"It was her mother who launched Witt on her unusual trajectory from whiz kid to starlet. Back in 1977, Diane Witt — who, to give her her due as an amazing person, currently has the world's longest hair (documented as 12'8" in the 1994 Guinness Book of Records) — dropped a line to Good Housekeeping. She enjoyed the magazine, she wrote, and noted that her 2-year-old did, too. Housekeeping staff promptly visited and photographed "our youngest reader." Thanks to this bit of exposure, Witt was invited to appear on ABC's That's Incredible, where she played a scene as Shakespeare's Juliet. Working with the cameras set off lightbulbs in Alicia's head. "I loved it," she says. "It was like life, only 10 times more intense." At 7, brought to the attention of director David Lynch, she made her film debut in the sci-fi epic Dune as space princess Alia. She learned her lines in one reading. "It's easy," Witt says. "You memorize the thought process instead of the words." Of course. Dune opened and closed, and Witt stayed in Worcester, racing through her piano studies. She even created her own variations, in the style of Debussy, Chopin and other masters, on Over the Rainbow."