All things considered, Calista Flockhart says she would do it all again.
      The devastating tabloid headlines, the incessant intrusions into her personal life and the unending media obsession over her weight have not spoiled the party for the star of the hit Fox TV show "Ally McBeal."
      "In the beginning, I was shocked, hurt and frightened by it," the actress, dressed smartly in a blue pinstriped suit, said recently in her Los Angeles hotel suite to publicize her new movie, "William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream," which opened Friday.
      "I took it all personally and thought it could potentially damage my career. I was outraged, particularly because the stories (about her thinness being caused by an eating disorder) were untrue.
      "Quickly, something changed in me. I started to rise above it. I put it all into perspective and realized it had nothing to do with me. It has to do with a societal obsession with weight and physical appearance. The media feeds into this obsession by making you feel you have to be thin and then attacking you for being thin.
      "What has been the most interesting, and frightening, aspect of what has happened to me is that everybody has been attacking somebody they thought had a disease. They mocked me and were cruel to me, even though they thought I had a disease. It was twisted and perverse.
      "In the end, you have to maintain your sense of humor. That's the only way to get through it. You have to look past the ugliness and say to yourself, 'Hey, some of those tabloid headlines are really funny.'
      "I don't want to diminish what has happened to me," she added, with a shrug of her shoulders. "This media onslaught is not a small price to pay for achieving some measure of success. But it is a price worth paying. I have no regrets at all. I would sign that ('Ally McBeal') contract all over again. And I wouldn't do anything different. Frankly, I'm not sure I could have done anything to avoid what happened."
      Michael Hoffman, who directed "William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream," knew all about Flockhart before he cast her as Helena.
      Well, not exactly all about her. In fact, he didn't know anything about her starmaking role as "Ally McBeal." He had not seen the show before selecting her for his movie.
      "I knew Calista's work from the theater," the director said. "I had seen her in 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Three Sisters,' and had even auditioned her for a few movie roles. I just happened to think she was perfect for the role of Helena, based on what I knew about her stage work.
      "I needed an actress who could play this waif with the indomitable spirit. It just seemed like good casting to me.
      "Then people started coming up to me excitedly and saying, 'How did you get Calista Flockhart for your movie?' I was stunned. I reminded them that I also had Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie as well, but Calista was the one everybody was talking about."
      Hoffman, who also wrote the screenplay and is a founding member of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise, said Flockhart did indeed prove to be a smart casting choice, beyond the obvious celebrity issues.
      "She knocked the ball out of the park with her performance," Hoffman said. "She is technically so proficient with the language that I don't think there is anyone around who could handle a Shakespearean role like this as well as her."
      Flockhart, 34, said she is comfortable with the words of the Bard, but that was not the most important reason for choosing this film as her first post-Ally venture to the big screen.
      "I have always loved Shakespeare, and I have done a lot of Shakespeare on stage," she explained. "But frankly, they asked me if I wanted to do a movie in Italy in the middle of summer, and they didn't have to twist my arm.
      "When you are on a TV show, you are in danger of becoming a victim of your own hiatus. This film happened to fit into my schedule, and that was fortuitous for me. I got to go to Italy, and as a bonus, I got to do Shakespeare."
      Both the actress and her director acknowledge that they are a bit concerned that the Shakespeare name might scare some people, particularly those people who enjoyed "Shakespeare in Love" but are not familiar with the actual words of the author.
      "It is a tough sell," Flockhart said. "One movie was about Shakespeare, and this one is by Shakespeare. People are intimidated by his writing. They think it's going to be boring, and they won't be able to understand it. Some people think seeing Shakespeare is like going back to school.
      "Yes, the language is a departure and takes some time getting used to, but if you are patient, it gets clearer in a few minutes. At that point, the comedy becomes so identifiable that you forget about the language."
      Hoffman said the film has done surprisingly well with test audiences, even in suburban areas.
      "Shakespeare is a huge industry, even in America," he said. "And more Americans have some experience with this particular comedy than any other Shakespearean play. They may know the name 'Hamlet,' but they've seen this one more.
      "We did a survey after one test screening, and more than half the audience said they had been in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at school."