Mary Steenburgen returns to romance in 'Last Vegas'

MARY STEENBURGEN burst on to the Hollywood scene in 1978, stuck in a marriage of convenience with Jack Nicholson in "Goin' South." She's 60 now, hard to believe, with the same sexy, velvety drawl, and in "Last Vegas" she's hanging out with Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline.

In real life, she's married to Ted Danson (TV's "Cheers" and "CSI" - perhaps the best known TV star of the past 30 years).

Not a bad gig.

"I love what I do for a living," she said recently when the Daily News spoke with her at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas, "and still think I'm the luckiest person in the world to get to do this. I know millions of people dream about it. I still pinch myself."

But Steenburgen, an Oscar-winner (1980's "Melvin and Howard") with a packed resume, said she still tries to live a normal life, true to her Southern roots.

"The last few days is the first time we've ever used security in our lives," she said. "And the only reason we did is because we had to get quickly from place to place, and if my husband is with me, there is no way we can go quickly through a crowd, because everyone wants a photo. They do of me, too, but it's not to the extent that it is with him, because I've not done TV like he has. He's everyone's friend.

"But when we're in airports, we don't travel with any entourage. It's not how I want to live. It's not what I relate to. I'm from Arkansas. I never wanted to stray so far from who I was or what I was born into that I wouldn't recognize myself if I ran into my 18-year-old self. That's why when I was a young woman I moved to Ojai, Calif., with my children, because I didn't understand how to negotiate the waters of LA with children, and I wanted them to be able to know people of all backgrounds."

When "Last Vegas" shot some interiors and exteriors at the Aria, Steenburgen said the cast and crew was on "this little island" that had been cleared of tourists, "but on all sides of the island there were always a sea of people with cell phones, waving. There was no place to go and shoot where we were tucked away and hidden; which is why when we did the interiors in the giant (party) suite, it was constructed in Atlanta, where it could be very quiet.

"I did, however, see an amazing room here when [CBS President] Les Moonves was here and gave us a very amazing dinner. I'd already been feeling like a princess for the suite they put me up in, and then I saw his and it was like, whoa! How many more levels of crazy luxury are there?"

In "Last Vegas," Steenburgen plays a lounge singer who catches the eye of both Douglas and De Niro, who are in Sin City with their old buddies to celebrate Douglas's impending marriage to a much younger woman.

Steenburgen said that she's done a lot of little things over the past few years, "but this is by far the biggest role in terms of being that romantic object. I've not been that for a very long time really. I've had an affair with Alec Baldwin on '30 Rock' and stuff like that, but in terms of the big screen, this is a very different part than I've played in a long time."

And working with her four co-stars?

"They're all people I had an artistic crush on," she said, "all actors who were on my wish list and all people whom I've felt that I've learned something from. And then I met them, and they were so different and so funny and creative and wonderful and grown-up and cool."

Steenburgen said it was great "sitting around talking to them and listening to Morgan sing and Kevin be hilarious and Bob be fascinating and Michael encouraging me with the singing - 'You can do it, it's gonna be good.' There was instant camaraderie between all five of us.

"I think one of the blessings of being our age and working now is that you're not looking toward the next job like a lot of young actors. You're not trying to one-up somebody or see what you can get out of this. You're just into the pleasure of the moment. And I loved it."