NFK spies on Michelle Trachtenberg, Star of `Harriet the Spy' by Julie Bookman - NEWS FOR KIDS EDITOR, Doug Hamilton

From The Atlantic Journal-Constitution - March 10th, 1997

Don't you sometimes wish you could toss away your regular ho-hum life and step into some other more exciting life? Like maybe the life of a spy . . .

Michelle Trachtenberg says most kids love the idea of being a spy. Michelle, 11, got to pretend to be a spy in a big way when she played Harriet in last summer's movie "Harriet the Spy," now in video stores.

"A lot of kids are very curious types," Michelle told News for Kids in a recent phone interview. "We like to ask a lot of questions and love to find out a lot of cool stuff about the people around us." Has she ever found out anything unusual about her real neighbors in Brooklyn, N.Y.?

"Hmmmmmm. There was this time when I got to peek inside at my next- door neighbor's and there was this fuzzy, bright red carpeting. I thought that was very interesting, because this neighbor always wears dark colors. Like a lot of black and stuff."

"Harriet the Spy" is based on Louise Fitzhugh's 1964 book about sixth-grader Harriet M. Welsch, who yearns to be a writer when she grows up. Harriet is encouraged to write by her loving nanny, Olle Golly (played by Rosie O'Donnell in the movie). In the story, Harriet seems like a spy because she writes down every little thing she observes in her neighborhood (her "spy route"). But certain somebodies might not like reading her truth-telling observations ---if they were to find her notebook, that is. Of course, Harriet's closest friends get hold of her notebook. And that puts Harriet in the hot seat.

Like Harriet, Michelle is in sixth grade. She also takes some seventh-grade classes at her junior high in Brooklyn. Her toughest subject?

"I don't think of any subject as tougher," Michelle said. "I think I always like a subject. I think when kids say they don't like a subject, they are really saying they don't understand it.

On another subject ---dealing with brothers and sisters ---Michelle has more advice.

"You should get along," she said, "because in the future you might need them."

Unlike Harriet Welsch, who's an only child, in the book and movie, Michelle has one sister, Irene. Although Irene is 18 and already in college, Michelle said the two remain "very, very close. I really value my sister. I can always ask her about anything and a lot of her advice is very useful."

When we spoke with Michelle, she had recently returned home from a trip to Europe ---mostly England and Germany ---to promote "Harriet." She's also busy these days meeting with casting directors about more film and TV opportunities. She appears on the Nickelodeon show "The Adventures of Pete & Pete," and for the last two years, she has played an autistic girl named Lily on the soap opera "All My Children."

BREAKING OUT IN COMMERCIALS

Michelle has been acting steadily since she made a TV commercial when she was 3 years old. Would you believe that after making almost 100 commercials, she still remembers her first job?

"It was for Wisk detergent," she said. "I played a kid who spilled cranberry juice on my dad ---not my real dad, the dad in the commercial -- -on his white shirt. I still remember the motto: `Wisk, Wisk, Wisk, or tsk, tsk, tsk!'"

More recently she made a Lay's potato chip commercial she made with Elijah Wood: "I played his little sister, and we got to eat chips and throw a football around."