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We continue our take on the ever-popular where-are-they-now update.

Our difference is this: We're going with cool people, or at least people who once appeared to be cool and on the road to bigger things. So it's not just where are they, but whatever happened to them?

Mary Stuart Masterson

It wasn't her first role, but Masterson's performance as Watts in 1987's Some Kind of Wonderful was the one that got her noticed. Watts was a tomboy giving romantic advice to Eric Stoltz's character, her best friend, who is wooing the rich witch played by Lea Thompson. Of course, Watts is actually in love with him herself. He comes around, but it's the journey, as they say, that is the reward.

And then? Hmm

After Some Kind of Wonderful, Masterson got plenty of work, including roles in Gardens of Stone, Fried Green Tomatoes and Benny & Joon. She has continued to act (special bonus points for parents: She appeared as Cinderella in an episode of Blues Clues), just not as much and not in high-profile projects (Whisky School, for instance).

Lately she has been . . .

Masterson has a recurring role as a psychiatrist in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But she also has worked behind the camera, directing 2007's The Cake Eaters, which was well-received on the festival circuit. Good for her - but it would be nice to see her again in a role as rich as Watts, too.

Reach Goodykoontz at 602-444-8974 or bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com.