In Manhattan's East Village, Kari Wuhrer forces political dogma through gritted teeth. "Faye Dunaway for President! She'd whip everybody into shape with her divaness!" But her zest comes more from pain than conviction --she's getting her fiance's initials tattooed on her ankle.

As she sweats in the scorching summer heat, you might not guess that this performer has five new movies in the can, and perches on the verge of stardom.

Have you seen her before? Maybe in "Adventures of Ford Fairlane" or "Beastmaster II", but more likely on MTV. Her stint there included VJ duties as well as the game show Remote Control, which she insists still has a "major cult following."

She left MTV for Fox's Class Of '96, a short lived series filmed in Toronto. "It was rough being away from everyone I knew. But I learned a lot." She also appeared as David's fling, Ariel, on Beverly Hills 90210.

But now, her career is in overdrive. Among her projects is Sensation, a thriller with Eric Roberts. "It's a great cast," she says. "I'm proud of the effort I put into it." There's also Crossing Guard, directed by Sean Penn. "I worked with Jack Nicholson, which is, like the greatest thing in the world. We have implied love scenes, but I never really got to kiss him. He tap dances with me, though, and I think that I'm one of the only people in the world who has tap danced in their underwear with Jack Nicholson." After some thought, she adds, "on film."

   

This winter, look for her in the love story Beyond Desire, in Boulevard with Lou Diamond Phillips, and in John Singleton's Higher Learning, in which she plays "a college student who's shy until she downs a few tequilas. It's not a plot-advancing character, but the script was so worthy that it was cool to get in on it at the last minute.

As a girl in "Wonderbread-ville", Connecticut, Kari was bitten by the acting bug watching television. "I loved Family Affair. That's what brought me here. I wanted to be Buffy and Jody." Her route took her to the Royal Dramatics Arts in London and then to New York University.

Is she happy with her career so far? Almost. "Everything is like a toothpaste commercial. You know, smile bright and make sure people buy it. That's frustrating. The reason I did 90210 was because one of my best friends is, like, a huge fan and I wanted to take her to the set to meet everyone."

Now Kari is taking time off to work on her music (she has songs on the soundtracks of some of her upcoming pictures) and to get married. Her fiancee, a musician, shares Kari's love for her 1963 Ford Galaxie convertible. "We love to drive around and buy up antiques."

Even with all this under her belt, Wuhrer is uncomfortable with her celebrity. "I don't deserve it. If I had done some truly great acting work, had a really good album released, or found a cure for Aids, or got on Letterman --then yeah!" Kari says tattooed initials in place. "Until then, it's not worth it."