<dcljr@stat.tamu.edu>.
So is Melissa's resume. She began performing at age 4 and at 13 appeared off-Broadway as William Hurt's flashback young love in Beside Herself; she has also been seen in Rice Krispies commercials and on Saturday Night Live. Rich Ross, Nickelodeon's vice president of talent relations, says Melissa was cast as Clarissa because ``she's a little quirky, but not put-offish. There's not a jaded quality about her.''
Premature ennui has little chance at the Hart house. There, Melissa's father, William, a lobster wholesaler, and mother Paula, a show-business manager for children, preside over their eldest daughter and her four acting siblings: Trisha, 12, Elizabeth, 10, Brian, 7, and Emily, 5.
When not taping Clarissa, (in Florida, she stays in a Nickelodeon-owned condo with Mom or a nanny), the ninth grader at Sayville Junior High baby-sits (``I get $3 an hour) and indulges her tastes in ice cream (chocolate), TV (The Simpsons) and movies (Winona Ryder's).
This month Melissa will get her Florida driver's permit. You won't see that on TV: ``They let Clarissa get away with a lot of stuff,'' says Melissa, ``but not driving a car.''
[There is an accompanying picture, in which Melissa is lying on her bed (on her stomach, propped up on her elbows) talking on the telephone. She's wearing a funky hat, but I can't tell anything else about her clothing (I got this from a microfilm copy). You can't really tell much about how her room looks, although there are some things hanging on the wall, most of which I can't really make out. The caption of the pictures reads: ``I can only do so much,'' says Melissa, ``what with schoolwork and just being a kid.'']