She Has a Face That Will Launch a Thousand Quips

Two months ago, 22-year-old Elyse Hall was just another Valley girl working in a chiropractor’s office and dreaming of Hollywood stars.

That was before comedian Bob Hope plucked the wholesome-looking blonde from obscurity to play opposite him in an NBC special about the Iran- contra scandal scheduled to air tonight.

Hall bears a likeness to another blonde who inadvertently became the talk of Washington some months ago when she confessed to shredding her boss’s secret papers. The two women even share the same last name.

But that’s where Elyse Hall’s resemblance to Pentagon super-secretary Fawn Hall ends.

“I’ve never shredded anything, and I’m a terrible typist--well, maybe 30 words a minute,” the West Coast Hall said .

Her rusty office skills didn’t deter Hope. The 84-year-old comedian was more impressed with her striking resemblance to Fawn Hall and by her savvy demeanor.

A Fawn Look-Alike

“I thought Fawn Hall was a smart-looking gal; she knew what she was doing,” Hope said. Elyse Hall “seemed to have the same personality.”

Not to mention the same leonine mane, height and high cheekbones as Fawn Hall. And although Elyse’s eyes are brown and Fawn’s are aquamarine, tinted contact lenses could neatly solve that problem.

Elyse Hall, an aspiring actress who shares a modest apartment in Van Nuys with her 3-year-old son, Benjamin, is going through a divorce and seems overwhelmed by the attention she has received.

“Everything’s happening so fast,” she said. “But really, I’m just thrilled to be working with Bob Hope.”

In addition to frenetic rehearsals and tapings for the Hope special, Elyse Hall--who quit her job as a chiropractic assistant a month ago--has signed a contract with the William Morris Agency, the same company that signed Fawn Hall to a book and movie deal. In the past month, Elyse Hall has appeared on Entertainment Tonight, the TV evening news, and she has done numerous interviews, including some for overseas newspapers.

It hadn’t occurred to Elyse Hall that she looked anything like Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North’s former secretary until a friend pointed out the resemblance and told her about the auditions for a Fawn Hall look-alike, she said.

In this version of the Iran-contra affair, however, the comedian would be accused of selling jokes to cable TV to pay off golfing debts.

A Heaven-Sent Boom

If the Iran-contra scandal blew up at an untimely moment for its key players, it proved a heaven-sent boom for Elyse Hall.

Just about the time that Fawn Hall and Ollie North were engaging in covert cover-ups, Elyse Hall was having a career crisis of her own. For almost a year, she had been putting in long hours as a chiropractor’s assistant and wondering whether to chuck it all to try acting again, or to opt for a career in fashion merchandising.

Despite the urging of her friends that she audition for the role of Fawn Hall, she was skeptical. She decided to subject the matter to the ultimate litmus test:

“I showed a newspaper photo of Fawn Hall to my son and said, ‘Benjamin, who’s that?’ ”

When her son replied “Mommy,” no further persuasion was needed. “That’s it,” Hall told herself, “I’m going to the audition.”

The morning of the audition, Hall said, “I just got up, dressed like a secretary in a skirt and blouse and put on my regular makeup.” She arranged her hair in the same Farrah Fawcett style she’s worn for three years.

She joined a bevy of other hopefuls who met at a North Hollywood dance studio. The faux Fawns were whisked away by limousine to Bob Hope’s Toluca Lake home.

There, she recalls, each woman was quickly led in to Hope, who asked them perfunctory questions, including whether they had ever acted.

A Child Actress

Elyse Hall did some acting as a child and has some recent experience.

“I was really thrilled to meet him. He was extremely polite, and when we were through talking he said, ‘It’s been nice looking at you.’ ”

Unbeknown to either of them, Elyse Hall’s mother--actress and interior designer Jill Hall--had filmed a TV commercial for gasoline with Hope about six years earlier. The elder Hall had played a customer driving into the gas station.

“It’s fate,” Elyse Hall said.

In another coincidence, Elyse Hall’s last appearance before a camera was a bit part in Beverly Hills Cop II in which she played the secretary of a crook. The scene was cut from the film’s final version.

The aspiring actress is concerned about being typecast as Fawn Hall’s doppelganger.

“That would be a dead-end acting career,” she said.

Her goal is to star in a TV series, “maybe a nighttime soap,” she said.

Elyse Hall also said she wouldn’t mind running into her role model.

“I’d love to meet Fawn Hall, just to see her in person. I’m curious to see if we really do look alike.”

Does Elyse Hall think that the former secretary to the fired National Security Council aide erred in following her boss’s orders without questioning them?

“I think it’s great she was so supportive of him--that she stuck with him through the whole thing,” she said. “But all those people saying she had an affair with him . . . stuff like that disgusts me.”