HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — This month, as befits an international star of stage and screen, Alan Cumming is launching his own fragrance, Cumming.

The advertising campaign features postcards of the actor doing homages to old fragrance ads.

"Originally it was for men," he says, "but women love it. So I'm saying it's 'beyond gender.' "

It's also beyond the age of the target audience for his movie out now, "Son of the Mask," a sort-of-prequel to Jim Carrey's 1994 "The Mask."

Cumming plays Loki, the Norse God of Mischief, who created the mask and now will go to any length — and any disguise — to get it back. No costume or hair style is too demeaning.

"Sometimes people get really sniffy about the films you choose if you've done more dramatic projects or you're classically trained," says Cumming, 40, who studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance.

"But I love a film where I get squished by two Dumpsters or I fly through the air."

The outrageous Cumming has a career that goes both ways. His heavyweight credits include "Cabaret," his Tony Award-winning revival in 1998, and heavy dramas like "Eyes Wide Shut."

Then there's the more mainstream "Emma" (opposite Gwyneth Paltrow), "X2" and TV versions of "Annie" and "The Goodbye Girl."

"Kids are more genuine. When they come up and want to talk to you, they don't have an agenda. It's more endearing and less piercing to your aura," he says.

He's in "Reefer Madness," a musical airing on Showtime in April, a parody of the 1936 anti-marijuana film.

He's already at work on "Bam Bam and Celeste," in which he plays Margaret Cho's love interest. After that comes "X3," reprising his role as the blue shape shifter, Nightcrawler.

Then there are more films to promote: "Mr. Ripley's Return," "Neverwas," "Ant Bully," "Eighteen" and "Wedding Photo," in which he plays a 1920s Minnesota farmer with 10 children.