Sex Stars 1994

It was bound to happen: Since ads are now sexier than most movies, the screen idols who once occupied our dreams are gradually being replaced by a new breed of sex star—the supermodel. We saw it coming in 1990, when Sex Stars dedicated a page to Cindy, Claudia and Elle. This year, the rest of the media caught up, with such headlines as Invasion of the Supermodels (Entertainment Weekly) and Supermodels Rule the world (San Francisco Chronicle). A search of the Nexis database reveals more than 1000 newspaper, magazine and wire-service stories containing the words supermodels and sex. As Trish Donnally, the Chronicle's fashion editor, noted: "They've become such glamour queens they've left Hollywood starlets stranded in cutoffs." Designer Karl Lagerfeld concurs: "Claudia Schiffer has what movie stars used to have, and when she goes somewhere, a light goes on like it used to with movie (text continued on page 174) stars." When Claudia, who has graced more than 400 magazine covers and receives a reported 3000 fan letters a week, goes somewhere these days, she's usually on the arm of her fiancé, magician David Copperfield—a guy at the pinnacle of his own profession. Also spoken for is one-woman corporation Cindy Crawford, of Pepsi, Revlon and MTV's House of Style fame, who earns $7 million a year and is unquestionably better known than her moviestar husband, Richard Gere. Several of her supersisters—notably Elle (Sirens) Macpherson, star of a knockout May Playboy pictorial, Kathy (National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon) Ireland and Cameron (The Mask) Diaz— are holding on to their day jobs as cover girls while following the path to movie stardom blazed by Candice Bergen and Lauren Hutton. Hollywood, apparently, realizes it needs a dose of hormones from the world of fashion. Male hormones, too: A hunk named Lucky Vanous—lust object for female office workers in a celebrated Diet Coke commercial—is now sifting through offers of TV and movie roles to supplement his modeling gigs. No wonder: In a recent poll sponsored by Yardley, 60 percent of women who were asked which man they would most like to share a bath with preferred Lucky. ("Hubby or beau" came in second at 55 percent.) Inevitably, there'll be a 1995 calendar starring Lucky.

Supermodels have long enjoyed calendar, video and endorsement deals. This year, their business is getting even more attention—from a new TV series, Models Inc., and a film, Robert Altman's Prêt-á-Porter. Even the Internet has its own news group (alt.supermodels), in which fans of these new sex stars exchange gossip about their fave babes. (Sample dialogue, between one Chen Wang and a guy who calls himself Lord Doc: "Subject: Kathy Ireland pregnant. I think this has already been discussed here, but does anyone know who the father is?" The answer comes in seconds: "More than likely her husband, Greg." Response: "Whoops! Didn't know she was married. Am I turning red!")

There are other reasons many beautiful women are modeling rather than acting these days. For one thing, it can be more profitable. While few female movie stars can command the seven-figure fees their male counterparts collect, supermodel Christy Turlington is rumored to be worth $50 million, and by the time Niki Taylor turned 15 she had made more money than her retired policeman father earned in his entire career. Modeling is also less ageist—although girls such as Niki enter the field as teens, superstars Lauren Hutton, Lisa Taylor, Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley and Isabella Rossellini will not see 40 again—and more of an equal-opportunity profession. Black supermodels such as Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks, Iman, Veronica Webb, Beverly Johnson and Beverly Peele far outnumber black screen goddesses.

Television is another fertile breeding ground for the sex stars of today. These tend to be guys—chief among them pistol-hot, buns-baring David Caruso of ABC's NYPD Blue, whose passionate lovemaking with a fellow cop (Amy Brenneman) and a wealthy young widow (Debrah Farentino) opened and closed the season. Will NYPD retain its heat now that Caruso has decamped for Hollywood and bigger bucks? And will the brooding redhead bring his fans along to the Multiplex? Stay tuned for his leading-man movie debut in the forthcoming thriller Kiss of Death.

Then there are the "himbos" of Fox's Melrose Place,Andrew Shue, Grant Show, Thomas Calabro and Doug Savant, who seduce the female audience into watching this 20-something soap just as surely as Heather Locklear, Laura Leighton and Josie Bissett reel in the guys.

Much of the sizzle on the tube comes from syndicated and cable fare. Baywatch—"Babewatch" to you aficionados—has boosted the careers of two Playmates—Erika Eleniak and Pamela Anderson—and that of brawny lifeguard David Hasselhoff, who is equally famous in Europe as a pop singer. HBO brings us The Larry Sanders Show, from which Playboy picked Linda Doucett for a memorable pictorial (don't miss this month's interview with Garry Shandling). Showtime's Drive-in Cinema Classics are sparked by the likes of Shannen Doherty and Antonio Sabato Jr. MTV has launched a thousand voices, but it's not just music videos anymore. The cable outlet's The Real World series, which puts together ill-matched roommates in various cities, has spun off such performers as perennially bare-chested Eric Nies (who used to date Pam Anderson and is now on, you guessed it, a calendar).

All that said, we haven't given up on the movies. Where would Sex Stars be without Sharon Stone, Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnold Schwarzenegger? Sharon alone has supported an entire gossip-column industry lately with her brief engagement to producer Bill MacDonald, who left his wife Naomi to the tender mercies of writer Joe Eszterhas. While Naomi and Joe are now married parents, Sharon has dumped Bill—having reportedly returned his ring via express mail. Must be a trend: Sylvester Stallone broke up with model Jennifer Flavin Via Federal Express. (When it absolutely, Positively has to get there overnight.) Still, Sharon is definitely the smartest sex star in the business. Her self-spoofing performance on Shandling's HBO show rated four stars from USA Today critic Matt Roush. Jamie Lee has settled down to family life but doesn't mind revealing that she's still in great shape, as demonstrated in her striptease scene from True Lies. Tangoing on the dance floor, she manages to make Arnold look sexier than he has in years, except perhaps to his wife, Maria Shriven. We nearly lost track of the love lives of Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson, together last year but now apart. Ted, who dumped Mrs. D. for Whoopi, is now with Mary Steenburgen. Whoopi, after dallying with a dentist, plans to marry union organizer Lyle Trachtenberg. Still, she took the breakup with Ted hard. "I don't think people jumped us because we were an interracial couple," she told Newsday's Linda Winer-Bernheimer. "They jumped us for all the other reasons. It was the big, rich, very sexy man from Cheers and Whoopi, who was, like, considered asexual. Either I was supposed to be a lesbian or I had no vagina at all."

New faces to the ranks of sex stars this year are those of the busy Brit Hugh Grant—no relation to Cary, but his uncanny Nineties reincarnation—whose lady friend, actress Elizabeth Hurley, displays some of the most spectacular cleavage in showbiz; former stand-up comic Jim Carrey (profiled this month), who displayed box-office appeal in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask; model Cameron Diaz, Carrey's partner in The Mask; and the aforementioned Elle, spectacular in Sirens.Keanu Reeves confirmed his versatility once again, bulking up and cropping his locks for the action adventure Speed—quite a departure both from his wacky Bill and Ted character and from his satin-breeches gig in Dangerous Liaisons.Sandra Bullock's role as Keanu's partner in Speed afforded her little opportunity to show off her sex appeal, but it's definitely there. Better luck, erotically speaking, next time—in the romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping.

No question about the sex appeal of our Playmates, who've also been busy lately. Erika Eleniak followed The Beverly Hillbillies with Chasers; Pam Anderson appeared in Snapdragon and Raw Justice.Shannon Tweed and Kathy Shower rank high as queens of the erotic-thriller genre. And Anna Nicole Smith, herself no slouch in the modeling game, made two movies—The (concluded on page 180)Sex Stars(continued from page 174) Hudsucker Proxy and Naked Gun 33 1/3—but her marriage to an elderly Texas tycoon brought her the most media attention.

There were other unusual marriages this year. Two couples rewrote the adage "Marry in haste, repent at leisure" by divorcing in haste, too. The union of Shannen Doherty and Ashley Hamilton, who had dated for two weeks before tying the knot, lasted six months; that of Drew Barrymore and Jeremy Thomas, who'd gone together for six weeks, endured only another six weeks. The rumor mill had Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett, who wed last year after just a three-week courtship, heading for a split. (Another much-put-upon couple, Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere, had to go to the extreme of placing an ad in The Times of London to declare that they were monogamous and heterosexual.)

Breaking up was hard—or at least messy—to do for other Hollywoodites, notably Roseanne and Tom Arnold, who broke up twice after tales hit the papers of an unconventional relationship with assistant Kim Silva. Roseanne—one name only, please—says she's now happy in the arms of bodyguard Ben Thomas; she told Howard Stern that their romance began when, while watching TV, she bit Ben, he bit back and they ended up in the bed. Foreplay for the Nineties? Things got even more complicated for Carrie Fisher and the father of her child, Bryan Lourd. When Bryan left Carrie, he reportedly took up with agent Scott Bankston—to the distress of Scott's former fella, Producer Sandy Gallin.

Also collapsing were the marriages of Paula Abdul and Emilio Estevez, Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley, Pia Zadora and Meshulam Riklis, Ellen Barkin and Gabriel Byrne, Lorenzo Lamas and Kathleen Kinmont, Barbara Hershey and Stephen Douglas and, apparently, Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough announced their estrangement in late April—and by mid-July she was rumored to have married Michael Jackson. True, so true, she and the gloved one announced. As for the prospects of enduring bliss for this couple—your guess is as good as ours.

Lisa Marie and Michael are said to want kids. Motherhood is definitely in style for other sex stars, including Michelle Pfeiffer, Annette Bening, Demi Moore, Stephanie Seymour and Virginia Madsen. Pregnancy has kept some of them from accepting jobs this year, but it failed to prevent Kathy Ireland and Rachel Hunter from appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue. Just goes to show you, a supermodel can do anything.

Varoom at the Top When you're hot, you're hot—and these sex stars are positively combustible. Supernodel Claudia Schiffer may be one of the decade's most recognized women. After being linked with many of the world's rich and famous, she settled on supermatgician David Corpperfield (that's the happy couple at left). British actor Hugh Grant had fans sighing in three films—Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sirens and Bitter Moon—this year, and David Caruso, baring buns and soul in TV's NYPD Blue, landed a role in a movie (Kiss of Death) before opting to let the force be without him.

Hollywood Hotshots Nobody's going to typecast Keanu Reeves. Following Little Buddha and the action hit Speed, he's heading to Winnipeg to play the title role in Shakespeare's Hamlet—onstage. Sharon Stone, who steams the screen with Sylvester Stallone in The Specialist, also scored in a delicious spoof of her sexy image on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show. Of Erika Eleniak's performance in Chasers, one out-of-touch reviewer wrote that she "looks as if she stepped out of a Playboy centerfold." She did—in July 1989. Look for Erika next in Disney's Pyromaniac's Love Story, starring Billy Baldwin, John Leguizamo and Joan Plowright. Bruce Willis and Jane (The Lover) March heat up Color of Night and model Cameron Diaz made a s-s-s-smokin' film debut with Jim Carrey in The Mask. Arnold Schwarzenegger recovered nicely from the debacle of Last Action Hero with True Lies, in which he bests a gang of gunrunning terrorists; Robin Givens appeared in Foreign Student and Blankman—and a hot Playboy pictorial.

Tubular Talent It's "the most popular TV show on the planet," says TV Guide, and Playmate Pamela Anderson helps Baywatch draw a billion viewers in 142 countries. High among network shows is NBC's Seinfeld, with Unlikely—but, polls say, popular—sex symbols Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jerry Seinfeld and Michael Richards. Debrah Farentino replaced Amy Brenneman in the heart of Detective John Kelly (David Caruso) as NYPD Blue's first season ended. Eric Nies, formerly of MTV's Real World, has a calendar—and hosts The Grind. Melrose Place stars ex-pro soccer player Andrew Shue and Heather Locklear.

Hard-Pressed Sharing headlines with flavor-of-the-month tabloid celebrities were Carol Shaya, a real NYPD cop whose poses in Playboy landed her in some hot water and oceans of ink; President Bill Clinton, the first sex idol in the White House since JFK (just shaking hands with him, reports author Judith Krantz, is "a full-body sexual experience"); and Dian Parkinson, whose sex harassment suit against The Price Is Right host Bob Barker (who fought back) made news. (To see more of Dian, pick up her Playboy Celebrity Centerfold tape.)

Objects of Desire Models are the dream girls (and boys) of the Nineties. Anna Nicole Smith, Miss May 1992 and Playmate of the Year 1993, had two films, a calendar and ad campaigns—and got even more press for marrying an elderly tycoon. Cindy Crawford is now her own corporation. Lucky Vanous, an unknown picked to be the hunk in a Diet Coke commercial, reaped movie and TV offers. Tyra Banks, one of People's 50 most beautiful people, is in ads, on TV and in a movie (Higher Learning). Stephanie Seymour has a new beau and a new baby, Danish-born Helena Christensen is sexy in Express ads and Elle (Srens) Macpherson hosts ESPN's Hot Summer Nights.