I loved the interaction with the audience. Also in the cast were Mark Linn-Baker from Perfect Strangers and Ernie Sabella, who provided the voice of Pumbaa the warthog in The Lion King (hee � Timon and Pumbaa together on stage! And, of course, the Six Degrees of Separation includes Matthew Broderick with Lane in this movie, as well as on stage in The Producers).

Speaking of The Lion King, I also saw that show on Broadway, though without any fabulous movie stars in it. My first Broadway experience was Miss Saigon on a high-school field trip and I've also caught Big (great adaptation, especially for half-priced tickets), Les Miserables and Tommy (great music!).

Yesterday, Casey and I went to the popular Matisse/Picasso exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art and had to stand in the rain on the sidewalk for 20 minutes until being admitted with our 12:30 p.m. tickets. With the "museum" over in a Queens warehouse while the Manhattan home gets an overhaul, the displays are limited and, apparently, you can't get in just to see the permanent collection. Or we didn't ask, or something. So we stood under Casey's umbrella on 33rd St. in Queens until 12:15 when they let us into the converted warehouse. And we looked at Art, including a canvas painted white which, I believe, was just what the prop in Art looked like.