Ben Stiller takes break for comic (book) relief

Patricia Bibby

Friday, March 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

It seems appropriate to find Ben Stiller in the midst of taping a cable TV show -- the actor-writer-director got his big break with his show on MTV and achieved some renown with his movie, "The Cable Guy."

On the day we caught up to him, Stiller was taping a guest appearance on "The Anti-Gravity Room," a comic-book oriented show that airs on cable's Sci-Fi Channel. Stiller even had a little cable-guy protege, Nick Scoullar, the 15-year-old co-host of "The Anti-Gravity Room."

Scoullar, with his easy, arched-brow deadpan humor, was more than capable of holding his own with Stiller.

We had the young aspiring Cable Boy ask the older, well-hyphenated Cable Man a few questions about the nature of TV life and ruminations on the serious issues of comics.

SCOULLAR: You're on this cable show, what do you say to people who don't have cable?

STILLER: I commend them on having a life that is lived outside of needing to watch all the different channels that I watch all the time. I wish I was the type of person who could be totally content without cable but that's usually the first thing that I need when I go somewhere is to make sure that they have at least -- at least -- 42 channels.

SCOULLAR: Betty or Veronica?

STILLER: Betty or Veronica? Oh! It's one of those hip questions. Betty or Veronica? I always liked Veronica.

SCOULLAR: Why?

STILLER: I liked dark-haired girls. Veronica had dark hair, right? What about you, Betty or Veronica?

SCOULLAR: Veronica. She was like mean but she was sexy at the same time. Betty was just, like, stupid.

STILLER: Yeah, that kind of brunette edge thing I definitely like.

SCOULLAR: Which comics did you read as a kid?

STILLER: Oh, well, where should I begin? No, I wasn't really a big comic book fan. Except when I went away to camp and then I liked Richie Rich a little bit. That's so pathetic, isn't it? Richie Rich is like the least testosterone-filled comic.

SCOULLAR: Now, the coolest question: Do you like "Star Trek" because you always wanted to be sent to a planet with alien women?

STILLER: Boy, no I think I liked "Star Trek" because I had a crush on Capt. Kirk. Let's just get it out in the open, all right?

SCOULLAR: That toupee thing, really?

STILLER: Most men in life, their hairline recedes. Whose hairline do you know gets lower and lower as they get older and older? One man -- William Shatner. And I just hope he will at some point get away from that horse breeding thing he does because it's pretty dangerous.