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Carmen Electra Electrifies Everything
Actress Talks About Her Name, Dennis Rodman, Prince And 'Scary Movie'
Before there was "Scary Movie," before there was Playboy or "Baywatch," even before she met Prince, there was a young girl from Cincinnati with an appetite for Ohio chili and a thirst for success.
Her name was Tara Leigh Patrick. After leaving Ohio, Patrick would change her name to Carmen Electra and gain international celebrity not only for her on-screen sizzle, but for her antics off-screen with legendary bad boy of basketball Dennis Rodman .
Opening Act
"I can't give up my Cokes. I can't do it. I gave up eating a lot of junk, not my sodas."
Electra apologizes as she opens a can of Coke -- regular, not diet -- and pours it into a glass. It pops and fizzes as it hits the ice.
Neither her soda habit, nor her craving for Ohio's famous Skyline chili appears to have hurt her famous figure.
It's hard to believe that this is the same young woman whose highly public on-again-off-again romance with basketball bad-boy Dennis Rodman seared across the pages of magazines and provided fodder for the late night pundits.
Clearly, Electra wants you to know that she's just a "normal" girl who got a break in showbiz.
Electra tells me coyly, "I like those bad boys, I can admit it."
She's serious when she says, "In the beginning, a lot of things that were said in the media were hurtful because you're just trying to do your best. I'm just a normal girl from Cincinnati, Ohio that had a dream. I came to L.A. with a dream. I'm doing it, and I can't believe it. And everyone at home is so proud. And then all of a sudden I fall in love with a person who is controversial and I am sucked into it. And it was hard."
But she says the experience has made her stronger.
"You get over it. You build up that tough skin," Electra tells me.
Electra says that she and Rodman are "just friends" and that his bad-boy reputation is overrated.
Electra softens and says, "He's a lot fun. He's an exciting person. But he really has a good heart."
A Star Is Born
"My mom put me into dance classes when I was 5 years old," Electra says of how she got bitten by the showbiz bug.
Soon, Electra was accepted into a prestigious School for Creative and Performing Arts in Ohio. "Sex And the City's" Sarah Jessica Parker and members of the boy band 98 Degrees are also alumni.
"I wanted to dance on Broadway, that was my dream," Electra says.
But it wasn't meant to be. "I quit (dance) when I was 15. I wasn't willing to starve myself to be a stick figure like my teachers wanted."
But that's not the end of the story. Not even close.
Prince and The Evolution
In 1990, Electra got the break of a lifetime: She met and auditioned for music legend Prince.
"(Prince) plays such an important role in my life. He was the first person who ever gave me a chance and I was 18 years old. And for Prince to say, 'I'm going to sign this girl, give her a chance, take her into the studio and produce a record for her.' It was like unbelievable, I mean I was in shock," Electra tells me.
It was at this point that the young woman named Tara became Carmen Electra.
She says that at the time she was producing her first album with Prince, there was another singer named Tara that was enjoying moderate success. They decided that two Taras was one too many.
"We were watching the movie 'Carmen Jones,'" Electra says of how she found her new first name. The movie is an American update of Bizet's opera "Carmen."
To choose a last name, the budding singer looked toward mythology: "Electra is a Greek goddess and also another opera."
Voila, ladies and Gentlemen: Carmen Electra.
Scene Stealer
The 1993 album with Prince received a disappointing response from the public and critics, but Electra was not to be stopped.
Posing in Playboy magazine in 1996 caught the attention of MTV, which soon cast her to replace Jenny McCarthy as co-host of "Singled Out."
The high-profile MTV gig soon landed her the part of Lani McKensie on the monster-hit show "Baywatch," replacing fellow former-Playboy pin up Pamela Anderson. Since then, Electra has enjoyed continued success in television, movies and in modeling.
Electra's latest role is as the unforgettable Drew Decker in the box office smash "Scary Movie."
"When I read the script, I just fell in love with it. Keenen (Ivory Wayans) is just the king of spoofing. It's pretty out there. It's hilarious," Electra says of the movie.
Electra's job is to open the movie. You know, she's the bombshell that runs from a serial killer through sprinklers, loses most of her clothing in the process, and eventually gets hit by a car. It's a great (and funny) play on real scary movies like "Scream."
Electra tells me that she and Wayans, the movie's director, watched the actual "Scream" scenes (as performed by Drew Barrymore) that she was parodying to get the spoof down perfectly.
But Electra also says that filming the scenes was harder than it looked.
"It's pretty physical. It doesn't look like it when you watch it. But all that running and falling and landing on the ground … And it was freezing cold," she says. "We were filming in Canada. So, I'm like in bra and panties, soaking wet from the sprinklers in the freezing cold. (Wayans) was great because he made sure there were heaters and he made sure we got the scene down great."
Electra says she's sorry that her part in the comedy isn't bigger, simply because she didn't want to leave the set.
"I had so much fun. It was great working with Keenen. He's the kind of director who will demonstrate for you. I really respect him," she says.
And what was the best thing about making the movie?
"I'm making fun of myself, were making fun of everything. It's light-hearted and funny."
Electra tells me that Rodman almost had a part in the movie, too.
"(The producers) actually wanted Dennis to drive the car that hit me," she says, laughing.
"(Rodman) saw the previews and he didn't know it was me in it. We were with his friends, and he was like, 'Oh, yeah , 'Scary Movie,' we've got to go see that. I was like, "Dumb ass, I'm in it. Did you know I'm in it? He said, 'Oh was that you?'"
No Laughing Matter
Like a Greek tragedy, Electra's life has been a mix of charm and heartache.
It might come as a surprise to many to learn that Electra's relationship with Rodman also served as an escape from a family tragedy.
Electra has four older brothers. Her only sister and her mother died last year within a week of each other.
"(My Mom) was my best friend. She was the closet person to me in my family," Electra nearly whispers as she talks about her.
Electra tells me that her mother always believed in her and that her death was extremely difficult.
But rather than face the loss, Electra shutdown the painful emotions.
"I didn't even cry. I literally shut off the pain. I didn't want to deal. I was hanging out with Dennis and that was fun and exciting. And that really took my mind off of facing the loss of my mother," she says.
Eventually, Electra reached the point when she had to face reality.
Watching TV one day, she heard host Oprah Winfrey say that, "In order to heal, you need to feel."
Taking the advice to heart, Electra spent time alone to grieve.
"I feel a lot better now," she tells me. Electra also plans to go back to Ohio soon for the first time since the death of her mom.
Exit Electra
Her soda is gone and unfortunately, it's time for Electra to leave, too.
Before she leaves, Electra talks about her upcoming movie, "Perfume," opposite Omar Epps.
"It's basically hip-hop meets fashion. It's improv. There's no script. There's a guideline and you just go in and take it from there. Omar is really a nice guy and we had great chemistry together," she says.
And with the success of "Scary Movie," will we see her in more comedic roles in the future?
Electra says that she has always wanted to do comedy, even on "Baywatch."
"Well believe it or not, the directors and producers (of "Baywatch") take it really serious because they are real lifeguards. And they want everyone to do the stunts. I'd be on that show and want to spoof it so bad. I wanted to trip or something.
"I love to laugh and I love comedy. If you can laugh all day long, you can't beat a job like that," Electra says.
What's the Buzz?
Peeping Yawn: Hollywood gossip maven
Kitty Wibaux called this week to lament that "Big Brother" is a "big bother." She's not alone. Tons of would-be voyeurs watched the first night, but ratings have suffered considerably as viewers tune out of the reality show. In answer to the ratings freefall, CBS has added another night to the show's weekly five-night schedule. Hum. Wibaux begs, "I guess the concept of supply and demand doesn't quite apply here." But the show is not a total disappointment -- the Internet viewing audience is growing where the public can watch uncensored live feeds from the house.
Bun in the Oven: One of the funniest women in comedy, Kathy Griffin, brings her good humor to the Internet with the Web site drybuns.com. The former "Suddenly Susan" co-star will share "the little things in life that drive her crazy," like that watery stuff that comes out of a ketchup bottle when you first squeeze it.
Having a Ball: Speaking of funny women … The U.S. Postal Service unveiled the new Lucille Ball postage stamp last weekend as part of weekend-long "Loving Lucy 2000" celebration. The weekend also featured a "Lucy-oriented" bus tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills, Calif.
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