Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 21, 1993                   TAG: 9308210269
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-20   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LYNN VAN MATRE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

JEREMY PIVEN TAKES THE LEAD IN HIS OWN RIGHT

But don't bother with condolences. Piven couldn't be happier. He left, with "Sanders Show" creator-star Garry Shandling's blessing and an invitation to return any time, to take a starring role in the feature film "PCU (Politically Correct University)," a college comedy shooting in Toronto.

"I'm not only the comedic leading man, I also get the girl," says Piven, who confesses only half-jokingly that he once thought his whole movie career would be spent "playing guys who sit in the car, looking at their watch and waiting, like a young Brian Dennehy," while their more dashing friends romance the leading lady. "I can't believe it."

These are heady times for Piven, who relocated to Los Angeles in 1989 but considers the Chicago area home. The 28-year-old actor, who launched his professional career as a member of the Second City touring company and went on to make a name for himself on the Chicago theater scene, not only is finally "getting the girl" in films, but he is also starting to get lead roles after playing small parts in "Singles" and "The Player."

In addition to starring in "PCU," he's featured in "Car 54, Where Are You?" scheduled for release in 1994, and stars with Emilio Estevez and Cuba Gooding Jr. in "Judgment Night," an urban action drama that will have its world premiere Oct. 21 at a Chicago-area theater to benefit the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, Ill.

Founded two decades ago by Piven's parents, veteran actors-directors Byrne and Joyce Piven, the not-for-profit workshop provided Jeremy's introduction to theater as a child, though it wasn't until a decade later that he got serious about acting as a career.

"I started going to the workshop when I was 8 and had fun playing theater games, but I certainly wasn't thinking about being an actor," says Piven, who plans to return home for the "Judgment Night" premiere.

"My parents never pushed me to do it. So the acting experience came to me in a truly unobtrusive way, because I wasn't building toward a career."

Actually, Piven says, in high school his ambition was "to become the first Jewish football player at Notre Dame," even though he was "about a foot too small and 110 pounds too light."

"I had weird dreams like that," says the former linebacker and offensive guard for Evanston Township High School. "I kept performing with my parents' company all through high school, though. You really should talk to my parents about that. Why don't you call them? I'm sure they would remember me."

Recalls Byrne Piven proudly: "We could see by the time that Jeremy was a young teen-ager that there was a genuine comedic gift there. But he's also capable of very serious work. He can cry on a dime.

"We never discouraged him from being an actor, but we never pushed him, either. We explained to him that the odds are terrible against just working, much less being a star."