Me Lambert.
You Lane.

By: Lori Berger
In Fashion Magazine

A French star educated with the elite and an American actress
reared in a cab are making a home together in Hollywood.

After Diane Lane saw Greystoke:The Legend of Tarzan for the third time in Japan five years ago, she called her agent in the States and had her track down Christopher Lambert's home phone number in Paris.When she placed the 10,000 mile long distance call, she reached his answering machine, which spoke to her in French. Disappointed, yet relieved, Lane identified herself and complimented him on his impressive permformance in the film. That was it. No innuendo, no return number and no follow-up phone call.

Six months later, while she was in Paris promoting the film The Cotton Club, and he was there for Lovesongs, with Catherine Deneuve, they were thrown together by chance as partners dancing a tango for a Paris television station. Sparks flew. "I knew of Diane Lane, the actress," smiles the 31-year-old Lambert, describing his first meeting with his new bride. "I knew I wanted to know this girl. She was definite, strong, charming and vulnerable -- the type of qualities I like and the type of person I like to be involved with."

The newly settled, still sultry Lane, 24, adds her version of their first encounter: "When I finally met him I had a very different image of myself than I do now, much more unsure. I remember looking in the mirror before I first met him and thinking, 'Don't get too dressed or he will know you care too much; don't put on too much perfume or he'll think you're trying too hard.' I guess you could say I was mildly obsessed."

Obsessions, however, come and go. Right place, wrong time, may be the best explanation for why this romance blossomed and then came to an abrupt halt four days after that last tango in Paris. Still, the meeting laid the groundwork for a love affair that would unexpectedly resume two years later in Sardinia (although there was no communication between the two during the interval) and lead to an engagement in Rome four weeks later, when Lane brought an unsuspecting Lambert into a jewelry store and basically popped the question. Last October the two were married in the U.S. while on a cross-country trip in a jeep. They tried to "get hitched" at several points along the way, but finally said their "I do's" in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they now own a house.

For the newlyweds, however, home is currently on the eighth floor of an exclusive West Hollywood high-rise, where Lane--in black silk shirt, pants and stocking feet--pads around with the distinct air of a woman who relishes her new marital status and is willing to admit that conjugal bliss has made her a much "nicer" person. "We've both changed and matured so much since we met four years ago," reflects the bride. "We were both very happy clubbing and partying to all hours of the morning. But you wake up one morning and say, 'What's my life about?' You realize that most of those things are only traps and you've lost the purpose you started out with--to be an actor and to make films."

Attributing the failure of the relationship at that time to all the uncertainties of youth, Lane now says with confidence, "When it's right, you feel it's right. You can have a bell go off and you can have several bells go off, but with Christopher it was an entire symphony."

One can readily see why. Although at first the urbane, French actor appears preoccupied and reserved, it doesn't take long for his warm European charm and quick wit to surface. He settles in the billowy, rattan sofa, sips on his beer of choice, Anchor Steam, and affectionately teases Lane's black kitten while talking about love, life, and his wife. "If you get up in the morning and have 15 moods from the time you go from the bedroom to the kitchen, which is Diane's case, you never know what will happen and it keeps things interesting," he laughs. "I never know if the morning coffee is going to end up on the bedside table or my head."

Feigning indignation, while fully aware of her tempestuous moods, Lane gives her spouse a loving nudge and counters with, "Plus, I seem to change my hair color every week so he's got lots of people to keep him busy."

The feisty comment is typical of the seasoned actress, who started her career at the age of six, when she was cast in an Andrei Serban--directed production of Medea at New York's renowned La Mama Experimental Theater Club. By 13, she was acting opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in the film A Little Romance; at 14, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine and, by 15, she had struck out on her own. But if Lane, who now counts 16 films to her credit, has earned a tough-as-nails reputation portraying independent women with a predilection toward recklessness, there is definetely another side. When her guard is down she will occasionally slip into the self-consciousness of a young girl whose naiveté and apparent lack of confidence are perhaps the result of having missed a normal childhood.

Unlike the cosmopolitan Lambert, who was educated in an elite Swiss boarding school, Lane picked up her formal education through correspondence schools and her street smarts from traveling around with her cab-driver father and her mother, an ex-Playmate and showgirl. Yet it is those very differences that make the relationship dynamic and keep the two players on their toes. "Our common understanding is that there is a balance," says Lambert with his characteristic intensity. "Neither one of us is more important than the other. When I'm shooting a film that's one thing, when Diane's shooting it's another. Even when she's off filming, she's still with me. We don't ever feel we need our freedom because we allow each other to be free to do what we want."

Much of Lamber's easygoing thinking is a result of his diverse background. Raised in Paris, London and Geneva, he spent two years at the prestigious Paris Conservatory of Drama before bing selected for the lead role in Greystoke, in which he wowed audiences worldwide with his intense portrayal of a rugged jungle man who is transformed into a country gentleman. "I'm ready to accept most anything as long as I'm not lied to," says Lambert, who admits that his carefree attitude results from having to adapt to new countries and schools while growing up. "But I'm not the type to go introduce myself to people I don't know at parties and say, 'Hi, I'm Christopher, let's talk.' Usually I stand and face a wall or look at the view for the 152nd time."

The two actors are currently trying to fuse their energies in a professional partnership--a production company. While Lambert awaits the release of his two new films To Kill a Priest and Why Me? Lane catches her breath following her most recent role as another bad-girl-with-a-heart-of-gold in CBS's eight-hour miniseries Lonesome Dove. She admits to being more than content for the moment to focus on her painting and make frequent visits to Mom at the couple's new two-acre spread in rural Georgia, where the actress' biggest concern is "should my mom cook the bacon or should I?" In fact, although Lane accepts the fact that she must be in Hollywood right now for her career, she concedes that L.A. is probably the last place on earth she would willingly call home.

"I can't be anonymous in Los Angeles," complains Lane, who is more naturally inclined toward "birds and greenery" than the conspicuousness of Tinseltown. "Hollywood is everywhere; it's a frame of mind that's accepted by osmosis. My real identity here is irrelevant. It's all about what other people think of me. When I'm here there are always interior monologues going on in my head. I don't even feel comfortable going to the 7-Eleven. If they don't recognize me I get insulted, and if they do it bugs me."

Lane's ambivalent relationship with celebrity has added to her mystique. Unlike her co-stars in such films as The Outsiders and Rumblefish (both directed by Francis Ford Coppola), she has resisted the "Brat Pack" status that could have made her a household name, choosing instead to follow her free spirit and her longing for individuality--at the expense of a certain amount of commercial success. But the actress has no regrets, explaining, "Christopher is my finality. He's taught me to be patient and to think before I speak or act. And now that is what I'm trying to do.

"I think I would like to do some writing," she adds, "but I'm hanging back, which is what I tend to do when there is something I really care about. One part of me says what's the rush and tries to be satisified, and the other part says I'll never be satisfied because I'll always need change and improvement in my life."

Sitting opposite the newlyweds, it's hard to imagine much room for improvement. Lane and Lambert make the marriage of two dynamic careers and two distinctly different personalities seem so easy--and they say it is, although anyone who's been there knows better. Communication is key, they acknowledge, and long, intense conversations into the early hours of the morning are both a pleasure and a solution to the problems that do arise. It's a partnership they work hard to preserve. "When Diane wants to relax or be alone, she'll tell me," explains Lambert. "I take it the way I want to, like she takes it the way she wants to. What's important is that we say what we need to say. I can't say that we really fight, because we just don't need to."

At this, Lane interrupts with another playful jab and her own version of their domestic bliss, "Well . . . we might have a snit about something, but if you stare into the eyes of the other person long enough all you can really do is laugh."