Show SEMI-GLOS- mwt S LATEX “I did have problems with 89? this” says Farrah Fawcett VMEBERP ir 7 rr lth&i BY ' i FRANK LOVECE young mother drives down a road with her dusky two-lan- e three children ages 3 to 8 She pulls her Nissan Pulsar off to the shoulder gets out and opens the trunk Moments later she peers through the driver’s side window gripping a 22 Ruger pistol She fires a shot into her daughter in the front seat A ic A split-secon- d later faster than being much lar guns - regu- the woman fires nearly point-blan- k at her son Then turning on her disbelieving daughter in the seat beside him she fires two more shots that find their marks Finally she fixes her gun barrel against the first girl’s side and fires once more to finish the job Then she starts up the car fires a shot into her own arm and slowly drives to a hospital with a tale about being attacked on the road by a stranger This is not Stephen King The shootings occurred May 19 1983 in Springfield Ore and were recountn ed in Ann Rule’s best seller “Small Sacrifices” And Farrah Fawcett the queen of victimized women ("The Burning Bed" “Murder in Texas”) switch-hit- s to play a true-lif- e victimizer: Diane Downs who stood trial for the murder of one child and the shootings of the other two The two-paminiseries "Small Sacrifices” also starring John Shea and Fawcett’s longtime companion Ryan O’Neal airs Sunday Nov 12 and Tuesday non-fictio- TV-mov- ie rt Nov 14 on ABC “I don’t know that you have to love the character you’re playing" Fawcett muses about one widely accepted school of acting on this bright California day "You do have to be willing to just jump in and play it I did have problems with this” she confides in a whispery but confident voice “because I just don’t understand how anyone could do these things” She says this in the pastel calm of her Los Angeles home having just sent her and O’Neal’s nearly son Redmond James off to nursery school "He says he’s notes Fawcett 2 O’Neal Fawcett in Small Sacrifices proudly And despite prevalent rumors about her and O’Neal’s tempestuous relationship she seems every inch the happy mom In “Small Sacrifices” the Fawcett plays a woman in her late twenties and looks even sexier than that supposed femme fatale - a promiscuous sociopath who prosecutors said tried to sacrifice her kids in order to win a man who wanted no part of children O’Neal plays the target Lew Lewiston and Shea is Assistant District Attork ney Fred Hugi renamed Frank in the movie “I’ve talked to some people from Oregon” Fawcett relates "and they n have a very accent - not Southern but definitely countrified” The actress studied Downs' voice by listening to taped interviews conducted by detectives and author Rule and videotapes of Downs’ appearances But she chose not to meet Downs herself "I actually had so much material available to me that I didn’t feel it was necessary to talk to her and become confused about what she was claiming did or did not happen” Fawcett explains with an almost undetectable loathing in her voice “Diane still says it didn’t happen the way everybody says and that she didn't do it I just - I just didn’t want to be around her” There are no more projects for the moment She now wants "to do family things” She doesn’t have to prove anything for a while "People say to me sometimes ‘You’ve changed’ Well I think that’s a great compliment I hope I have It’s terribly boring to stay the same” semi-haple- Jo-zia- almost-Souther- TV-ne- STANDARD-EXAMINE- R |