A tall, slender character player whose olive complexion, severe eyebrows and wide, etched cheekbones make her a natural for ethnic roles, Roma Maffia had played small parts in three movies (including a prostitute in her debut, Susan Seidelman's "Smithereens" 1982) and worked on TV, but her career did not really take off until Ron Howard "discovered" her and cast her as an eager, loud-mouthed reporter in "The Paper" (1994). That same year, she displayed her grit as a steel-and-sparks lawyer defending Michael Douglas against Demi Moore's accusations of sexual harassment in Barry Levinson's
