Sex Stars 1991

It has been a tough year, what with war abroad and rough economic times at home. Thankfully, though, the Sex Stars of 1991 were as busy as ever, reminding us that everything is going to turn out OK as long as we hold on to the basic virtues such as lust, love, marriage and motherhood. Sure, the Sex Stars are sometimes confused about the conventional sequence of such blessings. Even Warren Beatty, a leading elder of lust, is now ready for fatherhood but not, apparently, marriage to his Bugsy co-star, Annette Bening. Jack Nicholson and Rebecca Broussard are said to be expecting their second, and John Travolta and Kelly Preston announced their engagement, their baby-to-be and a nuptial (text continued on page 188) date, in that order.

Julia Roberts made a decision in favor of marriage to Kiefer Sutherland, but as the date for the lavish wedding--planned on a sound stage at Twentieth Century Fox--drew near, Julia changed her mind and ran off to Ireland with Sutherland's old pal Jason Patric. Demi Moore, already married to Bruce Willis and the parent of one, showed her additional commitment to motherhood by appearing nude on the cover of Vanity Fair, eight months pregnant. Although her pose was a bit much for some nervous Nellies at the nation's newsstands, the issue was a sellout.

But to hardened bachelors, 1991's biggest shock was Beatty's impending paternity. He'd long had a reputation for wooing his leading ladies.

Bening insisted she would not sign on his list when they started Bugsy. "We're working together and that's all," she said before the script changed. It's possible they were each attracted by their reticence. Beatty is famously closemouthed and one writer recently said interviewing Bening was "like changing a tire."

When Bening discovered she was pregnant, she had to drop out of the Catwoman role in Batman II.Michelle Pfeiffer got the part, but only after a futile effort by Sean Young to nab the juicy role. Young was, as usual, disgruntled. "Most leading men can't be supportive of my work because they're too concerned about themselves. Or their penises," she griped.

But men also wonder about other men's equipment, and Beatty's previous lady, Madonna, still gets queried a lot about his. When Arsenio Hall asked her about Joan Collins' comment that Beatty's sex drive was insatiable, Madonna answered, "Yeah, but that was when he was in his twenties. Everyone has an insatiable sex drive in his twenties.... Now I would say he's satiable."

Madonna herself seemed somewhat oversexed in her documentary Truth or Dare. At one point, she described her life as a "train out of control"; no wonder, considering her wish to be both male and female so she could sample it all.

She would like to be a male because she likes feminine men, Madonna reasoned. As a female, however, she confessed to Carrie Fisher in a conversation recorded for Rolling Stone that she wasn't all that fond of giving blow jobs or getting spanked. "I despise being spanked. I absolutely detest it. It's play. I say I want to be spanked, but it's like, 'try it and I'll knock your fucking head off.' "

In another interview, this one in Vanity Fair, Madonna also revealed that ex-husband Sean Penn can still make her jealous. Going to see State of Grace, in which Sean performs a love scene with his new girlfriend (and mother of his child), Robin Wright, the Material Girl thought she could handle it. "It's just a movie, they're just acting. Until it got to the kissing-nipple scene. And then I was, like, I can't watch this. I am going to throw up. I still feel territorial--it's like, Hands off, bitch! I was married to him."

Yes, glamourous Sex Stars do do mundane things, such as going to the movies. They just react to them a bit differently. Charlotte Lewis, sexy herself in such films as Pirates and The Golden Child, described how she reacted to Wild at Heart: "I loved that scene when Willem Dafoe had his hand on Laura Dern's crotch and he's, like, telling her to say, 'Fuck me, fuck me.'

"I was, like, God, just do it! I wanted her to fuck him so badly! I wanted to fuck him. I was, like, Oh, my God, this is so wild." Sitting next to Charlotte in the audience for the right movie obviously could have possibilities.

Pretty Patsy Kensit had similar acclaim for her character's frankness in Twenty-One, revealing, "I'm looking for a straightforward fuck.

"You don't see many women on screen talking about fucking the guy because they want to have sex with him, not because they want to have a relationship," Patsy proclaimed to Premiere's Alexander McGregor. "The funny thing about men is that they don't think women can sit down and talk about them like that. They think what happens in the bedroom is top secret, but, of course, you go off and discuss it with your girlfriends."

With Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin, the hottest action started on the set of The Marrying Man. According to unnamed crew members quoted in several publications, between takes the microphones picked up Basinger's explicit descriptions of what she planned to do to Baldwin's body. "Think of the dirtiest things you can think of," a stagehand told People.

"Another problem was Basinger's underwear. Or lack of it," the mag continued. "Some of those on the set said that she didn't wear any under her costume and would sit in her director's chair with her legs apart. 'I turned around once and it was just like, wooooo,' says a crew member. 'She saw me look and then said, "How are you?" I said, "I'm doing a lot better today, thanks.'" Her embarrassed assistants were always scampering for towels to throw over her legs."

Revealing too much can be a problem. Amanda de Cadenet explained to Playboy that her refusal to do nude scenes lost her a part in Scandal to Bridget Fonda. "I felt that I was too young then. Now I'd do it if the part called for it." Readers got a delightful look at her first nude layout in the August issue. Mindful of make-believe, Winona Ryder is well aware that she has been deflowered in both Great Balls of Fire! and Mermaids. "Yes, I've gotten to share that moment with the world twice. I have to say I'm very uncomfortable with scenes like that, because, let's face it, sexuality is such a private thing. Only people in this business have to, you know, perform it. But, luckily, it's just work, and you don't really--well, there's no insertion involved. Thank God. Thank God."

"No actor or actress takes their clothes off cavalierly," observed Ellen Barkin to a writer for Esquire. "But in Sea of Love, I thought it was important that the audience see that. There's an example of an aggressive sexual woman, not just, like, a passive fuck-me doll. But there were a few cuts where my head was not attached to my body. And I took great offense at that. You know, I took my clothes off, I'm not an idiot. But they went and chopped off my head."

Barkin shares Madonna's fascination with the male side of her personality. Pondering her part as a macho man resurrected in a woman's body in Switch, Barkin concluded, "I have to say I felt very comfortable. A very strong part of me is made up of what you might call masculine qualities."

Bald though she chooses to be, Sinéad O'Connor has no confusion about whether or not she's a woman. But she doesn't think she attracts men. "I've always wanted to be a sex symbol, but I don't think I am. I hope I am. Well, I can't imagine myself being one. I mean, I think I'm really hideous and ugly and fluffy and wrinkly and disgusting, so I can't imagine anyone thinking that I was sexually attractive. And if they do, where the fuck are they?"

Andie MacDowell looks for reincarnation to solve her perceived problems. "In my next life, I'd like to come back five foot two inches, with the best ass and tits you've ever seen."

It's not so bad to be tall, though. Lean and lanky works well for six-foot Geena Davis, who wowed critics as waitress Susan Sarandon's spirited partner in Thelma & Louise. Sisters Shannon and Tracy Tweed show off their height (5'10" and 6') to good advantage in the May Playboy. "I want to have children with a tall man," Tracy announced. "Shannon and I will make our own tribe. Our kids' kids will be eight feet tall, and we'll shrink and be tiny grandmas."

Height works for men, too. Explaining why she fell in love with co-star Bill Campbell while they were shooting The Rocketeer,Jennifer Connelly(continued on page 226)Sex Stars(continued from page 188) remembered, "People keep asking me about the first time I met Bill...if I was immediately smitten. The truth is, what I actually recall thinking was, He's so fucking tall! How am I going to work with him?"

Twins Sia and Shane Barbi, who doubled up for Playboy in September, titillated readers by boasting that they could flip quarters with their stomach muscles (Shane can handle six coins, Sia but four). They also tattled on a former boyfriend who, despite their different sexual appetites, never caught on to the fact that he was dating two girls instead of one. Obviously, not a man with a roll of quarters in his pocket.

Arnold Schwarzenegger flexed his muscles but didn't have to move his mouth much to earn a multimillion-dollar jet airplane and huge grosses for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, annoying a lot of seasoned actors who groused that the big guys were being vastly overpaid for their talents. But Lou Ferrigno, who gave up bodybuilding for acting 15 years ago, took more direct action and started lifting weights again.

On the small screen, a pair of Playmates proved seeworthy. Although NBC axed Baywatch, new episodes being shot for syndication are selling well here and overseas, assuring Miss July 1989, Erika Eleniak, of continued duty as a TV lifeguard. And Karen Witter, Miss March 1982, landed a plum role on the daytime soaper One Life to Live.

Over at HBO, Lynn Whitfield went topless for The Josephine Baker Story, but lots of ladies came close to revealing too much at social gatherings. Rod Stewart's wife, model Rachel Hunter, was photographed wearing a very revealing dress to one big Hollywood party. But when Naomi Campbell's costume attracted the attention of Eddie Murphy at a benefit for Nelson Mandela and he signed her program "Heaven" with an arrow pointing to his phone number, she said she wasn't even wearing her sexiest outfit--the one that allows people to see "big parts of my backside." Naomi, who dated Mike Tyson before and after his marriage to Robin Givens, did not disclose whether she checked Heaven out.

After watching girls dance on Donahue with 2 Live Crew, Givens reported, "Everything was bleeped out. And the girls are there, dancing with no clothes on. And I'm thinking, These women are bumping and grinding to lyrics that are degrading to them. And I just went, Whew, what a confusing time we live in."

As if to prove Robin's point, Samantha Fox's new album opens with a song called (Hurt Me! Hurt Me!) But the Pants Stay On. How, pray, could we then see the mermaid so prettily tattooed on Sam's tush?

Model Cindy Crawford has been complaining that she's sent a lot of scripts based on how she looks, but none of them inspire her to act. Still, Cindy made sure she kept herself on view in Hollywood, showing up at one gala in competition with models Christy Turlington and Jennifer Flavin, the current flame of muscular Sylvester Stallone. (Somehow, the sly Sly managed to get Jennifer and his ex-wife Sasha to pose together with him, all smiling like the best of friends.)

Hunky Patrick Swayze got to flex his pecs as a surfer in Point Break, while MTV rocker Gerardo rarely wears shirts. That makes him look sexy, but he says he still can't get a girlfriend. "My mother's very protective," Gerardo explained. Equally frustrated is Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who told Jesse Kornbluth of Vanity Fair that "Hollywood thinks of me as a hot tamale with a truck driver's mouth." She still ends up with relatively tame roles such as that of Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Co-star Kevin Costner could have shown more skin in a bathing scene, but cagey Costner used a body double, a practice becoming more common in Hollywood. Ask Shelley Michelle, who stood in for Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

Over in England, where Robin hit bull's-eyes with both critics and fans, the royal family continued in its usual uproar, vexed by rumors of discontent between Di and Prince Charles (whom the tabloids keep linking with Camilla Parker Bowles); a love triangle involving her brother, Viscount Althorp; and a photo of Prince Andrew skinny-dipping.

Revelation in print was big this year. Producer Julia (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Taxi Driver) Phillips' book You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again trashes Hollywood and some of its prettiest people, and La Toya Jackson's autobiographical tome tattles about her family. Richard Pryor's third wife, Jennifer Lee, discusses in Tarnished Angel her affairs with Clint Eastwood and Ryan O'Neal and a threesome she enjoyed with Warren Beatty and Roman Polanski. (Polanski returns to the screen this year in the Moscow-filmed Back in the U.S.S.R., starring luscious Natalya Negoda, who was featured in Playboy's May 1989 pictorial That Glasnost Girl.)

Sonny Bono wrote in his book And the Beat Goes On that Cher wasn't all that sexy during their marriage: "No fireworks. It never really meshed with us. In the most intimate moments, Cher was reserved and protective. There was a part of her--and it still exists--that no one can get to."

Ah, those sweet memories. Tai Collins recalls in the October Playboy a passionate night in a New York hotel with Virginia's then-governor Charles Robb that started with her giving him a back rub. But the married Virginia pol, now a Senator, remembered it differently. Admitting, "I'm not immune to the laws of chemistry, or maybe physics," Robb nonetheless insisted that the massage went no further.

Even if the Senator's protests are true, the episode may have grounded his Presidential prospects. According to Washington wags, "If Chuck Robb was in a hotel room with Miss Virginia and he was wearing a robe and he didn't have sex with her, he's too stupid to be President."

But who can predict the outcome of politics--or war? Before the Gulf crisis began, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf was looking forward to a quiet retirement after 35 years of relative obscurity and Arthur Kent was just another NBC reporter. Now Schwarzkopf is gushed over by the femmes, from grandmas to the girls in the Miss Teen U.S.A. pageant, and Kent is the "Scud Stud" of the press pool.

To support the troops, Playboy Editor-in-Chief Hugh M. Hefner organized Operation Playmate with the help, of wife Kimberley and her fellow centerfolds. Respecting Saudi sensibilities, the girls could enclose only pictures of themselves from the neck up. But contraband copies of the magazine got to the front, anyway. After all, as one sergeant said, "Wherever Marines go, so will Playboy."

And wherever Playboy goes, its Sex Stars are sure to follow.

Triple Threat:

Everybody's talking about--and lining up to see--these Sex Stars: Madonna, whose Blond Ambition tour is audaciously documented in Truth or Dare, Kevin Costner (here receiving last year's Hasty Pudding Award at Harvard), gratified by Dances with Wolves Oscars and Robin Hood receipts; Julia Roberts, named by a Premiere poll as "world's most bankable female star."

Thirtysomethings:

These women in their 30s exude both talent and a smoldering sexuality. Michelle Pfeiffer will be Catwoman in Batman II; Kim Basinger, Batman's erstwhile gal pal Vicki Vale in the 1989 movie, has gone on to reel-and-real-life romance with Marrying Man's Alec Baldwin. Andie MacDowell enlivens Green Card and Object of Beauty, while Geena Davis is simply territic as a spacy fugitive in Thelma & Louise.

Gender Benders:

So long, Ozzie and Harriet: Sexual identity these days isn't always what it seems. Ellen Barkin plays a man reincarnated in a woman's body in Switch; Amanda Donohoe is involved in a lesbian romance on TV's L.A. Law; Sharon Stone plays a bisexual villainess in the controversial Basic Instinct; transsexual Tula Cossey, star of Playboy, Donahue and Entertainment Tonight, wages a battle for human rights.

They're the tops:

In peak form are a chosen few, from Arnold (posing here with Dian Parkinson) to Stormin' Norman, acclaimed by the National Enquirer as "Sexiest Man in America."

Seeing Double:

The Tweed sisters, longtime favorites of ours, are busier than ever. Tracy (the sis at the left of the photo) appears opposite Michael Paré in the movie Midnight Heat; Shannon, our Playmate of the Year for 1982, starred in CBS-TV's Fly by Night and is due on the big screen in The Naked Truth, Delusions and Night Eyes II. Twins Shane and Sia Barbi (below--we've given up trying to tell which is which) are their own best promoters: They have vaulted from a gigantic Sunset Boulevard billboard onto the pages of a best-selling calendar--and Playboy's September issue.

Maximodels:

"Heroines in a culture defined by image" is how Tracy Young describes models in Allure magazine. "Models satisfy our unquenchable longing for numinous beauty." That's one way of putting it; we'll just say they're great-looking. Among the hottest (clockwise from near left, above): Cindy Crawford, Richard Gere's girl; Claudia Schiffer, the ex--Guess? girl who leads off People magazine's special on The 50 Most Beautiful People in the World 1991; Erika Anderson, who also stars in the steamy New Orleans--based film Zandalee; Elle Macpherson, long popular with fans of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, now mistress of her own 16-month, 32-photo calendar; Rachel Williams, a supermodel you'll see in Playboy very soon; Naomi Campbell, who has been called a "black Bardot."

Wave Makers:

Controversy swirls around these celebrities, among the chief names in the news this year. Sean Young, a dynamite actress who has nevertheless developed a certain reputation as a flake, tried in vain to win the Catwoman role in Batman II, going so far as to appear in a feline suit on Joan Rivers' show; Shots of Demi Moore, eight months preggers, gave Vanity Fair (1) censorship problems and (2) record newsstand sales; Delta Burke's purported misadventures with producers and cast of Designing Women made her a tabloid staple; La Toya Jackson's autobiography revealed her family's reaction to her first Playboy pictorial, but she posed again, anyway (November); Warren Beatty got his Bugsy co-star, Annette Bening, pregnant, causing her to quit that Catwoman job Young wanted and Pfeiffer eventually got; Tai Collins told all about her relationship with U.S. Senator Charles Robb, in the October Playboy and on TV; Shelley Michelle's revelation that she'd been Julia Roberts' body double for Pretty Woman caused studios to gag her from talking about future gigs. We can guess, though: On page 73 of the July 29 People, Shelley talks of a "silent" part in Mobsters. On page 80, Lara Flynn Boyle confesses that a bare breast in her Mobsters love scene isn't actually hers.