Cain he run for president?

   Aiming High

   After playing Superman in the TV series, Dean Cain admits to yearning for larger roles
   in US politics.

   By SAMANTHA SANTA MARIA
   IN LOS ANGELES

   DEAN CAIN has been nursing a nasty cold for two days.

   Tired and overworked from three back-to-back deal-making meetings, his hair looks
   like a cat just did the 100-m dash through it and his two-day stubble begs for a
   shave.

   But once the 33-year-old is behind his desk at his office at Sony's mammoth Culver
   City complex, he is bluntly frank, intensely passionate.

   And devastatingly charming.

   As a friend of mine says: "Look up Greek god in the encyclopaedia and you'll see
   Dean Cain's magnificent mug staring back at you."

   I see her point.

   The Powers That Be must have been in a good mood when they put the 1.8-m Cain
   together.

   No guesses why he was picked to play the Man of Steel in Lois & Clark: The New
   Adventures Of Superman. Nor has it escaped the notice of the fairer sex.

   The beauties Cain has squired around include actress Brooke Shields, who has gone
   on record, repeatedly, to say he was her first great love. And the first man to
   deflower her.

   The list grows more impressive: Pamela Anderson Lee, Nastassja Kinski and country
   singer Mindy McCready.

   Still, he has been plagued by rumours that he is gay.

   "My former fiancee, Mindy, said to me that before she met me she heard I was gay.

   "It's I'm either gay or I'm the biggest womaniser who's ever walked the face of the
   earth!"

   Like a true gentleman, he is mum about who he is dating currently. "I date a lot of
   women. I have yet to find my soul mate but, when I meet her, I will get married, have
   kids and that's the way it will go.

   "Am I gay? It's never been an issue for me."

   Cain, who is a quarter Japanese, stops and apologises for the near rant and jokes
   that it must be the cold pills talking.

   But the gossip sheets have obviously peeved him. He does not seem to be able to
   decide which is worse -- the excessive peering into his private life or the blatant
   fabrications about it.

   When not fuming over the gossip rags, he wages war on the basketball court or
   takes to riding the waves of Malibu beaches -- even when he is down with the flu.

   "I'm going to sweat this out on the basketball court later. Tomorrow, if the waves are
   good, I'll surf. And play basketball at night."

   Of rumours on the Internet about a continuing affair with his married former co-star
   Teri Hatcher, he says: " Considering that I haven't spoken to her since the last day I
   saw her on the set of Lois & Clark 2-1/2 years ago, I find that hard to believe." As the
   aspirins start kicking in again, Cain moves into Rant Round Two -- politics and the
   media.

   "The fact that the media goes into someone's past so rigorously is so ridiculous and
   embarrassing to me.

   "It was embarrassing to me when the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal was made
   such a big deal.

   "The reality of it is I didn't care. I still don't care."

   A registered Republican though not a staunch one, he then launches into a diatribe
   about President Bill Clinton and marijuana, Governor George Bush Jr and pot and
   George Washington and whisky kegs at the voting booths.

   Cain's bottom line is: if someone is supremely qualified to run the country , who cares
   if he took a walk on the wild side?

   Perhaps it is not the drugs talking, but a yearning for a larger role on the world's
   ultimate stage.

   He admits readily: "I have political ambitions. But I don't know enough about the
   whole process to comment intelligently."

   Over the years, he has addressed the US Congress, met presidents Ronald Reagan,
   George Bush and Clinton. This year alone, he made campaign contributions to
   Governor Bush Jr. and fellow Princeton alumnus Bill Bradley.

   So is it going to be Cain for President in 2020?

   "Yeah, that would be a kick! Is it a reality? Doubtful."

   Then he pauses to look around the office, that six years ago, as a struggling actor
   whose main credit was Brenda's boyfriend on Beverly Hills 90210, he might not have
   dreamed of ever having.

   "It's possible."

   Another pregnant pause. Then he looks up in mock alarm: "Oh man, I can see the
   article now -- Cain for President, 2020.

   "But, hey, it's never too early to start the hype!"