Close-up on Carroll
By JOHN COULBOURN
Toronto Sun

Even Garth Drabinsky ran short of superlatives yesterday when the time came to introduce Diahann Carroll.
The glamorous star of stage and screen has been signed to play Norma Desmond in Drabinsky's Live Entertainment production of Sunset Boulevard, which opens at the Ford Centre in October. Carroll was in Toronto briefly before returning to Atlantic City, where she's currently performing.
At a press luncheon, Drabinsky raved about Carroll's "classic beauty," her "sensuous allure," and described her voice as "sultry and full of the history of her life in show business."
And then Carroll appeared, not only living up to her introduction, but surpassing it, with an understated elegance and a modesty as genuine as the jewels that adorned her fingers.
"I'm totally intimidated," she said, her eyes roving over the assembled media throng.
"You shouldn't be," Drabinsky replied. "This is Toronto."
Toronto and Carroll have had a love affair since she appeared in 1962 at the O'Keefe in No Strings - the Richard Rodgers tailored-for-Carroll musical that won her a Tony on Broadway.
"I've loved Toronto since before you were born," the actress quipped when a young journalist asked her opinion of Hogtown.
So she's thrilled to be coming back in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about a faded star of the silent screen.
"This is an enormous challenge," Carroll said with an enigmatic smile. "I like challenges."
Indeed, the first challenge to her casting was dealt with expeditiously - and with great charm.
When it was pointed out that some people question a black actress as a star in an era that had no black movie stars, Carroll countered with: "There really was no Norma Desmond either."
Besides, it's obvious that she'd rather concentrate on the things she has in common with the character, rather than their differences. So she talked about things like age.
"(Norma) was dealing with being a 50-year-old woman, and I have had my 50th birthday," Carroll said.
And she knows what it's like to constantly strive to prove that you're more than just a young and pretty face.
"None of those properties are foreign to me," Carroll said. "There is a certain strength that comes from that sort of survival."
As for following in the footsteps of the likes of Gloria Swanson - who originated the character on film - and Glenn Close - who's earned raves for her Broadway performance in the role - Carroll acknowledges their magnitude.
But she'd much rather deal with making her performance a personal fit.
"That is much more interesting than dealing with ghosts," she said.