TOWERS SOARS OVER HER ROLE IN ‘EAGLES’

Not surprisingly, the wife of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico wields considerable clout south of the border.

She’s courted, coveted and confided in. And everywhere she goes she has a police escort.

But things changed a lot when Ambassador John Gavin’s actress wife, Constance Towers, was cast in an NBC-TV movie to be made there--”On Wings of Eagles.” Like any other actress, she had to return to Los Angeles to apply to the Mexican Consulate here for a work permit.

“It was quite a switch,” said Towers. “I’ve been in such a privileged position for the past four years. Suddenly, I had to behave like every other actress--fill out forms, have my picture taken and ask permission to go there to work.”

“On Wings of Eagles” is based on writer Ken Follett’s real-life account of how tough-minded Texas businessman Ross Perot got together a team of specialists and sent them into Iran to rescue employees of his Tehran office trapped there after the revolution.

In the television version, due to air in May, Mexico City doubles for Tehran. Burt Lancaster plays the leader of the rescue team, Richard Crenna is Perot and Towers is his wife, Margot.

She still doesn’t know whether the people at the consulate here knew who she was when she applied for a work permit. “I didn’t use the name Gavin at all, just ‘actress Constance Towers,’ so maybe they didn’t know.”

When she returned to Mexico City for the first day of shooting, she was picked up at the U.S. Embassy residence by a film company car.

“The driver, a Mexican, told me how good he thought the American ambassador was,” said Towers. “He kept asking me lots of questions. Was I a friend of the Gavins? What was I doing staying there? When he found out who I was, he was terribly embarrassed. But I was delighted to hear such good things said about my husband.”

Towers wanted to meet with Margot Perot before she began her role so, through a mutual friend, she arranged for a long talk. “I’m very proud we have people like a Ross Perot in our society,” said Towers. “He stands for so many things that America admires. His attitude was: ‘My people are trapped over there. I’m going to get them out.’ I think that’s thrilling.”

Towers, who spent 2 1/2 years touring with Yul Brynner in “The King and I” and still commutes weekly between Mexico City and Los Angeles for her CBS soap, “Capitol,” threw a lavish black-tie dinner party at the U.S. Embassy while filming “On Wings of Eagles.” Many of the film elite were invited.

“Among our other guests was Richard Moorfield, who was consul general in Tehran when the revolutionaries took over,” she said. “He was one of the hostages there, so he was able to tell us what it was really like. That’s one of the nice things about being the ambassador’s wife: You can bring interesting people together.”

NO CHIP: “I was asked to go on one of those TV shows about the sons of famous fathers,” said Jason Connery. “I wouldn’t do it. I’m proud of my dad, but I want to build a career on my own.”

Connery, 23, the son of Sean, is the star of Showtime’s “Robin Hood,” airing Mondays and Saturdays during February (8 p.m. Feb. 17 and 24; 7 p.m. tonight, next Saturday and Feb. 22), and when he was here promoting the series, almost everyone threw the son-of-Sean bait at him. He managed to duck the questions adroitly, making it clear that he wasn’t particularly interested in discussing Sean Connery and the James Bond movies.

Had his father encouraged him to take up acting?

“Not at all. In fact, he was concerned I wouldn’t have the dedication. All he said was ‘If you really want to do it, then do it. But it won’t be easy.’ And it hasn’t been.”

Since starting out in Scottish rep, Connery has made several films--among them “The Lords of Discipline.” But it was assumed by many that he landed the role of Robin because some publicity-minded producer recalled his father’s performance in the same role (“Robin and Marian,” the 1976 movie in which Sean Connery starred with Audrey Hepburn).

Not true, said Jason.

“The casting director of an American TV film I did, ‘The First Olympics,’ in which I played a runner, was Esta Charkham. When she became producer of ‘Robin Hood,’ she remembered me, recalled that I was fairly athletic and asked me to test. I wouldn’t have got the role if I hadn’t been right for it, I promise you.”

What he most wants, he said, is to be given the chance to climb the ladder slowly.

“One of the troubles with having a famous name is that there are producers who are all too happy to star you in something big before you’re ready.