Like '' Cry-Baby '' , the latter series was set in the 1950s ; McGuire played the role of Nicole Thorne , a " shrewish publicist " to a television executive . Notwithstanding the quirkiness of the series , she grasped the opportunity to break away from her Hatchetface image . In one interview , she said : " After '' Cry-Baby '' , when I went on job interviews producers expected to see this big , ugly six-foot-tall actress whereas I 'm just five feet high . This series , I hope , will make people forget me as Hatchetface . " She added , " I always wanted to meet David Lynch , so I ca n't tell you how thrilled I am to be working on the show . And there are lots of other plusses . For example , it really feels great to show up groomed with my hair in place wearing decent clothes " . In one episode , a magician performed a series of unconventional magic tricks , prompting one critic to describe the sequence as " a must-see , if only for the nightmarishly Fly-like image of Kim McGuire stepping out of a vanishing box with her head on the body of a skittering iguana . " By the mid-1990s , McGuire had all but given up on her film career . In December 1997 , she was admitted to the California State Bar and began working as an attorney in Los Angeles , specialising in entertainment and appellate law . She and her partner , Emmy-winning television producer Gene Piotrowsky , were in New York at the time of the September 11 attacks and consequently found themselves unemployed . The couple moved to Biloxi , Mississippi , where , a few years earlier , McGuire 's parents ( still living in New Orleans ) had purchased a seaside vacation house in the exclusive Holy Land district
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Kim McGuire