SISSY SPACEK DOESN’T WORRY ABOUT ROLES ANYMORE

“One of the great things about living where I do is that I no longer read what others are doing,” said Sissy Spacek. “When I was here, the trades seemed filled with stories of actresses getting the roles I wanted.”

You don’t expect a performer as talented as Spacek to have those worries, but during the 11 years she lived here before moving to a farm in Virginia--yes, she says, she had them.

“That’s why I took a little office here and formed a production company,” she said. “Just to help combat the frustration and keep my mind occupied. Otherwise I’d have gone crazy.

“And you know what? Every time I slipped out of town to go back to Texas (her birthplace) without telling anyone, I’d get frantic calls from my agent to come back for meetings. But when I stayed here--biting my nails and waiting to hear if I had some role--nothing.”

Spacek, just voted the year’s best actress by the New York film critics for her role as the gun-toting sister in “Crimes of the Heart,” now lives on a 210-acre horse farm outside Charlottesville, Va., with her husband, director Jack Fisk, and their 4-year-old daughter Schuyler. Instead of reading the trades and fretting, she drives her child to school, gardens and goes out riding.

Her company, Blackbird Productions--co-producer of her much-praised movie “ ‘night, Mother”--is actively looking for new projects. But for the moment she seems content to rest on this year’s well-earned laurels and give thanks that, since she turns 36 on Christmas Day, she was born in the age of color.

“With my coloring,” she said, “I’m nothing in black and white. I’ve seen my films sometimes on black-and-white TV. Disaster.”

One of the questions most asked of three Academy Award-winning actresses of “Crimes of the Heart” (Spacek, Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange): Where do you each keep your Oscar?

“We said where,” admitted Spacek. “I said mine was on the dresser in the bedroom. But afterward we all went home and moved them someplace else. . . . “

ORIGINAL: Ellen Greene is so absolutely right as Audrey in the movie “Little Shop of Horrors” that you’d think the role was created for her. In a way, it was, for she originated the character Off Broadway in 1982 and has since devoted almost four years to playing it.

Originally a Roger Corman horror film in 1960 (Jack Nicholson was in it), the show was turned into a musical by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Greene, already making a name for herself on the New York stage, landed the role of Audrey.

“When we first tried it out Off Broadway I got $360 for three months’ work and had $100 to spend on my costume,” she said the other day. “Then we moved to Broadway and the show took off.”

This is only her third movie (the others: “Next Stop, Greenwich Village,” “I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can”) and, despite her success on stage, she wasn’t sure she’d get it.

“So many big names were after it,” she said. “After they’d given it to me and we were starting to make the movie in England (it was shot at Pinewood Studios), I stood on a street corner one day and said to myself, ‘It’s really happening. Make sure you enjoy every moment.’ So I did. And I am. . . . “

“NEVER AGAIN”: “I promise you one thing,” said Bo Derek. “Nobody’s going to kick us around again.”

Since the financial and critical flop of “Bolero,” their last movie, Bo and John Derek have been tucked away on their 32-acre ranch near Santa Barbara. But now, she says, they have completed plans to make a new movie that they plan to distribute themselves.

“We just returned from Europe,” said Bo. “We’ve set up the whole film ourselves, raised the finance and arranged the distribution. After the problems we had on ‘Bolero’ (which they made for Cannon), we determined: ‘Never again.’ It made us gun-shy of dealing with Hollywood. So we decided to do everything ourselves.”

The movie in the works is “A Knight of Love”--a new version (co-scripted by John Derek) of the German fairy tale, “Ondine.” Shot in Europe next summer on a budget of $6 million, it will feature Bo as a water nymph.

“Now we’re looking for seven more gorgeous girls to play nymphs,” she said. “When we were in Copenhagen, we announced our plans in the papers and now we’re getting photographs of beautiful girls sent us every day. John will make the selection.”

CONNECTIONS: Debrett, which chronicles the lineage of Britain’s aristocracy, has now published a new book, “Debrett Goes to Hollywood,” that charts the family trees of some of the Hollywood greats.

Some of the family connections are mind-boggling.

For instance--Humphrey Bogart’s mother was an eighth cousin of Princess Di’s great-grandmother.

So that explains the likeness.