Polly Draper: Quick Change Artist

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/17/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Ex-"thirtysomething" star Polly Draper, 44, may have showed up in a limo for this week's New York premiere of her movie, "The Tic Code," but she really wasn't riding in the style that she had planned on. "I very overzealously got in the limo," Draper, who both wrote and stars in the movie, told PEOPLE. The result? "I just ripped the s--- out of the skirt that I had on, right up the back." Not one to miss her own big event, Draper switched outfits in five fast minutes, thus earning the applause of her entourage. As for "The Tic Code," which also stars Gregory Hines and promising young actor Christopher Marquette, Draper based the story on a problem suffered by her husband, the neurological disorder Tourette's syndrome. "I thought it was something that was so minor that he didn't need to feel shame about it," Draper said.