Claudia Recaptured

Ten years ago, she used the money she had earned as a Playmate to move Chicago to Los Angels. Since then, Claudia Jennings, who went on to become Playmate of the Year, has never had to look back. That's not surprising, since Claudia obviously looks even better than she did when she began to build her rep as queen of the Bs by playing some baaaad mommas in movies such as Unholy Rollers and Truck Stop Women. Her latest are such hell-on-wheels epics as last year's Deathsport, with David Carradine, and the new Canadian-made Fast Company. Somewhere in between, after a big broken romance followed by a period of readjustment and a brand-new man, (text concluded on page 176) Claudia Recaptured (continued from page 118) Claudia was semiretired. "I quit the business for two years. I had worked so long and so hard, I had just lost touch. Now that I've got my second breath, I'm going to come out real strong this next year. Tell 'em Jennings is back on board."

When Claudia talks about her decade in Hollywood as a perennially promising girl about town moving up, down and sideways across the star-spangled landscape, you'd better listen. "It's not bad out here; it's just very tough. I see what's become of people who started out exactly when I did, and it's frightening. There are so many things to divert your energies. You can stay high all the time, party every night; there are a thousand traps."

She projects a steely, street-smart image on camera that the real Claudia Jennings calls a total contradiction. "Actually, I have led a very sheltered life, seeing a lot but not doing all that much. I never even knew about drugs, never even tried marijuana until I was 26. I thought I'd turn purple and grow claws where my hands were supposed to be."

When she came to L.A., Claudia and record producer-songwriter Bobby Hart made beautiful music almost instantly. They kept house together for five or six years. "Then I met Jack, my dentist. Jack Garfield. He's everyone's dentist out here. Bobby is still my best friend; we're inseparable. With Jack, I got to the point of seriously discussing marriage, but our relationship had quite a different ending. That was a hot affair ... very."

David Niven, Jr., Jonathan Axelrod and Jim Randall (Marisa Berenson's ex) now top a list of regular escorts whom Claudia classifies as friends, not to be confused with a mysterious, attentive millionaire businessman whose current passions are Claudia and championship tennis. She refuses to name him. Is he bigger than a breadbox? "He's a lot bigger," Claudia acknowledges gleefully. "I don't have boyfriends. I have men who are friends, and I have love affairs. Great love affairs. Generally, I hate going out. I hate dinner parties, hate openings. What I like best is staying home with my old man, whoever he happens to be. A real normal life."

Career goals, however, are her consuming interest for the moment. We had scarcely begun to talk about where she'd been and where she wanted to go next when Claudia received an important phone call, red-alerting her that she was a prime candidate to replace Kate Jackson as the new Charlie's Angel this fall season. Within the week, she'd had an interview, a screen test, a chance to grab the golden apple of TV superstardom and was on the phone sounding as if she'd been caught in a flash flood. "I'm sitting here on tenterhooks, I can't speak," she reported. "Whether it's yes or no, I'll be all right as soon as I know. Don't go away. Whatever happens, I bounce back."

Two days later, the bad news behind her--Charlie's new Angel, she had learned, would be model Shelley Hack--Claudia bounced into a Beverly Hills bar wearing white--white-silk shirt, tight white pants, spiked sexy shoes--and looking miraculously recovered. "I've got an ulcer," said Claudia jokingly, "and my nerves are shot, totally. Otherwise, I'm OK. When they first called me, I flew over there in my tennis shorts, absolutely no make-up, hair flying, looking like a cheerleader. I told 'em I was sorry about how I looked. They said: You look wonderful ... just be sweet, gentle and Midwestern ... don't be sassy.

"I never would have thought they'd consider me. Because of my image, I guess ... B-movie queen, tough lady, Playboy nude. Wouldn't they rather play it safe? With such a successful show, why risk getting even one angry letter? None of that seemed to matter. I left that first day, thrilled beyond belief because they seemed so high on me."

Claudia screen-tested on a Wednesday. "By the following Tuesday, I was hysterical. Pure trauma. I got word back that my test was the best, without question. Everyone said so, yet I didn't get the part. I didn't understand why. I still don't. I thought I had it. They should have taken me, because I deliver. Anyway, the whole experience was a real rush for me, an honor. They accepted me as myself, wanted me to be myself. Playing an Angel is completely opposite to what I have done previously, and people have heard and are calling me. Suddenly, I'm a hot property for TV."

While she waits to weigh the fringe benefits of being a fallen Angel, Claudia takes a down-to-earth view of her future. "I just said no to a movie I was going to do with Hardy Kruger. Not because it had nudity in it but because it was the same role I've played a million times: You know, another Truck-Stop Momma. Those roles were the easiest thing for me when I first came to L.A. I was hiding in them and felt very defensive. I didn't want to take insipid, sexy roles or ingénue parts. I was afraid people would think I was just a sex symbol. Guys would come on to me, sure. So I walked into every office with my dukes up, determined to prove that I was bright, cultured and not at all what they expected.

"Well, I proved that I was a good actress. But I played the same part over and over again. In 26 movies--I won't even tell you the titles of some of them."

She will mention such titles as 40 Carats, The Man Who Fell to Earth ("Working with Nick Roeg was fantastic"), Moonshine County Express ("Three hillbilly girls in Appalachia, it's a fun movie, good entertainment ... CBS keeps running it now and there's talk of a possible TV series"), and even Deathsport ("The worst movie I've ever made, though David Carradine is one of the best actors I ever worked with").

By her own estimate, the new Claudia "is a little more timid, a little more fragile. That's OK, but I didn't use to realize it. I never object anymore to my reputation as queen of the Bs, because I was that, just as Jane Fonda was Barbarella. She grew and changed as a person and has been able to show that on film. I want to show who I am, too.

"Though it may sound contradictory, my reappearance in Playboy is really my salute to Hef and myself, ten years later. Happy anniversary time. Both Hef and Roger Corman--and Roger used women in leading roles, long before everyone else started doing it--have been extremely supportive during the past decade: emotionally, professionally, in every way. I'm very loyal to Hugh Hefner and to Corman and feel blessed to have had such friends."

In work, love and friendship, Claudia aims for at least 99 on a scale of 100. "Some people accept much less, but that's their problem," she says. She adds, as sisterly advice, a few simple precepts for any who might choose to follow in her fast-paced footsteps:

"Never compromise.

"Always stay true to yourself.

"Don't do anything the whole world can't know about.

"Above all, hold yourself in the highest esteem.

"My God." Claudia finishes her second bloody mary and sits back with a pensive, provocative smile, as if surprised at herself. "I've led my life that way because it's important to me. Maybe I am an angel, hmm? Playboy's angel."

That's our girl.

" 'I don't have boyfriends. I have men who are friends and I have love affairs. Great love affairs.' "