Chelsea Clinton Portrayed in Movie

Wednesday, December 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) â€” Chelsea Clinton slips out of her house past some bumbling Secret Service agents, hops onto a motorcycle behind a handsome young man and zips into town for a heart-to-heart talk.

The couple is spotted by a gossip-mongering TV reporter, but it turns out no romance is blooming.

And oh, yeah, it's only a movie.

The president's daughter is the heroine of ``Chelsea's Chappaqua,'' a low-budget digital video by actor and amateur screenwriter Jack Nasi, 28, of Manhattan. It's the fictional story of Nicky Casso, who is obsessed with finding ``a rich chick from Chappaqua.'' He forsakes his true love and endeavors to get a date with Chelsea â€” ``the ideal woman.''

Chelsea, played by Stephanie Rein, turns out to be a good deal more mature than Nicky. She talks some sense into him, he goes back to his hairdresser girlfriend and even gets his divorced parents back together.

``Chelsea is the savior,'' Nasi said. ``She is the catalyst of change in this movie.''

Nasi, who plays Nicky, said the movie was born the moment he heard last year that the Clintons were moving to Chappaqua.

``The house they bought is literally down the street from where my cousin grew up. ... I was always over there playing, riding bicycles. So I decided there was no way the president was going to move in without me writing something about it.''

Janet Langsam, executive director of the Westchester Arts Council, said she knew of no other locally generated artworks inspired by the first family's move to Chappaqua.

After the Clintons settled on the $1.7 million colonial on Old House Lane â€” but before they closed on it and the Secret Service took over â€” Nasi strolled onto the grounds and sneaked the house into a few exterior scenes, using colleagues from his Manhattan actors' troupe, Expanded Arts, and a cinematographer he's known since first grade.

``I didn't even have a script written yet,'' Nasi said. ``All I knew was it would be a romantic comedy involving Chelsea Clinton. So I figured, let me do the guy throwing rocks at the window â€” `Chelsea, come on down' â€” and I'd have the guy being chased by Secret Service agents.''

Rein, 23, who has wavy hair and a big smile, got the non-paying title role â€” ``my first real movie'' â€” by answering Nasi's ad in Back Stage looking for an actress resembling Chelsea Clinton.

``I never really thought that I looked like her, but my hair sort of does,'' she said. Rein said she's never met Clinton or heard her speak, ``so that kind of made it easier on me. I could be freer.''

President Clinton is not portrayed in the movie. A campaigning Hillary Rodham Clinton is portrayed digging into a half-gallon of ice cream while ordering a Secret Service agent to massage her feet.

``That's just for fun,'' Nasi said. ``It's really a pro-Clinton movie.''

Nasi said he understands the Clintons' desire to keep Chelsea's life private and did not see his movie as an intrusion. Apart from some profanity â€” none from Chelsea â€” ``Chelsea's Chappaqua'' is wholesome.

A spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton, Erica Batcheller, declined comment on the film. ``Typically we don't comment on Chelsea or comment on her behalf.''

Nasi, whose paying job is for an executive search firm, said he spent $10,000 on the movie. Not surprisingly, it has an unpolished look, with some choppy editing and iffy performances in the lesser roles. At one point the cameraman is apparently distracted by some wild turkeys on the side of a road.

``Chelsea's Chappaqua'' has been screened once, for friends, family and cast. Nasi has submitted it for next year's Westchester County Film Festival, as well as Sundance and other festivals.

He said Rein's slight resemblance to Chelsea, the Stanford sweatshirt she wore, the borrowed limo and the fake Secret Service agents were enough to fool some villagers in Chappaqua as the movie was being shot.

``People would come up to us, asking, `Is the president here? Is that Chelsea? What's going on?''' Nasi said. ``It was a real Chappaqua scene.''

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On the Net:

http://www.chelseaschappaqua.com