Natural born typecast Juliette Lewis is going Hollywood-with-a-twist this winter with a multimedia event that strikes the same musical chord as fellow thespians Will Smith and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

The Academy Award-nominated Lewis recently belted out a new rendition of the classic tear-jerker "Come Rain or Come Shine" for the The Other Sister soundtrack, due out March 3 on Hollywood Records. Previously recorded by Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles and hundreds of others, "Come Rain or Come Shine" marks Lewis' most recent foray into the recording studio, following a smattering of other soundtrack songs, but no full-length album.

"In the movie, Juliette [playing the mentally disabled Carla Tate] listens to 'Come Rain or Come Shine' on her headphones and sings along because she thinks it is the ultimate love song," says Hollywood Records spokesman Mitchell Leib. "Juliette decided she wanted to record that song in December when she saw the whole movie for the first time."

Lewis' eleventh hour re-make was tacked on to the soundtrack, which also boasts new material from Savage Garden, Joan Osborne and the Pretenders. Chrissie Hynde and co. laid down a rendition of Diane Warren's "Loving You Is All I Know" last fall with Grammy-nominated producer Rob Cavallo (Goo Goo Dolls, Alanis Morissette). The band also recently completed a video shoot in London for the track, which will debut as the lead single for The Other Sister early next month.

The Other Sister's second single, Savage Garden's "Animal Song," is due out on radio and MTV in late February or early March -- more than three months after Savage Garden recorded it in producer Walter Afanaseiff's Marin County, Calif., studio. The band is scouting video directors now and expects to film a video for the song in the next two or three weeks, Leib says.

Contributing a remake vaguely similar to Lewis' "Come Rain or Come Shine," Joan Osborne has completed a soulful rendition of the Etta James classic "At Last" for the soundtrack. Other album tracks include "Mrs. Robinson" by the Lemonheads, "I'm Free" by the Soup Dragons, "When You Say Nothing At All" by Alison Krauss, "Me" by Paula Cole, "Follow If You Lead" by breaking artist Idina Menzel and "She Comes 'Round" from Fastball's 1996 album, Make Your Mama Proud. In addition, the Jewel song "I'm Sensitive" from 1995's Pieces of You appears in the film, but does not appear on the soundtrack.

The Other Sister -- the story of an intelligent and fiercely independent handicapped girl and her family -- stars Lewis, Giovanni Ribisi, Tom Skerritt and Diane Keaton. The film will debut March 5 on Touchstone Pictures.

ANNI LAYNE
(January 12, 1998)