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However, he didn't leave the serenity of Nassau for the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple to begin filming his next movie. Instead, on a dreary, cold morning, Law is in Manhattan to promote the film that promises to transform him into the bona-fide box office superstar that his previous movies, Enemy At The Gates and Gattaca, should have. Sporting a stunning, deep brown tan that even his The Talented Mr Ripley character (the narcissistic play- boy Dickie Greenleaf) would envy, Law is finally able to shed a few secrets about his co-starring role in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, written and directed by Steven Spielberg.

The CIA-like shroud of secrecy surrounding the plot of A.I. was so intense that even before they had officially agreed to star in the sci-fi epic, all of the picture's principal players (Law, Haley Joel Osment, Frances O'Connor and William Hurt) were required to sign Tinseltown's version of a gag order, swearing not to reveal anything they had read. And even after they had long finished their collective work on the film, the cast's oath of silence didn't expire until A.I.: Artificial Intelligence's world premiere in July.

"I could understand the need for all the secrecy," says the 28- year-old. "This is a very special film, and I think Steven wants people to go into it with no pre-conceived ideas of what it's about. He wants audiences to walk in with a completely open mind in order for them to enjoy and savour every minute of it." A.I.: Artificial Intelligence isn't without a past - a well-known history that could dampen Spielberg's hopes of filling theatre seats with movie-goers.

The fable-like tale of a robotic boy who craves human feelings and desires was originally intended to be the late Stanley Kubrick's post-Full Metal Jacket project. For 20 years, the legendary director toyed with several versions of an A.I. screen- play. But the film he envisioned would require state-of-the-art specia1 effects and top-of-the-line computer graphics that were still in their infancy in the late Eighties. So Kubrick kept postponing the start date for A.I.

In 1993, after viewing the technological marvel Jurassic Park, Kubrick began to communicate with its creator, Steven Spielberg, to discuss the capability of companies like ILM to bring his proposed sci-fi epic to fruition. At one point, he even offered to produce A.I. if Spielberg would direct it. Ultimately, Kubrick decided to wait until technology caught up with his imagination and opted to do Eyes Wide Shut with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in the interim. Sadly, Kubrick passed away shortly before Eyes Wide Shut hit the big screen. Refusing to let Kubrick's celluloid vision fizzle into oblivion, Spielberg adopted the project with the full consent of the director's family. But the A.l, that moviegoers will see is, for all intents and purposes, a Spielberg film. Although Law says the spirit of Kubrick was never very far away from the A.I. set.

"At times, filming the movie felt like an eerie kind of marriage between the two geniuses," Law remembers. "You definitely felt Kubrick's presence and there is still an influence of his there. I mean, I don't think that many days went by where he wasn't mentioned or referred to. His spirit and soul is definitely there in it, both visually and literally. But A.I. is very much Steven's film. He rewrote it, re-visualised it and has made it his own."

"The Talented Mr Ripley was supposed to be my big break, whatever that is supposed to mean. Sure, it got me an Oscar nomination and raised my profile a bit, but I'm still the same person I was before I did it."

In Spielberg's reworking of Brian Aldiss' 1960s short story 'Super Toys Last All Summer Long', Haley Joel Osment and Law are mechanical robots called Mechas, designed to perform specific functions for humans. Osment portrays David, a young robotic boy programmed to replace the terminally ill, cryogenically frozen child of a grieving set of human parents.

The handsome Law is appropriately cast as Gigolo Joe, a Mecha whose primary function is to take his flesh-and-blood counterparts to new heights of sexual pleasure. But while Gigolo Joe is good at his job, he secretly longs to understand the true meaning of love and intimacy. The two cross paths when David is discarded by his parents once a cure is found for their son's illness and he is taken out of the deep freeze. Left without a family to love, David embarks on a journey through a submerged New York to discover where he truly belongs in the world.

"It is amazing to watch Steven work, because you can just see the creativity oozing from him," says Law. "He's incredibly modest and inspiring, and he's a real team player. It was a thrill to be on the set with him every day. It's hard to believe how he manages to do as much as he does and still be as good a father as he is. I mean, he's a devoted father, husband and director. He's a phenomenal and inspiring man."

Law could very easily be describing himself. Comfortably positioning himself on a massive couch, Law removes his leather jacket to reveal his rather unique homage to his wife, Sadie. On the inside of his left elbow, the tattooed lines of the Beatles song 'Sexy Sadie' ("You come along/To turn on everyone/Sexy Sadie") are embedded underneath Law's skin. For a man named after another Fab Four classic, 'Hey Jude', his permanent body inscription is a fitting declaration of love for a man who is obsessively devoted to his family.

"Success, and even life itself, wouldn't be worth anything if I didn't have my wife and children by my side," he declares. "They mean everything to me."

Although he has spent the past five years performing in one film after another - Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, Wilde, Gattaca, eXistenZ, The Talented Mr Ripley (which garnered him a Best Supporting Actor nod), Enemy At The Gates, A.I. and the upcoming Sam Mendes film The Road To Perdition - Law has always found time to be an ideal husband and a 'cool' dad.

"I don't like to work incessantly," Law confesses. "Although it looks like it, I don't work back to back. After I finished Enemy At The Gates, I took four months off, and then I did A.I. After A.I. I took three months off before starting The Road To Perdition. Those breaks are quality time for Sadie, myself and the kids. We need our time together. And Sadie tries to work her schedule to where she can be off at the same time. I'm not a great fan of working just to keep myself busy. I only like doing things that I really, really feel good about doing. I think that life is too short to work just for the sake of it."

When Law isn't acting, he's producing and writing plays and films for Natural Nylon, a production company he formed five years ago with long-time friends Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller.

"I really enjoy being an actor for hire," he admits. "I enjoy stepping into the universes of directors like Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes and being able to tip up; do my job and go home. But equally, I'm one of these people who, because of the job that I do, read a lot of books and articles or I'm told stories and I think, 'Well, that would make a great movie or a great play.'

"The process of putting it together, working with writers, developing stuff, putting in what you've learned from being an actor into the writing process and choosing designers, is a really exciting process and one that I wanted to be a part of. So I've really enjoyed learning a new trade and it's taught me to really respect and understand what it means to be a successful film actor."

With his piercing blue/green eyes, leanly sculpted six-foot frame and naturally stunning good looks, everyone in Hollywood agrees Jude Law is already a sex symbol. But they feel he should be taking home the $20 million-plus paycheck stars like Tom Cruise pocket for each of their films. Insiders are betting A.I. will do the trick. But Law has heard this kind of talk before.

"The Talented Mr Ripley was supposed to be my big break, whatever that is supposed to mean," he says. "Sure, it got me an Oscar nomination and raised my profile a bit, but I'm still the same person I was before I did it. Enemy At The Gates was supposed to make me a star. What the hell is that, exactly? Somebody who makes a lot of cash?
"I already make enough to support myself and my family. I'm an actor. That's all I've wanted to be and that influences the roles I take and the people that I want to work with," says Law.

"I've never yet really done a film or a job where I didn't care about it or I just did for the cash or the star appeal I'd get from it," he says. "That's because I think that life is too short, and I also think that it would be impossible to sit here and lie to you and say I liked a film if I did it for those reasons. Now, if being a star means I have a better chance to work with guys like Steven Spielberg, then I had better start working my ass off to become one.

"Hopefully, though, filmmakers like Steven see the talent I have and put me in a film like A.I. because I can act and not just for some marquee value. Otherwise, I might as well be a super- star robot - an acting machine that just goes through the motions. But as long as I'm human, I'll do films I really feel are worth my time. I don't think anyone could expect anything more from me."

End