SHUE HAPPENS

For younger Americans, Dartmouth's most famous living alum is Melrose Place hunk Andrew Shue. Is that really so horrible?

I know I'm not alone among my fellow young alumni in flinching when asked my alma mater. lam sick of the inevitable connection people make between Dartmouth and one of our most famous living alumni. No, not Dinesh D'Souza '81. Billy Campbell. And he doesn't even exist, outside the soap operatic world of TV's Melrose Place. Billy in real life is Andrew Shue '89, a man US magazine claims "emerged as Melroose Place's most desirable male, cover boy No. 1."

Oh, if you only knew the number of young women across : this great land whose follow-up question to What school did yon go to? inevitably is, Oh, did you know Andrew Shue?

There should be a manual of replies. Andrew who? or He's like my best friend. I have a friend whose usual reply, an utter falsehood, is You know he'sgay, right? Although my friend says he is well aware that the hunky history major is thoroughly hetero, apparently happily married, and a new father, "I just like to see the look of disappointment in their eyes."

So this is a tacky motive, but look, the whole thing gets annoying after a while. Think of how members of the class of 1801 felt whenever they walked into a tavern. You went to Dartmouth? Oh, do you know Daniel Webster? (Yes, they were tempted to reply, but there are those who love him)

When the FOX-TV campfest premiered in the fall of 1992, many, many Dartmouth alums felt a collegiate compulsion to gaze on the instant stardom of Shueby, as his friends in Hanover called him. I know for a fact that "Betty" '91 watched every episode. (She now denies it, and promised me a slow and painful death if I used her real name.) She does admit that she has watched the program, uh, more titan once, and mentions the show the way a recovering alcoholic might refer to whiskey: "Look, at the time, a lot of my friends from Dartmouth were in town and we all used to get together and watch it. It was more of a social thing." (Bear in mind that an entire episode of Seinfeld, Shue's favorite show, hinged around Jerry's abject denial that he had ever watched Melrose Place, a claim he eventually is forced to recant under polygraph.)

Many of the watchers had a fit of Big Green envy over Shue's all-too-easy road to riches, fame, and co-star Courtney ThorneSmith. My friend "Stan" (I've never had more people refuse to j go on record) bought extra copies of Entertainment Weekly when it referred to Shue as "theatrically challenged." On the other hand, we have "Bart" '91, who remains a diehard Melroser. Proud to root for a man who sports Dartmouth garb in the show's opening credits, Bart cheered when, in the first season, Shue's character ordered "a real me one with " everything but anchovies."

The one thing everyone, including Shue himself, seems to acknowledge is his limits as an actor. "My goal is not about being the best actor in the world," Shue told US magazine last : spring (he didn't return phone calls to be interviewed for this article). "It's not about being the most famous person in the world. And it's not about being the most wealthy person in the world. My goal is about having an amazing family and doing things that are really fulfilling." Which is a good thing. "As an actor, he is of absolutely zero significance. I forgot him already," says Washington Post television critic Tom Shales.

"On the other hand," argues Bart, "I don't think anyone thought Elizabeth Shue [his sister and a 1996 Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actress] was the real deal until Leaving Las Vegas, so who knows?" But another Greener fan offers this advice: "Don't leave Melrose. Pull a Loretta Swit and ride that baby out. Don't be a McLean Stevenson."

Not that Shue would feel stung by such a barb. Connie Britton '89, whose saintly cuckold Molly was the best thing about Sundance Film Festival winner The Brothers McMullen, and who stars on Michael J. Fox's new show, Spin City, recalls "angsting about my acting career" back in college. "Fie told me, 'You know my sister always said you just can't let it be the most important thing in your life.'"

"He's done good things with his fame and fortune," comments up-andcomer Brad Drazen '90, best known as the heartless ob-gyn resident responsible for a pregnant woman's death on the best-known episode of NBC's ER. "He's managed to make good things happen for other people." Drazen gives as an example Shue's grass-roots organization Do Something, which he co-founded in. 1993 "to inspire and assist young people of all backgrounds to take problem-solving action in their communities." Shue does stay busy.

The Dartmouth soccer team captain who led the Big Green to an Ivy Championship in his senior year and played professionally with the Bulawayo Highlanders in Zimbabwe, has a oneyear contract with major league soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy. (Sports Illustrated gave him jock confirmation with an article in June titled "Not Just Another Pretty Face.")

"Shue's got to decide who he is and who he wants to be," advises David Birney '61 of the hit tube series Bridget Loves Bernie and St. Elsewhere, as well as scores of theater credits. Birney has never seen Melrose Place but starred in the Spelling-produced show Glitter. "Early success can be as problematic, difficult, or as dangerous as no success in some ways." Law & Order alum Michael Moriarty '63, who also hasn't seen Shue act, gives identical advice: "Stay true to yourself. Don't imitate other people; just be you."

Whether you resent the guy or not, I think it's fair to say that Andrew Shue is being himself. And maybe that's not such a bad thing, for him or for Dartmouth.

Now, if he can only work a little harder at being Billy Campbell.

Cartoonist Jake Tapper '91 does a little dance, makes a little love, and gets down tonight.