TICK TICK TICK TOCK

'Time is valuable,' says Ben Stiller. And between 'Severance,' a World War II movie, a documentary about his parents and 'Focker-inLaw, he's making the most of it.

- GLENN WHIPP

Ben Stiller's phone is buzzing. Each time someone sends a text, it alerts him with the sound of Roy Scheider's police chief, Brody, telling Robert Shaw's Quint that his vessel, the Orca, is not of sufficient size to deal with the 25-foot great white shark he just saw popping out of the Atlantic. Stiller apologizes and silences his phone, which continues to vibrate busily on the table. When we first met in early June, Stiller was in the thick of writing and prepping the next season of "Severance," the sci-fi drama that led all TV series with 27 Emmy nominations this year. He was also putting the finishing touches on a documentary about his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. And in a few minutes, he'd be driving over to Rob Reiner's house to shoot an interview about "This Is Spinal Tap." ("Still so friggin' funny," Stiller says.) Any one of these things would be enough to repeatedly summon the voice of Chief Brody. But as the flurry is arriving the day after the New York Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau, and as Stiller sits alongside Spike Lee and Timothée Chalamet in the firmament of celebrity New York Knicks fandom, this is probably about Coach Thibs.

"Being a Knicks fan is probably overshadowing the rest of my career - which might be a good thing" Stiller jokes. He shakes his head. "It's like an addiction."

Stiller was just at Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals in Indianapolis when the Pacers eliminated the Knicks. He's still depressed. Seriously. It's like a bad breakup. Where there was once joy, there is now only pain and absence. It's over, and the bill has come due.