B Y M A R K N O L L I N G E R

Brace yourselves, X-philes: David Duchovny is going to set the record straight about the intense love affair he had last summer in Los Angeles. Taking refuge from the chilly Vancouver air in his silver Airstream trailer on the X-Files set, he's not at all eager to reveal his sweetheart's identity -- he seems sort of embarrassed, maybe even a little defensive. But as the details slowly emerge, it's clear that the actor was smitten. The object of his desire was a stylish foreign beauty, the type that enjoys appearing topless in public. Well-built, with the kind of throaty purr that drives men mad. All in all, a real knockout. So who was it? The truth is, well, out there. Way out. Last summer, Duchovny's mystery date was... a brand-new red convertible. "It's a BMW!" he confesses, almost shouting. "It's weird. When I first got it, I would lie in bed and think about my car, and I'd get a warm feeling -- like it was a woman. I'd go, 'Ooh, that car. That sexy car.'" He pauses, lost in reverie. "But that's over now," he says with a shrug, snapping back to the present. "It's just a car." OK, so it was only an infatuation. But while the bloom may be off that particular rose, Duchovny -- dressed for the day's work in FBI agent Fox Mulder's trademark dark suit -- doesn't seem to be taking it too hard. And why should he? Let's face it: These days, the X-Files star can get just about any car he wants. Nine years ago, Duchovny walked away from a promising career in academia (he holds a master's degree in English literature from Yale and was on his way to a doctorate when he decided to give acting a try). Today, he is one of TV's hottest leading men. Midway into its fourth season in pursuit of the paranormal, The X-Files remains a smash hit with critics and viewers alike, thriving happily in its new Sunday time slot on Fox. Members of the David Duchovny Estrogen Brigades threaten to melt the Internet with praise for the 36-year-old actor's marquee looks, probing intelligence, and arid sense of humor -- qualities that TV Guide recently recognized when it dubbed him one of the sexiest people on television. "There's a suaveness about him that's very attractive to women," observes costar Gillian Anderson, who plays agent Dana Scully. "And the character of Mulder is cool and smart -- he's just, like, the ultimate guy." For Duchovny, it's the more provocative side of his TV alter ego -- the haunted obsessive who's not afraid to appear the lunatic in his relentless quest -- that is closest to his heart. "What I love about Mulder is that he's so unconcerned with what people think about him," he explains. "He's not a nice, nice guy." Those who know the actor well will say that there's a hint of darkness lurking within him too. "David can be a really nice guy," Anderson declares, laughing. "He's got the ability to be absolutely compassionate and caring." At the same time, she says, he's "one of the moodiest people I've ever met. But you forgive him because he's so charming and can be so sweet and funny." Adds X-Files creator and executive producer Chris Carter: "He's a person who works from self-doubt. He's very talented, but he's always questioning the quality of his work -- which drives the level up constantly." Relaxed, witty, and forthright as he chats in his trailer, Duchovny at the moment appears the picture of self-confidence. Still, he acknowledges the truth in Carter's assessment. "It's not so much, 'Oh, God, I'm a horrible actor' -- although I do have those moments," he admits. "It's just this feeling that it's never perfect. You want to reach that place where you're both in and out of yourself at the same time. And I don't get there enough." Early in his career, it appeared Duchovny might not have the chance to get there at all. After abandoning the ivory tower for a shot at the bright lights in 1987, he moved back to his native New York. For two long years, nothing happened. At one point, he found himself subletting a friend's tiny apartment, an arrangement that required him to feed crickets to the friend's pet tarantula. "It was a sad metaphor for my existence," he says, smiling at the memory. "You'd start with five crickets early in the month, and the chirping would be this nice, hearty sound as you went to bed. As the weeks went by, the sound would get thinner and thinner, until there would be one scared little chirp. And I felt like that one guy." It didn't last. Following his 1989 debut in Henry Jaglom's "New Year's Day," Duchovny worked steadily over the next four years in films ("The Rapture") and TV (playing a transvestite government agent in Twin Peaks). He had just finished working opposite Brad Pitt in the feature "Kalifornia" when the X-Files pilot came along in 1993. He was sure it would flop: The subject matter didn't appeal to him, Carter and Anderson didn't have a track record, and Fox was just a fledgling network. "Nothing said it was going to be any good," Duchovny recalls. So much for the actor's commercial instincts. The show exploded in its third season, making Duchovny a star. Though he reportedly earns more than $100,000 an episode, he hasn't indulged much -- new BMW aside -- in the outward trappings of success. He rents a modest house near the X-Files set in Vancouver and typically spends weekends reading and hanging out with his dog, Blue. "David's a very abstemious and ascetic person who owns very little," says producer Carter. "He puts more emphasis on the work and an interior life." Hmm, sounds like a certain FBI agent we know. "Well, Mulder doesn't have my money," Duchovny quips. "But I live like Mulder, even though I sleep in a bed, not a futon." The actor and his fictional counterpart also share a certain restlessness of the spirit. While Mulder tries to fill the hole in his soul by exposing the truth about alien visitors and government conspiracies, Duchovny's quest for truth is a little more nebulous. "I try to balance having to live in this painful physical world and trying to open up channels to another world," says the actor, a vegetarian who practices yoga. "When you experience [the channels], you know they're true. But when you talk about them, you're in great danger of sounding like a knucklehead." Of course, there's also the search for earthly bliss. A shy, reserved kid whose older brother, Danny, used to call him ugly, the X-Files star is now one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors. He insists that his reputation as a Romeo -- some say Lothario -- is overblown. "If you're a young, single actor, you're an easy target," says Duchovny, who recently turned that image upside down by pretending to have a crush on his real-life pal Garry Shandling in a hilarious episode of HBO's The Larry Sanders Show. "But I'm single, I've always been single, and I'm not a monk. So take your shots." Not that Duchovny is afraid of commitment. He sees himself eventually getting married and having a family. What kind of woman will it take? "I don't really have an ideal," he shrugs. "Friends who are married say, 'Write down all the things you want and don't want -- you'd be surprised what happens.' And I say, 'Yeah, what happens is that somebody finds the list and publishes it.'"