Dream job for "Young Indy'

LOS ANGELES -- This time last year, Sean Patrick Flanery was hardly a name to set young hearts aflutter.

But what has happened to this hometown Houston boy in the space of a single TV season is the stuff that sweet Hollywood dreams are made of.

He's a TV star, the hero of ABC's "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles." He's been around the world and back.

And, by official selection of People magazine, he's been named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World."

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. He's 26 and he's loving his life, but he's kept his feet on the ground. He's still so polite that he "sirs" and "ma'ams" his elders, and he's modest.

That Most Beautiful title flusters Flanery .

"It's kind of . . . I don't know . . . I mean it depends on your definition of beauty . . . You always look to something else to be, you know . . . Well, gee . . .

"I would never consider myself one of the 50 most beautiful people on the planet," he composed himself with a laugh. "I mean, to put myself in the light of (models) Christy Turlington and Nicki Taylor? Come on! It's really weird."

He didn't even know it till somebody phoned him when People came out. "I went down to the newsstand and bought it," he said. "And when I opened the magazine, the first thing that caught my eye was (model) Paulina Porizkova, because she was on the opposite page. I had to read hers before I could even look at mine. And I saw that whenever I shut the magazine, it looked like we were kind of kissing, so I just kind of kept opening it and closing it. Wow! That's what I really liked best about it."

Flanery had just flown in from North Carolina to meet the TV press for the first time, and he flew straight back where he'd come from as soon as the interview was done. From North Carolina, he's off to London, Ireland, Italy, Prague, Jerusalem and Africa.

Shooting already has started on fall's new season of the show that was too good to die. ABC did the right thing, and "Young Indy's" coming back in September, with the time slot it should have had from the start. It's the 7 p.m. lead-in to Monday Night Football.

Corey Carrier, who plays the younger Indy in George Lucas' TV tandem, was too busy working to make this appointment with the media. The two Indys shoot simultaneously, but seldom cross paths.

Flanery off-duty had shed his Indy image. He could have just come from a wardrobe call for "Beverly Hills, 90210." His civvies were California casual, and his new haircut was Luke Perry pompadour.

"I don't know what it's called -- my Elvis look, maybe," he said, grinning.

Two silver chains around his neck were his ties to home. One held a James Avery St. Christopher's medal and a small opal ring ("A family heirloom, from my mother"), and the other had an African cross from his best Houston friend, the woman he calls Poopa-Loopa, a.k.a. Kim. She gave him his Texas pinkie ring, too, and it has a tiny diamond deep in the heart of Houston.

Since this was his first official meet-the-TV-press, the press wanted to know what it's like to "come out of nowhere and be Indiana Jones."

"It has impacted my life," Flanery said. "That's just it. I went to the University of St. Thomas. I studied business, I minored in drama. And I did theater at the University in Houston, which is where I grew up. I did local theater, and I got little bit parts in movies that would come through.

"Then I decided to move out to LA about three years ago. And I did a couple of films for Walt Disney and a string of commercials. And then I got this. And it's the only thing I could think of that I'd actually pay somebody to let me do. But they actually pay me."

He's taken it in stride. There's been no time to do otherwise, it's all happened so fast.

"I guess people do recognize me now," he said. "But you're still working every day and doing your job, and you never really think about that until you go to bed at night . . .

"I have the same car, the same clothes, the same house. My friends are the same. We still do the same things. Nothing has changed except that I'm not here anymore. I'm out filming. Honestly, "nothing" has changed. I still eat Cream of Wheat for breakfast."

The fan mail is a good barometer for who's watching the show, and he's still answering it all himself. "It's completely across the board," he said. "I get letters from fathers saying they appreciate their children having a show. I get letters from college students. And I get letters from young people, as well."

His mother is his biggest fan. Genie Flanery lives in Houston, and so does his father, Paul Flanery .

When he saw his first "Indiana Jones" movie he thought it was the best movie he'd ever seen.

When "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" started shooting last year, creator/producer Lucas had already written all the scripts ahead. That in itself is unheard of in TV, and a major reason, no doubt, that the shows were so fine. He's writing them ahead this year, too.

Flanery hasn't read them all, but he has read the first batch they'll shoot, and what strikes him is that every episode is something "so different.

"We've got almost a farce, a comedy directed by Terry Jones, the Monty Python guy," he said. "We've got a bloody drama about the horrors of war (as in World War I), and we've got a kind of a Nancy Drew mystery, directed by Joe Johnston, who did "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "The Rocketeer."

Academia attack

One questioner had the gall to question Flanery 's old alma mater, but he got his comeuppance.

"What is St. Thomas University?" the critic asked. "Can I suggest from that that you might not have been a straight-A student in high school? Because I never heard of it."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Spartacus-Whip," Flanery replied. "It's a private Catholic university. It was mandatory that I study a semester of philosophy and a semester of theology every year. I graduated from Dulles High School. I studied business with a focus on law. Minored in drama with a focus on acting. Including commuters, it's probably 5,000 students. It's in Houston. It's a small school. They had a good soccer team. I was a soccer player."

Oh, said the critic. Next question, please