New Faces Of 1996

"Sense" threw Winslet in with accomplished company. But she felt at home on the set -- in Thompson's published diaries, Winslet blurts, "Oh God, my knickers have gone up my arse!"--and she's snagged a Golden Globe nomination. This year there will be more high passions and more irksome old undies. Winslet will play Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's film of "Hamlet," as well as taking on Sue from Thomas Hardy's colossal downer "Jude the Obscure." Fame is just one door down. Let her in, and give her a bloody cigarette.

ALEX BAG

Skewering the Art World

WHAT COULD BE WORSE FOR a budding postmodernist than "boring humanities classes" and actually learning something about history? "It's like, who gives a f--k about the French Revolution?. . . It doesn't apply to me or my life or my work," says the slacker art student played by performance artist Alex Bag on videotape. Thank heaven this vacuous chick is in only her "fourth semester." And thank heaven Bag is only 26: more hilarious skewering of the art world is on its way. Next will be a February gig at Manhattan's The Knitting Factory.