Golden Opportunity Rosanna

As Far as photo assignments go, this one seemed pretty routine-on paper, at least: Famous actress would fly to Naples, Florida, to pose for famous photographer against the backdrop of a fancy hotel built on sparkling sands. Famous actress (did we mention she's a stunning famous actress?) would strut about in colorful beach attire while famous photographer snapped her beauty on 35mm film. Meanwhile, fancy hotel would loom majestically in the background, delighting the folks at Condé Nast Traveler-the publication that arranged this charming frolic-and everyone would go home happy. Ah, but this was not your normal photo shoot: See, the actress happened to be Rosanna Arquette, the charismatic, sexy star of Desperately Seeking Susan and a slew of other films-not to mention a forthcoming ABC miniseries in which she and Gary Cole play General and Mrs. George Armstrong Custer-and the man behind the lens was Bert Stern, whom Camera magazine once called "the most exciting photographer of the last quarter century." Anything was bound to happen on that sleepy Naples shore-and, as luck would have it, did.

An award-winning craftsman who, throughout his 30-plus-year career, has been alternately referred to as complex and enigmatic, a media star and a genius, Stern is probably best remembered as the fellow who struck gold during a little photo session with a big star-Marilyn Monroe. He had captured the screen goddess at her most natural (and, as it turned out, most nude) while on assignment for Vogue magazine in the summer of 1962. Ironically, MM died a little more than a month after Stern took the shots, and the resulting portfolio-thereafter dubbed "The Last Sitting"-became instantly famous. It entered the hearts and libraries of photo buffs and Monroe devotees world-wide. And although male legends would also find themselves framed in Stern's view finder over the years (Louis Armstrong, Paul Newman and Buster Keaton come to mind), his specialty was the ladies-from the unnamed model to the Cosmo cover girl to Elizabeth Taylor. And now, in Naples, it was Rosanna Arquette's turn. "But right away, there was trouble," remembers Stern. "First of all, Rosanna showed up on the set with short hair-a lot shorter than I had anticipated. Then she dropped the bombshell: She told us she wouldn't be posing in a bathing suit. The concept of the pictorial was that Rosanna was vacationing at this hotel in Naples. Who goes to Florida without a bathing suit?" Eventually, Stern's stylist coaxed Arquette into a one-piece model, and the shoot proceeded as planned-at least until the sun went down.

So there we were," says Stern, "romping along the beach after sunset, when suddenly Rosanna said, 'Do I have to wear this?'-and off came the suit. Needless to say, I began clicking away." Although the impromptu Stern-Arquette collaboration was exciting, it was also a wash: There simply hadn't been enough light to make decent photos. "So I suggested we do another session the following night," says Stern, "right after Rosanna's scheduled evening-gown shots for the magazine's cover." Arquette agreed, and Stern shifted into high gear. Within 24 hours he transformed himself from traveling photojournalist to artiste-calling upon his familiarity with the setting, checking the special touches he planned to incorporate into the session, reviewing those elements that can turn an ordinary commercial snapshot into, well, a statement. "I'm really familiar with Naples," he explains. "I have been since the Fifties. So I knew that, just before nightfall, Rosanna and I would have only three minutes-from the time the sun hit the horizon until it disappeared-of this magnificent golden light. That's when we'd get our shots." Which is exactly what they did. "Afterward, Rosanna was excited about the shoot," Stern recalls. "She liked the idea of doing sexy, pinuppy pictures. Only thing is, even though we submitted all the shots, Traveler didn't run any of the nudes." That's OK, Bert; we did.