Chicago - Her mother-in-law keeps phoning from Cleveland to ask, "Has my son - the bum - got a job yet?"



But Lindsay Wagner, fresh, bright beautiful Hollywood starlet making her film debut opposite Peter Fonda in Universal's "Two People" doesn't mind supporting her husband, Allan Rider.



"I don't have any feelings about possessing money. It doesn't bother me to be the only wage earner in the family. I really believe Allan has learned a lot about internal freedom in a creative sense, since he quit his job six months ago," explained the 23-year-old honey blonde. She brought her husband along to Chicago on her recent film promotion tour.



When Miss Wagner began to answer questions, her shy, "retiring" husband remained across the room, his head hidden behind a newspaper.



Eventually he walked across the thick carpet, joined his wife on the couch, and broke his silence with, "We married a year and a half ago. But we were constantly separated because I worked long hours in the music publishing business and Lindsay kept flying off to movie locations. When she finally got a raise we could afford to live on, I quit."



Borned and reared in Los Angeles, Miss Wagner began modeling at the age of 13, when her parents divorced. Her mother remarried briefly and had a new baby before divorcing her second husband.



"Then we had real money problems, and I had to be part-time baby-sitter as well as go to school and model," she recalled. "Fortunately, I was a popular teen model and found a lot of work. But I hated it because it was so shallow and so narcissistic. I began to study acting in desperation and that's when I really felt happy and fulfilled. Two years ago, about the time I met Allan, I got my first role on the Marcus Welby show."



Immediately after Miss Wagner's television appearance, Universal signed her to a seven-year contract. She won't say what her salary is, but she admits, "They seem pleased with the work I do and I have a good agent. My contract has been renegotiated twice and I'm now making six times as much money as I was when I signed on with the studio. And that's unusual."



She was breathlessly excited over "Two People" and described it as a beautiful love story about a high-fashion model who meets an exiled draft dodger while she is on assignment in Morocco.



"Five girls tried out for the part. When I asked director Robert Wise what he was looking for, he anwered 'you!'" Miss Wagner reported. "And I loved everything about the script except that nude scene...."



She glanced down at her long, graceful hands and began flicking her fingernails against each other as she continued. "Originally it was supposed to be very intimate. There was a lot of touching and fondling, with kisses going up and down the girl's whole body. But I told Mr. Wise I just couldn't do that -- no matter what! So he cut most of it out. Now all you see is one quick shot of my bare breasts and then some hazy images."



Although Rider, 29, wakes up when Miss Wagner does each morning and accompanies her to the set, he stays away when she films nude scenes.



"I've never minded the fact that Lindsay does love scenes. That's part of acting. But I admit I had to get used to the idea of her being in the nude ones," he said.



"And I couldn't bear it if Allan watched," Miss Wagner agreed. "In fact, Mr. Wise had the entire set cleared for the one in this movie. He even sent a bottle of wine to my dressing room marked, 'For Lindsay Only!' and once I drank the whole thing -- and was completely smashed -- there was nothing to it."

Sandra Pesmen, Chicago Daily News Writer