a family affair; Sisters Alexandra and Vanessa Kerry take time out to talk to Julia Reed in New York on a quick break from the campaign trail.

Byline: Julia Reed

When I meet Alexandra and Vanessa Kerry, it's mid-July and they've been on the road for almost two weeks straight. They'd started out on the seven-city July 4 bus tour, during which they joined their father, John Kerry, onstage at almost every stop. They flew to L.A. to host a "Get Out the Vote" rock concert with Jack Black and flew right back to join the "veep tour" just after John Edwards was named to the ticket.

Through it all they managed to juggle their careers with the demands of the campaign. Alexandra, 30, who received her master's degree in fine art, with an emphasis on directing, from L.A.'s American Film Institute in June, is making a documentary on the campaign and was spotted in Iowa literally up a tree, capturing the activity

below with her camcorder. Vanessa, 27 and a third-year med student at Harvard, left her bags on the campaign plane and caught a flight to Boston for less than 24 hours to put in her allotted time at the hospital clinic where she works as part of her program.

Now, in Manhattan for the day, Alex and Vanessa must attend to a different kind of campaign demand-they are being made up for a photo shoot. Vanessa, serious and seemingly always sunny, is extolling the virtues of her current harried life. "I'm so lucky. I get to travel the country, I get to meet people," and, she says, referring to the business at hand, "I get to play princess for a day!"

"That's a dumb quote," Alex cracks from the chair next to her, where she is having her hair done. "Shut up!" Vanessa shoots back. "In my normal life, I'm usually discussing something like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."

Though they tease each other relentlessly, they're clearly close. Alex, the self-described "dreamer," is the edgier, more private sister. She has already had roles in two David Mamet films (a frenzied TV director in State and Main and a bartender in Spartan) and refers dryly to the Kerry-Edwards kickoff as "the Sound of Music" leg of the campaign. "My sister's the one who kept me in style growing up," Vanessa says. "She told me what to listen to, what to wear." Alex is still more fashion-