Holmes clueless no more on 'Creek'

                 Early last year, Katie Holmes was an
                 aspiring actress from Toledo, Ohio, who
                 refused to miss a high-school performance
                 of Damn Yankees to try out for a new
                 WB pilot.

                 She had already submitted an audition
                 tape shot in her family's basement, where
                 she read the role opposite her mom,
                 Kathleen.

                 Despite that missed meeting, Holmes got
                 the part. The show, of course, was
                 Dawson's Creek, which premiered in
                 January and quickly became the mini-network's top-rated series. Since
                 then, Holmes has emerged as Dawson's breakout star and has already
                 completed three feature films.

                 "I was here last July (1997) with my friends from home," she says
                 during a recent trip to New York, incredulous at her swift fame. "Now
                 I have people coming to my hotel room to do my hair."

                 The latest TV teen to vault to stardom, Holmes, 19, is now entrenched
                 in the second season of Dawson's, which premieres tonight in a new
                 time slot, at 8 ET/PT, opposite Fox's Beverly Hills, 90210, TV's
                 landmark teen drama.

                 WB executives expect Dawson's to take a big bite out of aging
                 90210's audience, especially since Dawson's will stick with its racy
                 story lines, despite airing earlier in the evening.

                 Holmes, who plays tomboy Joey Potter, was pleased that her
                 character's platonic relationship with Dawson (James Van Der Beek)
                 reached a turning point of sorts with last year's season-ending kiss.

                 "Selfishly, I'm really happy," she says. "I'm really sick of playing the
                 depressed 'Poor me, I want him' role. I think we have to give the
                 audience what it wants." But this being television, "I doubt it will work
                 out."

                 Which may be a good thing, for Holmes and the series. "Her goal in life
                 was Dawson; this year, she's growing into herself, becoming more of a
                 woman."

                 Dawson's writers have been chastised for dialogue that's too mature for
                 teens, an effort to broaden the show's appeal to young adults.

                 Holmes admits much of it was over her head. "I didn't get anything last
                 year," she says. "All of my lines, my funny comebacks, I'd go, 'What
                 does that mean?' I'm just naive."

                 Helping keep her clueless is the fact that Holmes and her co-stars
                 spend most of the year 3,000 miles away from Hollywood in
                 Wilmington, N.C., meant to replicate the fictional Capeside, Mass.,
                 where Dawson's is set.

                 The dormitory atmosphere "forces us to hang out (and that) helps the
                 show," she says. But "the four of us get pretty sick of each other. We
                 suddenly know too much about each other."

                 Some more than others, perhaps. Holmes declines to comment on
                 rumors linking her to co-star Joshua Jackson (Pacey Witter), but says
                 she's "not dating anyone" at the moment.

                 New to Dawson's this year: a brother and sister, Jack and Andie
                 McPhee; more of Abby Morgan, the girl from last season's homage to
                 The Breakfast Club, and the return of teacher Tamara (Leeann
                 Hunley), aka Miss Jacobs, who get involved with another Creeker. 

                 Off the small screen, Holmes first gained notice with a part in Ang Lee's
                 The Ice Storm. Since Dawson's debut, she has appeared in
                 Disturbing Behavior, which proved a box office dud, but has two
                 more films due out in April: Killing Mrs. Tingle, a thriller directed by
                 Dawson's creator Kevin Williamson, and Go!, a dark comedy from
                 Doug Liman (Swingers).

                 By Gary Levin, USA TODAY