A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : DESPERATION TIME : Can’t Somebody in This Here Town Find a Comedy for Susan Sarandon?

Call it the Meryl Streep Syndrome.

Here you are, an actress capable of umpteen emotions, and you suddenly get pigeonholed as a drama queen. For Streep, the vicious cycle was finally broken with three lighter movies: “Defending Your Life,” “Postcards From the Edge” and “Death Becomes Her.”

But Streep isn’t the only esteemed actress with a desire to break free from the shackles of pathos and do something out of character.

Take Susan Sarandon. It’s been 17 years since the camp classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and four since “Bull Durham.” Since then, she’s played a gritty waitress (“White Palace”), a gun-toting humanist in a T-bird (“Thelma & Louise”) and the multilingual mother of a sick child (“Lorenzo’s Oil”). How do you break that string of Sturm und Drang ?

How ‘bout with a depraved suburban housewife who bashes in people’s heads with a leg of lamb and sings Barry Manilow’s “Daybreak” on the way to commit her heinous crimes?

Well . . . almost.

According to sources and the star herself, Sarandon was very close to tackling the lead role in John Waters’ upcoming “Serial Mom.” Set up at Columbia Pictures (much to the shock of some in the industry), the raucous comedy by Waters (“Hairspray,” “Cry-Baby”) follows the travails of a sicko mother who, one by one, knocks off neighbors who irritate her.

“I was very interested in ‘Serial Mom’ because I would love to do a comedy,” Sarandon says. “We (she and Waters) had a number of lunches together and I liked him very much. I thought the script really hit upon some funny things and some interesting points of society, in terms of what’s happening now.”

Sarandon was at the top of Columbia’s list for the role of Beverly, who in the film’s first scene is seen gleefully smashing flies in her Betty Crocker kitchen. The studio, sources say, was adamant that Sarandon--or an A-list star of her caliber--be signed for the role.

“They didn’t want a situation where Ricki Lake’s sister played the lead,” says one source of the Waters veteran. “They wanted a huge star for insurance.”

Although Waters is said to have liked Sarandon very much, the deal was inhibited by several factors. One was the schedule: Sarandon, mother of three, didn’t want to go back to work as early as March.

The other is said to be her salary. “She was asking for more than they were willing to give her, basically,” says one.

“Now, I don’t know what’s happening to it,” says Sarandon.

What’s happening is that in the past two weeks, Columbia--for reasons no one is willing to explain--suddenly put the picture in turnaround. After interest from several studios, the property was snatched up by Savoy Pictures and will start shooting in April.

Without Sarandon.

Waters and his producers are considering several actresses. Among the names reportedly being batted about for the title role: Kathleen Turner and Judy Davis.

Sarandon is a bit disappointed. “There is nothing I would like better than to take my icon status and throw it to the winds and do something like ‘Serial Mom,’ ” she says with a laugh.

Other than a long-off thriller at Joe Roth’s new Disney banner that would cast her as a psychiatrist who becomes too emotionally involved with a patient, Sarandon says her slate for this year is pretty much clean. But she’s looking.

“I am desperate to do a comedy,” she says.