Wink at the cheerleader or the varsity quarterback, and it's usually the mascot in the squirrel costume who winks back. Vancouver lusts after the likes of Paul Newman and Gwyneth Paltrow. So who falls in love with us? Michael Moriarty.

Best known as Ben Stone, the original assistant district attorney on "Law & Order," Emmy-winning Moriarty, a Detroit native, relocated to Canada in the mid-'90s, claiming dissatisfaction with the current state of the U.S. He left "Law & Order" in a cloud of bizarre acrimony following a meeting with Attorney General Janet Reno -- a meeting that launched Moriarty on a public crusade against what he considered Reno's anti-free-speech agenda.

His first Canadian stop was Halifax, where Moriarty, 59, made news with his plan to start a Canadian branch of the Republican Party. About a year ago, Moriarty swapped coasts and landed in Vancouver. He has floated around our city like a rumor ever since.

A very weird rumor. Moriarty, who has flirted with a bid for Vancouver mayor, is what you might call unpredictable. "He's a nut case," said one local TV talk show functionary who had dealings with him. (Nonetheless, the actor's subsequent appearance on that talk show went quite well. Moriarty was not only charming and well-behaved; the accomplished jazz pianist even tickled the ivories for the enthralled audience.)

I am to track Moriarty down for an interview. It's not my first time on his trail. I host a competing talk show with a round-table discussion format, broadcast live to a national Canadian audience. When we attempted to book Moriarty last season, a source at his agency sounded an ominous note. "You'll be talking politics? Live? Well," he said doubtfully, "maybe you'll get him on a good day."

Good days, it was hinted, might depend on proper medication. The erratic Moriarty behavior typified by his abrupt departure from "Law & Order" is by now familiar news. An unofficial love/hate fan page called The Schizophrenic Michael Moriarty Home Page collects comments by anonymous fans. The postings reveal a sympathy for the fallen hero, speculating on such matters as whether Moriarty had gone off some vital medication.

Says one: "He worries me."

When Vancouver radio talk show host Pia Shandel expressed interest in Moriarty on-air, she promptly fielded a call from his sometime limo driver. Moriarty, the driver revealed, had emerged from Vancouver airport in the company of a woman named Margie. Moriarty called her "Mom." (In the driver's opinion, it fit.) Moriarty was pleasant; Margie was fierce -- a barfly who has apparently become Moriarty's personal handler by demonstrating an ability to match him drink for drink. ("And then some," claimed one acquaintance.)

Further enlightenment came from Moriarty himself, via the National Enquirer. "'Law & Order' Star: I'm Drinking Again & Happy As A Clam," read the Sept. 12 headline. In it, Moriarty's third wife, Suzy Calabrita, revealed that the two are separated and that after nine months of sobriety, her husband had hit the sauce again. "My drinking is under control," Moriarty retorted. "I've done six films in the last three months."

One of them, "Shiloh 2," spawned a sexual harassment suit by makeup artists. Moriarty settled. "I have never sexually harassed anyone in my life," Moriarty told the Enquirer. "This was a couple of idiot ladies on a bad film getting a really awful lawyer to sue me ... I had to settle it to get it off the plate."

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