BUSY ALLY SHEEDY FINDS A ‘MAID TO ORDER’ ROLE

At the age of 25, Ally Sheedy, the fresh-faced actress of “WarGames” and “St. Elmo’s Fire,” already shows signs of not being--or wanting to be--your typical Hollywood product.

Last month she was featured extensively in the Vegetarian Times. And this month she herself has written a very personal article in Ms. magazine.

The Vegetarian Times story comes as no surprise since, from the age of 12, Sheedy has turned her back on everything but nuts and fruits and vegetables.

But Ms.--that’s something else.

Here’s part of what she’s written in a remarkably frank article about her mother, Charlotte, now a successful literary agent in Manhattan:

“(In) the late ‘60s . . . she began doing strange things--getting arrested for lying down in the street in Washington, D.C., to protest the war . . . using our kitchen to cook up perfume that her women’s liberation group sold on campuses to fund itself . . . showing up at the Paris Opera in overalls and hiking boots . . . tearing up and down Broadway on her bicycle. . . .”

Writes Sheedy: “I was, to say the least, confused.”

What had prompted the article?

“I’ve written for years,” Sheedy said the other afternoon. “My first piece in Ms. was published when I was 12. About the same time I wrote that children’s book (“She Was Nice to Mice,” McGraw-Hill). I love to write. Now, I’ve started a novel.”

Had her mother known about the article?

“Not till she read it. She felt it was, well, a bit personal. She said, ‘Ally, don’t do that anymore,’ so I won’t. But she was such a strong role model for me when I was growing up, I thought it was interesting.”

Role model she was. A radical feminist, she forbade Sheedy to use makeup or wear a bra when she was growing up. “Her view was I musn’t try to get by on my looks; I must develop my mind. I’m grateful to her for that.

“But it meant I had no idea of even how to apply makeup. I wore it for work, of course, but never in private. So six months ago I got a friend who does makeup to give me lessons. Really because it’s time I began to look my age. Without makeup and dressed casually, I look 14. And that doesn’t help get the kind of roles I want.”

Sheedy has just finished a movie, “Maid to Order,” in which she plays someone around her own age--”but I’ve often lost roles because I looked too young.”

She flew to New York a few days ago to audition for a movie and lost it because of her youthful looks.

“It was a sophisticated part, so I cut a picture out of a woman’s magazine that showed a woman sitting at a bar with her legs crossed, looking the epitome of sophistication. I thought, ‘Great, I’ll look like that.’ But of course as soon as I opened my mouth I was finished.”

In “Maid to Order,” a movie directed by Amy Jones opening July 31 and also starring Beverly D’Angelo, Tom Skerritt and Michael Ontkean, Sheedy plays the rich, spoiled daughter of a Beverly Hills tycoon who spends her days aimlessly shopping and partying. Enter her fairy godmother, who changes everything--removes her memory of family and wealth and says: Fend for yourself. She becomes a maid and, of course, eventually finds her True Self.

“It’s a Cinderella story in reverse,” said Sheedy. “Great fun. Personally, I’d always thought my fairy godmother would be a glamorous creature in a white ballgown. In the movie, she’s a bum who smokes like crazy.”

Since making her movie debut in “Bad Boys” with Sean Penn, Sheedy has worked constantly. Apart from “WarGames” and “St. Elmo’s Fire,” she has been seen in “The Breakfast Club,” “Twice in a Lifetime,” “Short Circuit” and TV’s “We Are the Children,” which was shot in Africa.

So--no complaints.

A serious vegetarian for many years, Sheedy winces at the thought that the first professional job she had when she arrived in Los Angeles from New York was a commercial for McDonald’s.

“I needed to pay the rent,” she said. “But I did feel a little hypocritical about it. A definite twinge. But at least I didn’t have to eat a hamburger.”

Now that she’s promised her mother that she will not write any more articles about her, what’s the reaction when Sheedy, so long denied a lipstick, turns up in New York wearing makeup?

“It doesn’t worry my mother anymore. She’s over that radical period now. As a matter of fact, she started using makeup herself again.”