Matt Damon is the “it” guy in Hollywood right aboutnow.

His star would be bright enough with just major roles in The Rainmaker and the upcoming Saving Private Ryan, andgetting his Good Will Hunting screenplay made into a successfulmovie.

But to get two Oscar nominations for Hunting (actor andscreenplay) plops him smack in the middle of man-of-the-momentland.

And no one even knew his name six months ago.

“Try three months,” Damon says.

Not only is he the guy that everyone in Hollywood is clamoringto take a meeting with, but the 27-year-old is also one of America’smost wanted romantically.

“That part is really weird,” Damon says with an embarrassedlaugh. “I live kind of a very monkish life.”

At a post-Golden Globes party last month, Damon was reportedlysurrounded by several well-known actresses slipping him theirphone numbers. He laughs at the reports.

“I can’t believe it! I got romantically linked to Kate Winslet!What she really did was say, ‘If you’re ever in London, give mea call.’ They made it sound like it was possibly a tryst. . .. I talked to her after that article came out, and I told herwe got linked. We were both laughing. She thought it was reallycool.”

What Damon finds coolest of all, though, is keeping company withthe other best actor nominees: his idol, Robert Duvall, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda.

Entering their ranks leaves the normally articulate Damon fumblingfor words. “I don’t know how to sound. I’m afraid this willsound disingenuous, but it really is a serious moment in my life.”

Damon and lifelong friend Ben Affleck began writing Good Will Hunting – which nabbed a total of nine Oscar nominations,including best picture – when Damon was 22 and Affleck was 20.

“The writing nomination is the most amazing kind of accomplishment,”Damon says. “It took five years out of my life and Ben’s.We were told ‘No’ by so many people in so many rooms. Every studiohad a chance. We were told, ‘You can’t do this,’ ‘The script isn’tgood enough,’ over and over.”

Their guardian angel was director Kevin Smith (Clerks,Mall Rats), who cast Affleck in Chasing Amy. He read thescript, liked it and persuaded Miramax chief Harvey Weinsteinto look at it.

Weinstein decided to make the film but was urged to cast it withmore well-known names.

“We stuck with Ben and Matt when nobody wanted them,”Weinstein says. “Other studios wouldn’t make the movie withthem. Even once I had agreed to make the movie, everyone keptsaying, ‘Look, I can get you big stars.’ Some big-name directorsturned it down because we went with those actors.”

“It was totally insane to put two completely unknown guysin these main roles,” Damon says. “Harvey really tooka chance on us.”

It helped that Robin Williams, nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar, signed on early. Williams read the script and washooked.

“I just knew that it was a well-written piece,” Williamssays. “When you have that, it’s a running start.”

The movie has proved to be a running start for Damon’s career.He has two movies coming out this summer: Saving Private Ryanwith Tom Hanks and Rounders with John Malkovich and Ed Norton.

Despite the honors, Damon does not take himself too seriously.”I don’t feel any different,” he says during a breakon the Rounders set. “I’m standing in a parking lotin Atlantic City. I still work 15 hours a day.”

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

Spoke to both Linda and Rock today. Linda’s coming out early to hang. I’m going to read with Rock when I’m in LA for the Golden Apple signing.

We’re very close to locking up our DP.

If we shoot what we’ve story-boarded on this flick thus far, it’s going to be ten times more visually interesting than anything we’ve done to date.

The NewsAskew ‘Dogma’ clock in null and void. Our dates have shifted a tad. I’m not allowed to say when we’re starting or where we’re shooting anymore (the Miramax gag order tightens), but I’m still at liberty to talk about what’s going on when we shoot (*phew!*).

The Mtv ‘Jay and Silent Bob’s Video Stash’ Special airs Tuesday night at ten p.m. eastern time.

Bob Garfield’s Ad Review

Old Joke: A guy answers a knock on his door and finds nobody there, byut he sees a snail, which he picks up and heaves into the yard. Four years later there’s another knock on the door. Again, nobody there but the snail, who looks up and says, “What was that all about?”

See the new Diet Coke campaign. Identify with the snail.

This enigmatic serial from Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore., launches you for no apparent reason on a journey you don’t care to undertake, leaving you eventually exhausted, fed up and just as clueless as you were when you started. The characters borrow a bit from “Saturday Night Fever,” a bit from the Loud family (PBS, circa 1970), a bit from the George Costanza-and-parents relationship on “Seinfeld” and a bit from the short-lived Ragu spaghetti-sauce as serial of the ‘80’s.

Mom: “So, did you get the job?”
Dad: “Yeah, did you get the job?”
Mom: “The job…did you get it?”
Dad: “Yeah, did you get the job?”
Son: “No, somebody else got the job.”
And so forth, at their circa-1961 dinette set, until after three irritating installments, we discover that this young man lost out on the out-of-town job to his girlfriend who is leaving him. His parents yammer away, as he drinks a can of Diet Coke. Just for the waste of it.

Maybe this is supposed to be inscrutably, intrusively novel. Or maybe it’s supposed to be a “lifestyle” campaign invoking real instead of idealized lifestyles. Or maybe it’s supposed to be a wry commentary on X-generational angst, so that young consumers will be charmed, and connect emotionally with the brand. Or all three.

But what it is most of all is just annoying. The spots have conflict, but no story; quirkiness, but no cleverness; a condescending tone, but no ring of truth. The characters are supposed to be exaggerated archetypes, like the hilarious Costanzas, but they are really just vaguely obnoxious caricatures. Their ongoing non-saga leaves you nothing but that uncomfortable feeling of being put on.

“Saturday Night Fever,” by contrast, was rich with anthropological significance, capturing the fine details and mundane pathologies of the ordinary Brooklyn family. Those dinner scenes pulsated with petty conflict, and we cared – and related – because the fictional relationships seemed so real.

These Diet Coke characters rather more resemble the pitiable Louds, “An American Family,” who paraded their real-life pettiness before PBS audiences in prime time. They were so ostentatiously dysfunctional that it was difficult to empathize. They were freaks. We gaped, but didn’t care.

Nor did anyone care about the Ragu family, who came to us in a series of spots done up in the style of an unfunny sitcom. Indeed, they were so successfully insipid that consumers showed no interest in their kitchen high jinks whatsoever.

And so, too, this strangely stilted Diet Coke campaign. The gimmick will get attention all right, but not the kind of attention it wants. Hostility does not contribute to brand personality.

A second serial, featuring a terrible actor in a badly written scenario about a father-daughter birds and bees discussion, is nearly as inexplicable and grating. And it is not too difficult to imagine put-upon consumers – bewildered about what that was all about – making their point with a slow methodical, snail stampede toward Diet Pepsi.