Anyone who doubts that Kansas City native Edward Kerr has learned what is required of a young male lead need only see his entrance in the new made-for-TNT movie "Legalese. " In it he is run over by a car driven by James Garner. Garner's high-profile, big-talking lawyer - similar to the high-profile, big-talking corporate honcho he played in "Barbarians at the Gate" - bursts from the car, litigating. But Kerr's freshly barred attorney does not entirely give in to these flourishes. He's flustered but stands his ground, informing Mr. Bigshot that the security camera over his shoulder "made my case five minutes ago." The star lawyer likes this kid. And so do we. "Legalese," which runs three times Sunday beginning at 7 on TNT, is a smartly written satire on today's celebrity-driven scandals. It asks us to consider whether, in an age of mass communications, the court of public opinion has supplanted the court of law. Garner and his aggressive secretary (Mary-Louise Parker) prop up Kerr as the ostensible defender of a B-movie starlet (Gina Gershon) accused of murder, while they pull his strings. A suspicious TV reporter (Kathleen Turner) is soon onto their ruse, but she may not be enough to stop Kerr, who enjoys playing the junior Matlock role and soon is basking in as much fame as his famous client. The cringe factor Aided by an intelligent screenplay from newcomer Billy Ray (in his first solo effort), Kerr gives a notable performance in his biggest movie role to date. But the 31-year-old actor didn't stick around a screening last week in Los Angeles long enough to see it. The next morning, in a telephone interview, he cited the "high-cringe factor" of watching himself act. "I had to leave it because I realized I still have a long way to go," Kerr said. "There's a lot to learn in this profession. When I started, I was so young and so uninformed, I think my ignorance helped me. Because if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have packed up my car and $ 325 and come out here, which was really stupid." Kerr attended Rockhurst High School his freshman and junior years before his parents, Day and Whitney Kerr, sent him to a private school in Virginia. At Vanderbilt University, Kerr majored in history. So what made him head for Hollywood Hills? "I loved movies. It was something I wanted to explore, and I decided that if I didn't try to do it at an early age, I'd regret it." He adopted the Hollywood lifestyle - "took acting classes, took a waiter job, the whole deal" - and two years to the day after his arrival, got his break: a development deal with NBC. "I went in and read for the head of casting. She liked me, and she organized a network meeting. And I went ahead and read for a group of executives. They signed me to a holding deal." Soon Kerr was making forgettable nighttime soaps ("The Secrets of Lake Success" for NBC) and commercials ("I was the Old Spice guy for a couple of years"), just like scores of other promising actors. He also was a co-star in "Above Suspicion," a movie that has since gained some notoriety because it features a pre-riding accident Christopher Reeve as a murderer who fakes paralysis to beat the rap. Although "Legalese" may be his coming-out for Middle America, Kerr has already debuted to the art-house crowd as the title character in "Confessions of a Sexist Pig," the new indie film from writer-director Sandy Tung ("Across the Tracks"). It played to raves at the Santa Barbara and Minneapolis film festivals, and Paramount's TV group has optioned the movie for development as a one-hour "dramedy" that would star Kerr. So the gamble the young college graduate took when he pointed his car west paid off. But even today, Kerr realizes how lucky he was. "Every day there are thousands of people who arrive in this town with big dreams," he said. "I mean, it was only eight years ago, but when you're young, you think the world is your oyster. In fact, if it weren't for a fraternity brother who was living out here at the time, I'd have been living out of my car."
