All About Erin.

• Author: Olson, Walter

Heroine of screen and courtroom Erin Brockovich deserves a prize, all right. But not for what you think.

It took a few months for the investigative journalists to overtake the Hollywood dream spinners, but by now it's been pretty well established: What got left out of the blockbuster movie Erin Brockovich (now available at a video store near you) was in many ways juicier than what got put in.

You're probably familiar with the basic Erin story, as portrayed by the winsome Julia Roberts in a critically acclaimed performance. A spunky, foul-mouthed single mother down on her luck, Erin gets herself hired with no experience for a routine job at a Los Angeles personal injury law firm. Soon she stumbles into evidence that the townspeople of little Hinkley, California, are being poisoned by pollution in the water table originating with giant utility Pacific Gas & Electric, which runs a plant there. Brockovich begins doggedly accumulating evidence, convinces the lawyers in her firm they've got a case, and recruits townspeople to sue. Eventually, without admitting guilt, the utility coughs up an impressive $333 million settlement, a record for this kind of case.

Not only did this result provide much-needed financial balm for both the townspeople and our heroine, but all the lawsuit organizing, as the writers at Oprah.com explain, assisted Brockovich in the task of "finding her true self." Although she'd started out in life as a beauty pageant winner, winning the trust of the Hinkley townspeople "enabled Erin to grow and realize that inner beauty is most important."

In fact, the challenge of working on the suit "allowed Erin to productively channel all of her pent-up anger and frustration and realize her purpose in life: helping others." Litigation as a road to inner peace and helping others: It's certainly an unusual story.

After she spent years helping others, what more appropriate reward for Brockovich than to become the most famous environmental litigator in history, as by now she surely is? Though technically not a lawyer (her title at the California law firm of Masry & Vititoe is "research director"), she's won more prizes and commendations than just about any regular lawyer you could name, including the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's Champion of Justice Award, presented last July at its annual convention in Chicago; similar prizes from the California and Santa Clara County trial lawyer groups; commendations from the County of Los Angeles and the California Assembly; and the Court TV "Scales of Justice" Award.

Clearly not unpleased at this nearly...