Macaulay Culkin Gets a Leading Lady

If her first film does as well as her leading man’s last one, Anna Chlumsky could become a big star.

Chlumsky, a 10-year-old from the Chicago area, is starring opposite Macaulay Culkin in “My Girl” in what may be the most coveted child’s role since Culkin landed “Home Alone” last year. That film has grossed well over $200 million, while driving Culkin’s per-movie fee into the $1-million range. Though Anna is getting considerably less for “My Girl”--under $50,000, according to a source--it’s an opportunity to work with Hollywood’s hottest male star.

“My Girl,” a comedy-drama being directed in Florida by Howard Zieff for Imagine Entertainment and Columbia Pictures, centers on an 11-year-old (Chlumsky) who is being raised by her widowed funeral-director father (Dan Aykroyd). Obsessed with sickness and death--and starved for dad’s love--she teams with her lifelong pal (Culkin) to “cook something up,” says Chlumsky. “And something happens in the end--it’s a surprise.”

The daughter of a singer-actress and a restaurateur, Anna is a veteran of TV commercials, plays and industrial films. Her agent got her an audition for “My Girl” in Chicago last September, and in November--just after “Home Alone” opened and soared--she flew to L.A. to audition with Macaulay. Soon after, she got a call backstage at the theater where she was working as a moppet in “Annie” and was told she had the part.

So far, Anna isn’t banking on a Hollywood career. When she grows up, she says she’d like to be an animal trainer, a “horse dentist” or a choreographer. Furthermore, she rebuffs any suggestions that she and her co-star might become, as they say, an item.

“I think we’ll just be good friends,” she says.

Working with Culkin has been fun, says Anna, but she confesses to being nervous about an upcoming scene--in which they kiss.

Have they been rehearsing?

“No, thank goodness!”