By Michael Quinn

She has done for "dese, dem and dose" what Laurence Olivier did for "Forsooth!"--or so one would think from the raves for Marisa Tomei's star turn in film farce My Cousin Vinny as Brooklyn barrister Joe Pesci's car-savvy fiance. Tomei's screen-friendly self-confidence belies her brief resume: from a walk-on in 1984's The Flamingo Kid to Sly Stallone's daughter in last year's Oscar. Coming up: Tomei playing comedian Mabel Normand in a Charlie Chaplin biopic. Of her current incarnation as the garish Mona Lisa Vito, Tomei says, "I don't think she is a bimbo. I think she stands by her man, she loves him...and she loves her clothes."