A & E

Wanted: agents for a new and exciting line of work in the field of international espionage. Travel to exotic locales. Meet interesting people. Problem-solving skills a must. Martial arts, firearms training and up-to-date passport required.

Must be able to speak several languages, rappel down a building, ride the wing of a plane, decipher code and assemble an Uzi in 10 seconds.

The classic spy -- resourceful, suave, imperturbable -- can exert a powerful allure. Already, "Quantum of Solace," the new James Bond movie with Daniel Craig in the starring role, has set opening weekend records in Britain. It opened there Oct. 31 and opens in the United States on Friday.

Our inner 12-year-old envies the gadgets and explosions. Our harried adult selves envy them their power to control their environment while looking suave or fabulous.

Spies, whether male or female, don't worry about mortgages, cellulite or taking the minivan in for inspection. They're too concerned with being shot, drowned, poisoned with the tip of an umbrella or having a laser beam aimed at their crotch while they're spread eagle on a table, as happened to Sean Connery's 007 in "Goldfinger."

And they did it all while looking good and issuing witty quips.

"That certainly is one of the appeals of good spy fiction," says Richard Goldman, co-owner of Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont. "It takes you into an entire world. Not just the world of the spy -- although that's certainly a big part of the interest -- but this world of faraway places and obscure capitals and interesting parts of the world and people who you would certainly never meet in your daily life: heads of secret police forces and trained assassins and all that sort of stuff. That's a great and enjoyable escape."

But there's another school of spy: the tortured, contemplative agent who questions the murky moral territory they inhabit to protect their country or the public. Think Jennifer Garner's conflicted Sydney Bristow in the ABC TV series "Alias." Or George Smiley, John le Carre's rumpled, methodical, cuckolded protagonist in novels such as "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."

"You have the very escapist entertainment, and then you have the somewhat more serious book," Goldman says. "I would say le Carre represents the latter category. Not a lot of shoot-em-up action. Much quieter books, more pessimistic.

"Most of the le Carre books kind of come down to where there's not a lot of difference between the so-called good guys and bad guys. Look at what we're willing to do to supposedly win one for the right side."

TOUGH GUY SPIES

Daniel Craig, who continues the role of James Bond in "Quantum of Solace," has been hailed by fans as a return to the original red-blooded male Bond that was originated by Sean Connery in "Dr. No" in 1962. Connery's 007 might have been suave and witty, but he also was handy with his fists. Then pretty-boy bonds like George Lazenby and Roger Moore diluted the testosterone pool.

Below, a list of spies who don't use moisturizer.

Harry Palmer, "The Ipcress File" (1965): Michael Caine plays a disgraced former soldier who reluctantly becomes a spy in order to avoid prison. No preening playboy, he's a tough cockney. And check out the glasses and the hair. Gee, do you think Mike Myers was watching?

Derek Flint, "Our Man Flint" (1966): A pre-craggy James Coburn played self-confident lady's man Derek Flint in the James Bond parodies "Our Man Flint" and "In Like Flint." He's fighting an organization called Galaxy that wants to make inactive volcanoes erupt and enslave the world using female "sex zombies." Interesting Freudian symbolism with the volcanoes.

James West, Artemus Gordon, "The Wild, Wild West" (1965-1969): Robert Conrad and Ross Martin played square-jawed, slicked-up dudes in this sagebrush espionage series, which featured Bond-like gadgets as well as a super villain, Dr. Loveless. Both wear the kind of outfits that would get you beaten up at school, but they sure were handy with their fists.

Harry Tasker, "True Lies" (1995): Arnold Schwarzenegger was funny with a quip as well as with his fists in this film, directed by James Cameron. Schwarzenegger never takes himself too seriously. In the opening scene, he emerges from the water wearing a wet suit, which he strips to reveal a perfectly dry tuxedo underneath. The best scenes are with Tom Arnold as his fellow agent. In his other life, Tasker's a family man who is trying to relate to his sullen teenage daughter and bored wife.

Sam, "Ronin" (1998): Robert De Niro played a former Cold War operative who is now without portfolio thanks to the New World Order. To make ends meet, he accepts a mission from a couple of Irish mercenaries to retrieve a mysterious briefcase in Paris. Brawny, rumpled and ruthless, he wins ugly. Unlike James Bond, he's not afraid to get dirt under his fingernails. John Frankenheimer's film has one of the best car chases in movies.

Jason Bourne, the "Bourne" trilogy (2002, 2004, 2007): Matt Damon is a human killing machine with amnesia who is trying to piece his life back together while the shadowy CIA-like organization that trained him is now trying to kill him.

Jack Bauer, "24" (2001-present): Kiefer Sutherland's glowering, tormented CTU agent has nine lives. He's survived torture, terrorists, a deadly virus and a Chinese prison. In the tradition of the drinking game "Hi Bob," where friends watch reruns of "The Bob Newhart Show" and drink whenever a character utters that line, "24" fans have been known to gather and take a sip every time Jack Bauer says "... You have to trust me!"

FEMALE SPIES

Why do we love female spies? Because they've got brains, brawn and killer abs? Because they can light up our libido even while they're karate kicking our keisters halfway to the 42nd parallel? Because they let us keep the remote? It's certainly not because they can cook. Below, an honor roll of undercover hotties.

Emma Peel, "The Avengers" (1965-68): Played by Diana Rigg, the widow and "talented amateur" partner to John Steed is the once and future queen of butt-kicking spies. Rigg replaced Honor Blackman as Steed's right-hand girl in 1965. Alluringly aloof, she looked deadly in a one-piece catsuit. She and Catwoman form the fantasy trilogy of baby boomer boys, along with Marcia Brady.

Sydney Bristow, "Alias" (2001-06): Jennifer Garner inhabited this troubled, pretty and lethal chameleon on the ABC spy drama. She spoke several languages, had serious martial-arts chops and looked good no matter what identity she assumed. She also had some serious family issues. She's estranged from her father, who just happens to be a fellow double agent.

Agent 99, "Get Smart" (1965-69): Bethel Park native and Carnegie Mellon University graduate Barbara Feldon was the pretty foil to Don Adams' bumbling, self-important Maxwell Smart. She also appeared in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."

La Femme Nikita (1990): A heroin-addicted delinquent (Anne Parillaud) is sentenced to life in prison after killing a cop in a botched pharmacy burglary. While she rots in prison, DGSE, a French intelligence agency, fakes her death and gives her a choice: be killed for real or become an assassin.

Natasha Fatale, "Rocky and Bullwinkle": The shapely, heavily made-up Russian partner of Boris Badenov. Her signature greeting was "Hello, Darlink." The actress who voiced her, June Foray, also voiced Rocky. She also provided the voice of Tanya, a femme fatale in the 1966 movie "The Man Called Flintstone." After getting Fred and Barney into yet another dangerous situation, she exits with the line "I'm much too important to be captured."

Chloe O'Brien, "24" (2001-present): Mary Lynne Rajskub is the cranky computer genius at the L.A. Counterterrorism Unit. Her cool command of the keyboard enables her to trace calls, locate emergency airstrips and hack into Web sites. Without her, agent Jack Bauer wouldn't last one hour, let alone 24.

Sarah Walker, "Chuck" (2007-present): Yvonne Strahovski's bombshell CIA agent is hired to extract secrets from Chuck, who has government secrets downloaded to his brain. If she interrogated us while wearing that Wienerlicious costume, we'd spill our guts.

Vanessa Kensington, "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" (1997): Elizabeth Hurley looked terrific in a catsuit and displayed surprisingly deft comic instincts. Dream movie scene: a girl fight with Heather Graham's Felicity Shagwell from "Austin Powers II: The Spy Who Shagged Me."

Mata Hari: Born Gertrude Magarete Zelle in Holland, she gave herself the stage name Mata Hari during her career as an "oriental" dancer and courtesan in Paris. She was executed by firing squad as a spy on Oct. 15, 1917. Her multiple lovers included military officers in various countries. Her liaisons in Belgium, Germany and elsewhere led French authorities to suspect her as a spy.

OTHER SPIES WHO ARE EASY ON THE EYES

Richard Dean Anderson -- in the "MacGyver" TV series (1985-92)

Antonio Banderas -- in three "Spy Kids" movies (2001-03)

Ingrid Bergman -- in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" (1946)

Richard Burton -- in "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" (1965)

Tom Cruise -- in the "Mission: Impossible" movies (1996, 2000, 2006)

Robert Culp and Billy Cosby -- in TV's "I Spy" (1965-68)

Jeffrey Donovan -- in USA's "Burn Notice" (2007-present)

Peter Graves -- in the original "Mission: Impossible" TV series (1967-73)

Dean Martin -- in four Matt Helm movies in the 1960s

Brad Pitt -- in "Spy Game" (2001)

Robert Redford -- in "Spy Game" (2001) and "Sneakers" (1992)

Eva Marie Saint -- in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" (1959)

Christian Slater -- in the new NBC series "My Own Worst Enemy" (2008)

Match the name of the organization with the movie or television series.

1. The Circus

2. M16

3. The Omega Sector

4. IMF

5. CONTROL

6. SD-6

7. Treadstone

8. CTU

a. "The Bourne Identity"

b. "Mission: Impossible"

c. "Alias"

d. "Get Smart"

e. "24"

f. James Bond films

g. "True Lies"

h. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"

Answers: 1-h; 2-f; 3-g; 4-b; 5-d; 6-c; 7-a; 8-e.

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