Sex Stars 1995

Time was, you knew where to find sex stars. They were bigger than life, up on the screen of a darkened movie theater. Hollywood's then powerful movie studios turned out mile-high heaps of autographed publicity stills, sent for the asking to adoring fans. Those studios are gone, but some stars still shine on celluloid. Nowadays, though, they're just as likely to enter your consciousness via TV--syndicated TV, at that--or the information superhighway. Last year's sex stars strutted off fashion-show runways and onto Playboy's pages. This year, they're being downloaded hot off the Internet. Take Pamela Anderson. As Conan O'Brien quipped on Late Night: "A survey asking men who they would want to be stranded with on a deserted island has Pamela Anderson tied with Sharon Stone. Of course, that's the number one choice: Pamela Anderson tied to Sharon Stone." When Pam married Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee in a seaside ceremony, the bride wore white--a white bikini. Pictures of the nuptials landed in all the tabloids, and more intimate weddingnight shots soon surfaced online. Pam's syndicated TV show, Baywatch, is the most watched on earth; this year she also did Baywatch the Movie: Forbidden Paradise, a made-for-TV Mike Hammer movie (Come Die With Me) and a Playboy video, The Best of Pamela Anderson. At this year's Cannes (text continued on page 202) Sex Stars (continued from page 75) Film Festival, it was Pam who grabbed the paparazzi's attention, to the exclusion of almost everyone else. She was there promoting the forthcoming movie Barb Wire, in which she'll play the live version of the Dark Horse Comics character. Through it all, she has retained her sense of humor, telling TV Guide that it's true that after her Playmate appearance (as Miss February 1990), she got breast implants. But, she said, rumor goes beyond fact: "Everybody says I'm plastic from head to toe. Can't stand next to a radiator or I'll melt."

Joining Pam in the most-wanted category this year were supermodel Cindy Crawford--cover girl for Esquire's annual "Women We Love" issue--who made her film debut in 1995's Fair Game and ended her marriage to Richard Gere, and actor Brad Pitt, hailed by Vanity Fair as "Hollywood's ultimate sex symbol" and by People as "the sexiest man alive." Ever since he tickled Geena Davis' fancy in Thelma & Louise, Pitt has been a lust object for millions of women; his performance in Legends of the Fall only turned up the thermostat. He, too, had his troubles with purloined photos, threatening to sue when shots of him and girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow appeared first in the English magazine The People and then--you guessed it--on the Internet.

For Pam, Cindy and Brad, the path to fame led through well-marked routes--television, modeling, movies. But we're now seeing a new kind of sex stardom, one conferred by the tabloids. The O.J. Simpson trial transformed Kato Kaelin, Paula Barbieri and Playmate Traci Adell into instant stars. Kato went from houseguest to household word; one survey had three out of four respondents preferring Kaelin to President Clinton as a dinner companion, and Heather Locklear chose him over Judge Lance Ito for a night of romance--"but only if he doesn't talk." Both Kaelin and Barbieri were picked to guest-star on rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot's anthology television series, The Watcher. Barbieri, at least, may have a future: Jeff Trachta, who costarred with her in Night Eyes IV: Forced Entry, told TV Guide that Paula's "a phenomenal kisser."

English model Elizabeth Hurley was best known as the beauty on the arm of Hugh Grant--who described her breasts as "magnificent, the best pair in London"--until the hapless Hugh ran afoul with a hooker on Sunset Boulevard. Elizabeth is now making a name for herself as Spokesmodel for Estée Lauder cosmetics. Singer Courtney Love, widow of Kurt Cobain, couldn't seem to stay out of trouble, while actress Drew Barrymore delighted in thumbing her nose at society--notably by stripping at a Manhattan nightclub and flashing David Letter-man on live TV. Even her Playboy pictorial made a statement. Drew told Movieline's Stephen Rebello: "Half the reason to do things is to provoke 'Oh my God' about everything."

Playboy pictorials award their own celebrity status. Just ask Anna Nicole Smith, 1993 Playmate of the Year. She was visible as a CIA op in the movie To the Limit and as a guest on ABC-TV's Wilde Again (the latter replete with breast jokes) but made even more headlines with her performance as the grieving widow of nonagenarian oilman J. Howard Marshall. The latest examples of pictorial celebrity are singer Nancy Sinatra, Steven Seagal'sUnder Siege 2 sidekick Sandra Taylor, 1995 Playmate of the Year (and Price Is Right presenter) Julie Cialini, models Elle Macpherson, Amber Smith and Kimberley Conrad Hefner (1989's PMOY) and radio's Amy Lynn Baxter and Tempest, all of whom starred in recent Playboy features.

The Hollywood press seems more interested in bucks than bods, splits than screenplays. The trades trumpet the figures: Jim Carrey's $20-million-per-picture paycheck, Demi Moore's $12.5 million (a record among female stars), Sylvester Stallone's three-movie, $60 million package. When the media aren't talking dollars, they're talking sensation--often speculating on the sexual preferences of the stars. Movieline's "Hollywood Ink" and "Guess Who, Don't Sue" columns dish out catty, anonymous hints every month. That sort of thing may have forced Nicole Kidman to affirm (in both Vanity Fair and Entertainment Weekly) the heterosexual nature of her relationship with hubby Tom Cruise, and Keanu Reeves to deny his alleged "marriage" to gay mogul David Geffen (saying the two, in fact, have never met). Cindy Crawford, in her September Playboy Interview, once again had to shoot down rumors that she was gay. Drew Barrymore, on the other hand, confided in the aforementioned Movie-line interview that she has gone both ways but is now limiting her attentions to heartthrob Eric Erlandson, guitarist in Courtney Love's band, Hole. (Sex-star land is a tight little island.)

Although Drew seems blissfully enamored of Eric, this year has been one of nasty splits. Among them: Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett, Liz Taylor and Larry Fortensky, Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer--who grumbled about having to watch their kids while Val was "out gallivanting around the world with his friends or shacking up with some floozy," Kelly LeBrock and Steven Seagal, Cheryl Tiegs and longtime spouse Anthony Peck, and Christie Brinkley and--in her second divorce in as many years--her husband of seven months, Ricky Taubman. Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith untied the knot yet again, but Melanie landed in the arms of her Two Much co-star, Antonio Banderas.

Already a supernova in his native Spain, Banderas is the front-runner in a pack of foreigners being recruited by Hollywood to spice up its film fare. He came close to stealing Miami Rhapsody from Sarah Jessica Parker and Interview With the Vampire from Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. And now Banderas is all over American screens--in Desperado, the sequel to El Mariachi; with a cameo in Four Rooms; opposite Rebecca De Mornay in Never Talk to Strangers; and as a guncrazed villain facing Sylvester Stallone in Assassins. He has also signed to don the mask of Zorro in next year's remake of the swashbuckling classic and croon the role of Che Guevara in the long-delayed movie version of Evita, starring Madonna. Given the Material Girl's Antonio fixation, which she admitted to in her docubio Truth or Dare, that should turn out to be an interesting partnership. (Perhaps less interesting than that reported interlude with hoopster Dennis Rodman, who claims she wanted him to father her child.)

Another Latin lover, Swiss-born, half German-half Spanish Vincent Perez, made his name in French films--as Catherine Deneuve's lover in Indochine and Isabelle Adjani's in Queen Margot-- but has been enlisted to replace Brandon Lee in the sequel to The Crow. France's Sophie Marceau enchanted audiences and critics with her performance as the Princess of Wales, dallying with Mel Gibson in Braveheart.Joanna Lumley has been wowing viewers of the British comedy Absolutely Fabulous on Comedy Central--so much so that Roseanne bought the rights for an American remake. And Pierce Brosnan has slipped elegantly into the role of James Bond (previously inhabited by Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby). Eat your hearts out, menswear mavens: Pierce gets to keep all the Brioni suits (price tags: $2500 to $7000) from his 007 wardrobe.

Who's next? We'll put our money on Linda Fiorentino and Johnny Depp, who sizzled, respectively, in The Last Seduction and Don Juan DeMarco;Kevin Sorbo, who plays the mythological hero in Hercules; The Legendary Journeys, a syndicated series that's beginning to rival Baywatch in some markets; Natasha Henstridge, who's half femme but wholly fatale in Species; teen queen Alicia Silver-stone of Clueless; singer Celine Dion; Jimmy Smits of My Family and ABC-TV's NYPD Blue; Lois & Clark's Teri Hatcher and Mad About You's Helen Hunt, network TV's top e-mail recipients; and George Clooney and Julianna Margulies of NBC-TV's ER. There will be others. The great thing about tracking sex stars, after all, is that there is always a stellar surprise on the horizon.

Hugh Grant--who ran afoul with a hooker--described Hurley's breasts as "the best pair in London."

America's Most Wanted Playmate Pam Anderson, star of the world's most watched television series, surprised Boywaich fans (and former beau Jon Peters) by marrying Heather Locklear's sx, drummer Tommy Lee. Megamodel Cindy Crawford, Madison Avenue's favorite spokeswoman, was the cover girl for Esquire's annual "Women We Love" Issue and made her first movie, Fair Game. And People proclaimed Brad Pitt "the sexiest man alive."

Shoot to Thrill The camera loves the likes of San Antonio Spurs forward Dennis Rodman, who set basketball aside to pose for sexy photos and a Sports Illustrated cover; also erstwhile Hugh Grant squeeze Elizabeth Hurley, who is now enjoying a fat contract with Estée Lauder; exmodel Natasha Henstridge, the creature in Species; onetime Guess girl Drew Barrymore, who flashed Letterman and told Movieline that she likes girls, too; and supermodel Amber Smith, out in Faithful.

Coming Across Transatlantic traffic is mostly westwardbound. Joanna Lumley's performance on Absolutely Fabulous made such a hit with U.S. viewers that Roseanne bought the rights for a remake. Spain's Antonio Banderas, a Valentino for the Ninefies, has won roles in a half-dozen films (along with Melanie Griffith's love). Irish-born Pierce Brosnan, stymied by earlier contract commitments, finally gets to be James Bond, and France's Sophie Marceau endeared herself to Braveheart's Mel Gibson.

Paged by Playboy Since the days of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, an appearance in Playboy has conferred its own kind of stardom. The tradition continues with 1995 Playmate of the Year Julie Cialini, a presenter on the nighttime version of The Price is Right; Kimberley Conrad Hefner, the Playmate for a Lifetime, whose latest pictorial demonstrates that marriage and motherhood have only enhanced her charms; supermodel Elle Macpherson, who signed to make If Lucy Fell; May cover girl Nancy Sinatra, who shed those boots and everything else to prove that she's still something at 54; Sandra Taylor, who appears with Steven Seagal in Under Silege 2; and Amy Lynn Baxter and Tempest, from August's Girls of Radio pictorial.

Tabloid Celebrity Popular media--from Hard Copy to The National Enquirer--create their own cadre of sex stars. From O.J. Simpson's trial coverage came his former girlfriend Paula Barbier, houseguest Kato Kaelin and Playmate and phone-call recipient Traci Adell. Courtney Love vaulted from one scrape to another, while Hugh Grant's candid confession of guilt in his tryst with a hooker seemed to salvage his career (If not his relationship with Elizabeth Hurley). Cameras flashed as amply proportioned model (and 1993 Playmate of the Year) Anna Nicole Smith, dressed in white décolleté, bade a tearful farewell to her elderly spouse.