AH, WILDERNESS!
Jodie Foster speaks her own primitive language in Nell, the story of a woman raised with only her mother for company in the woods of North Carolina. The Oscar-winning actress kept close to character, after a fashion, living near the Nantahala National Forest, where the drama was filmed. "I did a lot of hiking," says Foster, 32. Hiking? "Well," she admits, "the truth is, I hung out in my cabin a lot. I rented one of those A-frame, one-room loft spaces on top of the mountains. There was even an eagle's nest up there. It was really cool." Foster avoided cabin fever by stocking up on creature comforts from home. "I brought a compact-disc player, a VCR and videotapes—so many tapes. I watched Bombshell [starring] Jean Harlow and all those old movies you never get a chance to see." Still, the rustic digs weren't paradise. "I didn't have cable," says Foster, "so that was rough."

GUILT-EDGED
Actresses moan about the dearth of meaty movie roles for women, but Susan Sarandon, 48, managed to find three this year—in The Client, Little Women and Safe Passage. Still, her most treasured role remains the same—as mom to her three kids: Eva, 9, Jack Henry, 5, and Miles, 2. "Just because you're feeling overwhelmed doesn't mean you're doing a bad job," says Sarandon, who cheerfully juggles the demands of kids and career. She recently left her brood at home to accept one of the National Parenting Association's Children First Awards in New York City. "Nothing could please me more. Especially after I left a screaming 2-year-old, a furious 5-year-old, and an irate 9-year-old who couldn't believe I was going out and who laughed when I explained where I was going. I guess the seeds of irony have been planted."

IT'S NOW OR NEVER
Elvis won't be celebrating his 60th birthday on January 8 (as far as we know), but his musical influence lives on, from the romantic ballads of Tony Bennett, 68, to the mope rock of R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, 35. Bennett remembers meeting the King once, at Paramount Studios, when Elvis was at the peak of his movie career. "I never saw anyone more handsome," says Bennett, who sang "Love Me Tender" at the Elvis tribute in Memphis last October. "He was an original, the first to wear spangles when everyone else was wearing a suit and a tie. I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I wear a suit and a tie and now there are so many people dressing like Elvis." Stipe imitated Elvis in R.E.M.'s 1993 hit "Man on the Moon" and has met Lisa Marie Presley. Says Stipe: "I told her, 'I do a bad imitation of your father in one of our songs. You should listen to it.' And she looked at me like, 'Oh, I've never heard that one before.' "

SMART AND SMARTER
Robin Givens didn't do Mike Tyson's career much good, but she did help Picket Fences' Lauren Holly get her start when they were roommates at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. "I worked at a diner in Yonkers," says Holly, 31. "I was so poor that I walked to Yonkers in my white nurse's shoes. Robin introduced me to her manager, and I started getting commercials." Now she's getting attention as the beauty in Dumb and Dumber—and getting smart about how parts are cast. "If I audition for character roles, they say, 'She's too pretty,' and if she has to be a babe, I'm not pretty enough," says Holly. "I guess I'm a semi-babe, compared with Julia Roberts or Michelle Pfeiffer. If I worked as a teacher, I'd be considered really pretty."