By Jeannie Williams 
USA Today

Diane Lane got the news from her boyfriend, Josh Brolin, that she had been nominated for a best-actress Golden Globe for "Unfaithful."

"That was the most adrenaline-filled moment. There were 15 people poised in L.A. to get the call so I wouldn't be awakened at 5 a.m. It was my boyfriend who called me. It was so sweet - he was so proud of me. He'd either stayed up, or I guess he had his hand on the phone. It was nice - kept it in the family." Lane, who turns 38 Tuesday, hasn't had as much attention from a feature film since her first, 1979's "A Little Romance."

Brolin, whose "Mister Sterling "series premiered on NBC Friday, was with Lane at Sunday's New York Film Critics Circle awards ceremony, where she won best actress. Brolin, the son of James Brolin, turns 35 next month; he and Lane met about a year ago. "I'm glad he was able to meet my father (acting coach Burt Lane) before he died -- that was huge," Lane says. 

She has heard from other significant people in her life: ex-husband Christopher Lambert, father of her 9-year-old daughter, via phone from Paris. "He cried when he heard I got the New York Film Critics Award. He was very happy for me. I said, ëHoney, you're just jet-lagged.' "

She talked by phone with "Unfaithful" co-star Richard Gere when he was in India before Christmas, after she had returned from shooting "Under the Tuscan Sun" in Italy. He also has been nominated for a Globe, for "Chicago."

Gere told her from the beginning that "Unfaithful ""would do great things for me. He said that when he first saw a screening. He's so genuine and generous." In the movie, she plays a suburban wife who has an affair with a sexy Manhattan book dealer (Olivier Martinez). Gere is the cuckold husband.

Lane might be the only person not surprised by Gere's tap-dancing prowess in Chicago. The two starred in the ill-fated "Cotton Club." "He played the trumpet and sang; he can do pretty much anything," she says. "He's a real actor."

In "Tuscan Sun," which is based on the best-selling book, Lane plays author Frances Mayes. Mayes, she says, is fine with changes in the story. In the movie, which has no release date yet, "she's coming off a terrible divorce and meets her mate in Tuscany, instead of going there with him. We had to create some conflict and plot. Films are a different market." 

January 16, 2003