BELOVED

Father Figure
With five kids to entertain, Chris O'Donnell — the former Boy Wonder — has traded the red carpet for Costco. And he's loving it. By David Hochman

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If you've lost track of Chris O'Donnell recently, here's the quick update: The Boy Wonder now flies coach.

"I used to put a cap on, and sunglasses," he says, still as clean-cut as a Cub Scout at age 38. "But now I just run down the aisle chasing the kids. 'Yep, it's me. Here I am, folks. 24C.' "

The actor who twice played Robin and helped Al Pacino hoo-ah his way to an Oscar also shops at Target these days — that is, when he's not stockpiling white wine at Costco. "Nobody's got better deals on Cakebread and Far Niente," he says.

Which is not to suggest the former superhero has gone completely off the grid. But O'Donnell and his wife of 11 years, Caroline Fentress, now have five children under 10, which has taken some regrouping. "Going first-class with a crowd like ours, you're taking over two full rows. It's almost the same cost as flying private."

Over runny eggs at a 24-hour steak house near his home in Pacific Palisades, California, O'Donnell is talking about how getting the kids to Little League and such has taken priority over micromanaging global domination strategies. "I got to this point where I was working so much and making all this money and thought, 'What's the point, if I can't enjoy the rest of my life?' " he says. "So that's what I've been doing."

For a few years there, O'Donnell was the nicest thing to happen to Hollywood since Richie Cunningham — a kind of anti-Charlie Sheen. He was the guy with the altar-boy eyes who your grandmother wanted your sister to marry. But then he disappeared. There were rumors he'd turned down leads in Titanic — "Wikipedia also says I went to law school," he adds, "which I'm just going to leave there, since it makes me sound impressive" — and Men in Black ("That I did pass on. I'd worked with Tommy Lee Jones twice before, and he wasn't the friendliest guy in the world").

He resurfaced in 2004, shedding his buttercup image by playing a sex researcher in Kinsey, and since then he's been enjoying a mini-revival. There was the turn as Ellen Pompeo's squeeze in a popular story arc on Grey's Anatomy a couple of seasons back, and more recently he earned sterling reviews as a Yalie-turned-cold-war-cynic in the TNT miniseries The Company. Now he's starring as a Depression-era father in the family film Kit Kittredge. "My daughter Lily's really fired up for this one," he says. "I'm suddenly somewhere in the realm of Hannah Montana."

O'Donnell wasn't much older than Lily — she's eight — when his career got started. Growing up outside Chicago in a big Irish-Catholic family (he's the youngest of seven), he was modeling and doing commercials by 14. With a critically acclaimed film debut six years later in Men Don't Leave, it was off to the races.

Now, however, O'Donnell's the errand boy. "He's become a master of multitasking," says Fentress, who he met while at Boston College. "He does all the shopping, and then I'll see him in the kitchen burping the baby while stirring noodles while plotting what kind of sauce he's going to throw on the ribs for dinner."

O'Donnell still finds time to sharpen his skills on the golf course — he's got a seven handicap — and somehow manages to watch anything containing the words Chicago and sports on TiVo. "I've definitely brainwashed the kids to be Cubs and Bears and Bulls fans," he says, "but we live in L.A., so it's easy. What are they going to do — follow the Clippers?"

His next project is the Mark Wahlberg crime drama Max Payne, but as he impulsively whips out his iPhone, it's apparent that what O'Donnell really wants to do is direct. "Take a look at this iMovie I shot," he says, hitting PLAY. It's his oldest son, Chip, seven, throwing a football in the park. O'Donnell added an audio track with the Bears fight song — "You're the pride and joy of Illinois! Chicago Bears, bear down!"

O'Donnell smiles that wholesome smile.

"Now that's moviemaking," he says.

Pic: O'Donnell, here with his eight-year-old daughter, Lily, has forsaken global domination to concentrate on more domestic pursuits. (Photo: Max Vadukul)

Source: Men's Vogue