Blair Witch Bombshell

If you plan to see Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, prepare to have a stake driven through your heart. Of the movie's many surprises, the debut performance of Erica Leerhsen is the most striking. A few years ago Erica was skipping across the stage as Ariel in The Tempest at Boston University's School of the Arts. One giant leap later, this sylph found herself whirling around a sapling on the set of Book of Shadows. "It was freezing," she says. "They put heated Astroturf under my feet. I've never been so naked in the woods for so long before in my life." Since she plays a modern-day witch, we asked her about Wiccan love. "I always take the role of seducer," she says with the confidence of a 24-year-old who's never been told no. "I cast a romantic spell with a long, drawn-out date, starting with drinks. I'd talk about sex and my past experiences to create an air of excitement. Actually, I'm not necessarily romantic. I'm more wild. One of the cards in my deck is a mutual seduction of someone else, a third party. I'd paint a fantasy of that, then drop in that I've been there. That's a trick I'd use to figure him out, gauging his reaction. Some guys are overly enthusiastic about it and that blows it for me." Spellbound? If you want to break out of the trance, they're selling cures at the multiplex for $8 a pop.