Double Vision

We Watch Entertainment Tonight. We read Premiere. We know all about the fake blood, stuntmen, special effects and other illusions that Hollywood uses to make movie magic. We know that Robin Williams wasn't really flying in Hook and that T2's Arnold Schwarzenegger is actually human (or at least close to it) in real life, But as much as we like to think we know it all, the movie business still has a handful of mysteries that it's reluctant to share, even with John Tesh and Liz Smith feeding us scoops. And certainly one of the most alluring of those mysteries is Shelley Michelle.

You've probably already met Shelly---or at least some important parts of her. Remember the beginning of Pretty Woman and a voluptuous Julia Roberts dressing for a night's work? Or the scene in My Stepmother Is an Alien in which we admire Kim Basinger's legs as they dangle in midair? Or Catherine Oxenburg's steamy sex scenes in Overexposed? Well, Julia, Kim and Catherine were nowhere near the set when those scenes were being filmed. Instead, film-goers were seeing various body parts of the hardest-working body double in show business.

A body double is not unlike a stuntman. If an actress is too busy, too fat, too skinny or too shy to do revealing shots, producers hire a substitute to go on camera for her.

"A lot (text concluded on page 156)Double Vision(continued from page 74) of times, the actress has had a baby or hasn't been able to work out because she's been busy with the script. Or she has a bruise or something like that," explains 28-year-old Shelley.

Other times, the star's body just isn't up to expectations. Vanity, by the way, is not exclusive to women. Men also use body doubles---in fact, both Michael Douglas and Clint Eastwood have used the same actor to portray their hands.

Touchstone, the studio behind Pretty Woman, urged Shelley to remain quiet about her role as Julia Roberts' body double (rumor has it that Julia was, shall we say, a tad thin). Touchstone used the same technique to spice up the movie poster of Julia and co-star Richard Gere standing back to back. In reality, a photo of Julia's head was superimposed on a picture of yet another body double.

"We've had Westerns that have been going on for two thousand years and we know that the actor is not falling off the building, not risking his life. But body doubling remains hush-hush," complains Shelley.

That seems to be changing, as more body doubles get some credit for their work. Usually, the stars are grateful. Kim Basinger personally chose Shelley after viewing countless pairs of legs at an audition. She later asked Shelley to fill a similar role doing some nudity on her new movie Final Analysis. Anne Archer recently had Shelley perform as her stand-in during sex scenes with Dennis Hopper in a made-for-cable movie. "You've added ten years to my career," Archer reportedly told Shelley.

Shelley, who spent four years wearing short shorts in Nair commercials, is much in demand as a double and gets top dollar---$750 a day. She has insured her legs for $1,000,000 with Lloyd's of London. But the best news, she reports, is that casting directors are suddenly interested in putting her parts together in one package.

"Now I'm getting the opportunity to prove myself from the neck up," she says. "I'm looking for a good lead part. One of my goals is to be the next James Bond girl. I've turned my dancing into martial arts and I can really kick and stuff. These legs aren't just for beauty."

Shelley plans to continue doubling---"It pays the rent"---and she has been approached by two major stars, one of them a well-known Oscar winner, to disrobe in their stead. But much of her energy is now focused on her own career as an actress. "I look at it this way," she says. "In the first thing I did, My Stepmother Is an Alien, I was putting on nylons. So I've literally started at the bottom---my feet---and I'm working up to my face."