The 32-year-old comic caused another flap when he turned up in whiteface in August's Vanity Fair. But Rock's unpredictability and disregard for conventional pieties, black or white, are key to his success. "He's a guy who's not afraid of saying what everyone else is thinking," says Greg Kinnear, Rock's costar in the forthcoming film Nurse Betty. "He's totally un-PC, which I so admire." Salma Hayek, who appears with him in next year's Dogma, describes Rock as "a kind of urban philosopher." His humor is "real and it's very personal," she says. "I find him brave." Observes Rock: "It seems the more edge I have, the more I talk the truth, the more people seem to embrace what I'm saying." That his appeal cuts across racial lines is no mystery, he adds: "When people laugh, they really don't care where they got it from."
He's right: These days everyone seems to want a piece of the Rock. Besides coproducing ABC's new hit sitcom The Hugbleys, the comedian, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Malaak Compton-Rock, 29, a UNICEF publicist, is writing his own script—which he calls a skinny-guy-gets-the-girl story. As his opportunities explode, he seems determined to seize them all. "I want to direct," he says. "Produce some more shows, write another book—and I really want to be a good stand-up comic." Then again, all those goals can be boiled down to one. "I want to be great," says Rock. "That's my drive. Plain and simple."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
