But You Should See Him Lay Down A Drag Bunt
So you don’t think John Leguizamo suffers for his art? Let’s listen to him tell it, in Details: “I’ve had my chest hairs plucked with a tweezer at 5 a.m., I’ve stood unclothed in front of Sean Penn, I’ve confessed family secrets to a theater full of strangers, and without fail, I’ve loved every shameful second of it.
“Yes, I suffer from a pathetic need to be noticed, and if my job requires me to abandon any semblance of human dignity, it sure beats being ignored … John Leguizamo without shame would be as meaningless as Sharon Stone without bleach.
“If it were possible to literally die of embarrassment, I’d have gone right from grade school to the grave … The first time my dad and I played catch, he ridiculed me. ‘You throw like a girl!’ he cursed. I tore off my dress and ran inside the house.”
Loose talk
New Los Angeles Laker Shaquille O’Neal, dissing Dennis Rodman (in USA Today): “He is the ugliest woman I have ever seen in my life.”
His type? Why, those Cosmo girls, of course
Michael “Kramer” Richards turns 47 today.
Thank you, Sheryl, for that touching tribute
Denzel Washington is People magazine’s first black “Sexiest Man Alive,” following in the footsteps of Mel Gibson, Mark Harmon, Harry Hamlin, John F. Kennedy Jr., Sean Connery, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Nick Nolte, Richard Gere and Brad Pitt. Says friend Sheryl Lee Ralph: “There’s a solidness in him as a man. It’s something you can really put your hands on. And I’m sure a lot of women would like to do just that.”
At least she’s able to get a little lip service
Asked on “Extra” about her best-kissing co-stars, Salma Hayek called it a tie between Antonio Banderas (“Desperado”) and Laurence Fishburne (“Fled”). Said Hayek, who also worked with George Clooney and William Baldwin: “I’ve been very, very lucky with men in film.”
I now pronounce you, well, wed and wedder
After an on-again and off-again relationship, comic Jim Carrey has finally proposed to actress Lauren Holly, whom he met while filming “Dumb and Dumber” in 1994. No wedding date has been announced.
Why risk throwing a wrench into the works?
Debbe Dunning, the Tool Time girl on television’s “Home Improvement,” is expecting a baby in December with pro volleyballer Steve Timmons - but wedding bells aren’t part of the picture. “We planned on getting married,” Dunning said. “And then once we realized we were having a baby, we thought, ‘Well, that’s fine.”’
Actually, we hear she was just a cold fish
Seventysomething Esther Williams, on how she avoided affairs back in her movie mermaid days (in New Choices magazine): “I’d be underwater all day. And by the time I got the Vaseline out of my hair and got rid of the baby oil that took off my body makeup, I’d look around and everyone had gone home!”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino