Courtney Thorne-Smith is down to 107 pounds of skin and bones.

ALLY MCBEAL fans were stunned when Courtney Thorne-Smith showed up at a New York gala looking almost as gaunt as her size zero co-star Calista Flockhart! And as this startling photo of Thin-Smith at the Lincoln Center bash shows, it looks like they had good reason for alarm. The 5-foot-6 actress is normally a size four dress and weighs 118. But sources say she looks like she's down to a scrawny 107 pounds.

"Courtney's skin-and-bones appearance had fans gasping out loud that she looks like she's been on the Calista Flockhart diet," reports an observer. The 30-year-old actress' dramatic weight loss also has become apparent in recent episodes of the show in which she plays brainy, beautiful lawyer Georgia Thomas. "All of a sudden, Courtney had bones sticking out where you never saw them before," says a fan.

As GLOBE has reported, Calista, 34, is so slender, many people believe she has an eating disorder. The 5-foot-6 toothpick, who denies she has a problem, has slipped under 100 pounds, say sources. Now people are starting to wonder about Courtney - especially since she has admitted in the past that she was once a compulsive dieter. "It was horrible, she told Fitness magazine of the four years she spent starving herself when she starred on Melrose Place. Sometimes she would eat nothing but fruit for a week.

"I was surrounded by people who were a natural size two," she said. "So I had to stay in proportion or I'd look big." "After three years on Melrose, I saw myself as 10 pounds heavier than I was. I always bought a size too big in clothes because I think I'm that size."

Courtney's spokesperson, Erin Felentzer, says that Thorne-Smith was misquoted in the Fitness article and insists his client is perfectly healthy and merely recovering from a recent illness. "Courtney was ill with a flu and automatically dropped a few pounds from being sick," says Felentzer. "On someone as petite as Courtney, that can look like a lot." "She normally jogs, lifts weights and eats very healthy seven days a week." "She's very spiritual and into being truly healthy." Insiders hope that Courtney's problem really is nothing more than a bad battle with a tummy bug.

"Courtney's so beautiful," says one, "that it would be a crime if she thought she had to be as thin as Calista."

- PETE TRUJILLO

Text and picture are courtesy of Stan Young and were used with written permission.