COVER STORY : AT THE CENTER OF THE DOLE FIRESTORM

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) got plenty of attention when he scolded Hollywood about sex and violence in movies, TV and pop music. But, as The Times reports today (see Page A1), Dole’s comments aren’t changing the face of show business. Yet. The creative and business powerbrokers will tell you they’ve always been thoughful about what they produce. Here, then, are some snapshots of life on the front lines:

SIGOURNEY WEAVER

Actress

Sigourney Weaver has battled deadly space creatures in “Alien” and its sequels and has exuded sexuality in comedies such as “Ghostbusters.”

Sex or violence, the actress says, can be an integral part of a story unfolding on the screen and in the characters an actress portrays. But what is disturbing about some of today’s movies, Weaver says, is when they depict sex and violence.

“That is the most damaging thing about movies--combining sex and violence,” says Weaver, 45. Now a producer--her company is called Goat Cay Productions--she doesn’t want to see government censorship of films but, as the mother of a 5-year-old, Weaver is “most sensitive” to gratuitous violence.

“I have a little girl, but there is only stuff [at the movies] every two months that I’d ever take her to see,” the actress says.

“I think a lot of the violence we see is unnecessary, but you can have big, roller-coaster movies,” Weaver says. “I think director Jim Cameron [“True Lies,” “Aliens”] did it with some of his films. No one actually gets hurt. You go for fantasy and the thrill of the situation.

“I meet children who have seen ‘Alien’ and ‘Aliens’ 400 times,” she says. “What impact that will have on them, I don’t know. You can say ‘Alien’ was a violent picture but it’s really not. It’s just horror.

“It’s true, I blew some aliens away,” she admits, “but they deserved it.”