Hank and Halle

Read Stuever's story: We are 50 floors above Central Park on a recent afternoon, and wouldn't it be great if this serene, impossibly gorgeous actress jumped up, kicked out the window, leapt out into the sky and landed like a lightning bolt in Columbus Circle? She's dressed for it: dark curls spilling down her shoulders, over a black, very low-cut hand-knit sweater, with tight indigo jeans and shiny, silver stiletto boots. Sorta like Ororo Munroe (code name: Storm), the mutant she plays yet again in "X-Men: The Last Stand," which opened yesterday. Or like Catwoman. (We are allowed to say the word "Catwoman" in this interview, right? Without, like, a $1,200 manicure suddenly raked across our cheek?)

An assistant knocks on the door: "Excuse me, Halle, did you want hair and makeup to come check you out right now?"

"Nmmh-mnnh," Berry, 39, gently answers in the negative, but the implication hangs in the room: What foolish mortal is this who wants to know if Halle Berry needs more makeup?