(WRESTLER)
Forget '60s bone cruncher Bruno Sammartino and '80s golden boy Hulk Hogan. Stone Cold Steve Austin, 34, has a hammerlock on the sweatiest form of showbiz. "He's the biggest superstar in wrestling history," raves World Wrestling Federation owner Vince McMahon, with the sport's characteristic hyperbole. Talk show host and lifelong wrestling fan Regis Philbin agrees. "He carries the whole show," says Philbin. "I think people like him because he's anti-authority." And how. Once after beating a Bible-thumping opponent, the Texas-born Austin declared, "You read your Psalms and talk about John 3:16—well, Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass." For his part, the 6'2", 262-lb. WWF champion, whose self-designed T-shirts sell at a record 1 million per month, thinks his work ethic is what sends his fans into ringside frenzies. "If you hand me a football, I'm gonna run with it," he says. "I ain't gonna drop it." Whatever fuels his charisma, Stone Cold, who takes home an estimated $2 million plus merchandising royalties annually, has made wrestling red-hot. The WWF and rival World Championship Wrestling attract some 40 million viewers weekly, a rise of 50 percent over last year.
Austin began his own climb into the ring after he dropped out of the University of North Texas a few credits shy of a physical education degree in 1987. He loaded trucks at a freight terminal before taking up half nelsons and dropkicks in 1989 for $20 per day. Now, when not battling rivals like the Undertaker and the Rock, Austin relaxes with wife Jeannie, 38 (who once acted as his valet, Lady Blossom), at the San Antonio-area home they share with daughters Stephanie, 6, Cassidy, 2, and Jeannie's daughter from a previous marriage, Jade, 17. "I'm pretty damn basic," says Austin of his persona. "This baldhead-and-goatee thing can be found in any mall in America. I'm just going with the flow and having fun."
Dixie Chicks
(COUNTRY TRIO)
Good ole (Spice) Girls, they aren't. But this saucy Dallas-based group of country divas with attitude (official band motto: Chicks Rule)—and authentic bluegrass chops—has brought its own dash of sass to the music world, riding their double-platinum album Wide Open Spaces into the upper reaches of the pop as well as country charts. "Ain't they somethin'?" crows country veteran Buck Owens. "You tell me where the top is and I'll tell you they can go there."
All Nashville seems to agree: It sent the Dixie Chicks—lead singer Natalie Maines, 24 (center), and musician sisters Martie Seidel, 29 (right), and Emily Erwin, 26—home from September's Country Music Association Awards with best newcomers and best vocal group honors. "Half the fun is going to a show and having guys say, 'Oh, God, an all-girl band,' " says Erwin. "And then blowing their socks off." The other half? Giving away their pink RV to a fan and getting chicken-foot tattoos on their ankles for every gold and platinum record or No. 1 single such as "There's Your Trouble." (They're up to three so far.) After a brief stop next spring for Erwin's wedding to Austin singer-songwriter Charlie Robison (Maines and Seidel are both already married), it's on to a four-month world tour with George Strait, and many hours logged in their new lavender bus. "We can't stay at small hotels in little towns anymore," Maines reports. "They get too excited. There's always people hanging out, and you get caught without any makeup and wearing fuzzy slippers. It kind of spoils the fantasy."
Helen Fielding
(AUTHOR)
Helen Fielding's diary for June 3 might have noted how she locked herself out of her suitcase, then—sipping champagne on the flight from London to New York—subtly tried to ascertain the marital status of the man in the next seat. And it would certainly have mentioned that, much to Fielding's chagrin, the man turned out to be the chairman of the company that owns Viking publishers, which had just released her second novel, Bridget Jones's Diary.
But then it's just that sort of social near-disaster that has made Bridget—a wickedly funny chronicle of the travails (and alcohol, food and cigarette intake) of a neurotic London thirtysomething—a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. (A film version of the book, based on a humor column that Yorkshire-born Fielding, 40, writes for Britain's Daily Telegraph, is already in the works.) "She has given a voice to all the tiny anxieties that any woman who has ever picked up a copy of Cosmopolitan will be familiar with," says British journalist and Fielding pal Tracey MacLeod. Though thrilled by the novel's success, Fielding, who lives alone in London and won't discuss any romantic attachments, takes care to stake out her own identity. "I don't drink or smoke, and I am a virgin, so there's nothing of me in Bridget," she says with a laugh. Seriously, though, "I don't think Bridget would have written this," she says. "She'd start the book and then decide to go out for a nice meal."
Kimberly Elise
(ACTRESS)
She played Oprah's other daughter in the film, but Kimberly Elise's luminous performance in the screen adaptation of Toni Morrison's epic slave drama was Beloved by critics and colleagues alike. "She is the life force of the film," says Winfrey, while director F. Gary Gray, who gave Elise, 31, her first movie part, in 1996's Set It Off, marvels at her ability to disappear into her roles. "She was Denver," he says. "I never once thought, 'She's doing a great job acting!' "
That feat seems even more impressive given the Wayzata, Minn., native's résumé—so sparse it includes little beyond the 1997 Family Channel film The Ditchdigger's Daughters and a Wendy's commercial. "I credit my education to dancing around with a hamburger," says Elise, who got a B.A. in speech communication from the University of Minnesota, then attended L.A.'s American Film Institute. Thanks to Beloved, those credits are likely to multiply fast, but Elise isn't speeding. "There's so much splash," she says. "Let's see what's there after the splash." In the meantime, she's enjoying her most challenging role: mom to AjaBlew, 8, and JaélaRose, 2 months, her daughters with husband Maurice Oldham, a photographer. "This is what I'm thinking about," says Elise. "Nourishing a new life."
Gidget
(SPOKESDOG)
Those eyes. Those ears. That little snout wrapped around the most famous commercial tag line since "Where's the Beef?" Suddenly—¡ay Chihuahua!—a star was born. "The last time we went to the mall, it was 'Look at the Taco Bell dog' and 'Yo Quiero Taco Bell,' " says animal trainer Sue Chipperton, who has been grooming the 4-year-old Gidget for stardom since acquiring her from a Chihuahua breeder in 1994. "I can't take her with me now unless I want to get mobbed."
Since the ads began airing nationally last December, Taco Bell sales are up, and Gidget (although she plays a male on TV, she's a she) has become a top dog in Hollywood. The pint-size pooch, who previously had a carry-on role in the 1996 film The Fan, now has her own line of T-shirts, drinking cups and talking plush toys. Antonio Banderas has hired her to appear in Crazy in Alabama, a dark comedy he's directing for release next spring, and there's even talk of building a TV series around her.
But not everyone is a fan. Some Hispanic activists have complained that the ads—and particularly Gidget's pronounced accent—are offensive. In response, Taco Bell chief marketing officer Vada Hill points to polls that show the ad is even more popular among His-panics than Anglos. "Consumers say, 'We love the Chihuahua,' " says Hill. And Gidget, who works with two male stand-ins for chicken bits and a fee Chipperton won't disclose, apparently loves them back. Says Chipperton: "She's getting quite used to jumping into limos."
Colin Quinn
(COMEDIAN)
And this just in: Colin Quinn, 39, writer, playwright and stand-up comic, is knocking 'em dead as the anchorman of Saturday Night Live's, Weekend Update. Sample bit: Announcing that Tom Cruise had won a settlement against a tabloid that called him gay, Quinn quipped, "Cruise scampered off with the money and blew it all on shoes." The comic, who cut his TV teeth on MTV's '80s game show Remote Control before becoming an SNL writer in '96, replaced his pal Norm Macdonald in the chair last January, a controversial move by NBC that angered some fans. "That was tough," admits Quinn, "because Norm was such a gentleman throughout." But audiences soon took to Quinn, and SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels knows why. "People will go a little further with Colin," he says, "because he's so likeable." The son of Irish-American teachers, Quinn displayed a more humane side late last summer in his one-man Broadway show An Irish Wake, a bittersweet take on a Brooklyn neighborhood. He also snagged a hefty advance to write a book ("Half memoir, half Thomas Aquinas," he says), and a CD of his stand-up bits is in the works. Along with his success, though, lurks an odd mission. "I used to get my news from Weekend Update," says the single Quinn. "It's sad but true. And there are other idiots like me out there. So my job's important."
Keri Russell
(ACTRESS)
Even before her WB show Felicity's debut in September, Keri Russell was the talk of the tube. Madison Avenue ad buyers labeled her TV's next It girl, while magazines slapped her face on their covers and critics rhapsodized over her corkscrew curls and bubbly charm. All of which left the astute 22-year-old with one reaction: "The buzz in this country is a strange and fickle force." Fortunately, Russell has
lived up to her hype. "Keri has this amazing ability to make you feel what she's feeling," says Felicity co-creator Matt Reeves. "You want to root for her."
The middle child of a homemaker and a Nissan executive, Russell identifies with Felicity's independent spirit. At 15, she left her Denver home for Orlando to pursue dancing and acting as a Mouseketeer on Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club. Two years later she moved to California all by herself. "I always did my own thing," says Russell, who made her movie debut in 1992's Honey, I Blew Up the Kid and later costarred in NBC's short-lived 1996 drama Malibu Shores. But Felicity's 14-hour days may have tamed her. Russell, who dates former Shores costar Tony Lucca, considers herself "a boring old lady. I very rarely go out to clubs," says the actress, who also stars in the forthcoming big-screen comedy Mad About Mambo. "I come home and sleep."
Backstreet Boys
(POP GROUP)
Jump in whenever you want here: "Everybody, yeah...Rock your body...Backstreet's back, all right!" Give it up. You know the words. By the time the Backstreet Boys unleashed their unofficial theme song in March, they were well on their way to moving 8 million copies of their self-titled album and had put their Top 5 hit, "Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)," on the lips of millions of pubescent girls.
And when the Boys—(from left) Kevin Richardson, 27, Howie Dorough, 25, A.J. McLean, 20, Brian Littrell, 23, and Nick Carter, 18—toured the U.S. this summer, bedlam was the disorder of the day. "It's getting crazy," admits Littrell. But at least it's home. The Orlando-based fab five had to go to Europe to find success with their 1995 debut album. "We like our families to be able to turn on the TV and see what we're doing," says Richardson. Even if it is lampooning themselves on this year's MTV Video Music Awards. "They've gone from big to bigger in the year I've known them," says former teen idol Deborah Gibson. "And they haven't changed a bit." Now at work on their next CD, the five even claim they all still get along. "None of us are going to take each other out yet," jokes Dorough. Or sell out. Vows Littrell: "I don't want a Backstreet Boys cereal."
Ross Rebagliati
(SNOWBOARDER)
Beginning in 1991, when Ross Rebagliati got serious about competing, his dad, Mark, a geological engineer, laid out up to $20,000 a year to fund his career. Then snowboarding was added to the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and suddenly the sport—and Rebagliati, its first gold medalist—was big news. "At the Olympics, snowboarders were seen as serious athletes," notes Hanno Treindl, an official for the sport's governing body. Before, "they were looked at as crazy people."
But Rebagliati, 27, quickly fell from grace. When a urine test showed evidence of marijuana, Olympic officials took away his medal. Then Rebagliati, who does not deny past smoking, convinced them he had inhaled secondhand smoke at a party, and the medal was returned.
Snowboard Life managing editor Ewan Morrison says the episode helped make Rebagliati "the perfect hero" for the sport's proudly nonconformist enthusiasts. "It's like, 'Hey, we're still rowdy.' " And the aplomb with which the Vancouver native handled the flap has provided damage control for his dealings with sponsors. Now Rebagliati, who looks forward to the 2002 games ("As long as I'm having fun, I can't see myself stopping"), has contracts with a Canadian apparel maker, a U.S. snowboard manufacturer and an Italian sunglass company. Notes agent Nathalie Cook: "He won't have to ask his dad to pay for trips to Europe anymore."
Claire Forlani
(ACTRESS)
Sure, she was Sean Connery's daughter in The Rock (1996). But Claire Forlani, who had also ventured into the celluloid terrain of Police Academy VII: Mission to Moscow (1994), knew she had hit the big time when she arrived on the East Coast location of Meet Joe Black. "Just the fact that the first day we were filming on these incredible sets—that alone showed the world you had stepped into," marvels the 26-year-old actress, who beat out scores of candidates for the privilege of doing love scenes with Brad Pitt. Recalls director Martin Brest: "After we cast Brad, the next challenge was to find an actress who could hold her own against him. Claire definitely had the goods."
Born and raised in London, Forlani had already appeared in British TV productions when dad Pier, a music manager, relocated the family to Berkeley, Calif., in 1992. A year later she won her first film role, in Gypsy Eyes. She worked continuously until Joe Black wrapped, then took time off to care for her cancer-stricken mother, Barbara, who died in October. Noting that her character in Joe Black loses her father, Forlani says, "In a way, the story means even more to me now." Single and living in West L.A. rental, Forlani is back at work, filming Mystery Men with Ben Stiller and Hank Azaria. "I'm the waitress," she says adding that she never did that typical actress's stint. Not to worry. "I've paid my dues in other ways," insists Forlani. "I do know how to carry a plate."
Natalie Imbruglia
(SINGER)
"Fame can make you larger than you are," says Natalie Imbruglia. In March the blue-eyed Aussie stunner behind the smash single "Torn" learned exactly how large: Riding alone in the backseat of a New York City taxi, MTV's best new artist glanced out the window and saw herself on a huge billboard looming over Times Square. "I was laughing and didn't have anyone to share it with," recalls Imbruglia, 23. "I almost tapped the cabbie on the shoulder and said, 'Look, that's me.' "
No need to tell the 5 million-plus owners of her debut album, Left of the Middle. Nor U.K. TV viewers who remember her two-year stint on the Australian-made soap opera Neighbours. "I had fame very young, and then I was rebellious," admits the New South Wales native. "I'm more appreciative of success now. I savor every moment because it might not last." Then again, Imbruglia's career seems to be on a definite upward arc. "She has the kind of voice that gives you goose bumps," raves former Eurythmic Dave Stewart, who has been working with Imbruglia on songs for her next album. "There's a sadness there, but a kind of beautiful sadness that is quite powerful." Having weathered tabloid reports linking her with Friends' David Schwimmer and rocker Lenny Kravitz (Imbruglia won't discuss either), the London-based singer is decidedly not starstruck. Nonetheless, she admits, "I have to say Madonna's pretty cool. It was nice to shake her hand."
Holly Marie Combs
(ACTRESS)
Hipper than Samantha and sexier than Sabrina, the three sister witches in the WB hit Charmed also have a bigger mission for their magic: fighting evil and finding themselves hunky boyfriends. "I just had to accept the fact that what I do is basically entertainment," says Holly Marie Combs of her new stint casting spells between Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano. "It can't be ground-shaking moral dilemmas all the time." And anyway, the New York City-reared Combs, 25, had plenty of those during her four seasons playing a precocious teen on Picket Fences. Combs got the news that she was witch-worthy while visiting Doherty, an old pal. "We were ecstatic, jumping up and down screaming," Doherty says. "Holly's fiery and feisty. I knew she'd be perfect." Milano has been most impressed by Combs's comedic gifts: "She can be dry like Bob Newhart or physically hilarious." Combs, divorced in 1996 from actor Bryan (Bugsy) Smith, says it's just "fun to do pure fantasy." Okay, maybe not that pure, considering Doherty and Milano's winning ways with the warlocks. But Combs likes to leave the sexy stuff to her costars. "Everybody keeps comparing us to Charlie's Angels, and I'm the one always compared to Kate Jackson," she says. "That's all right with me."
Orlando Hernandez
(BASEBALL PLAYER)
"I dreamed of being a pitcher in the major leagues," says New York Yankees ace Orlando Hernandez. "But it never went through my mind that I would be a world-champion pitcher in less than a year." Still, that's exactly what has happened to "El Duque," who a year ago was living in Cuba, dirt poor and forbidden to play ball. In his first season as a Yankee, Hernandez, baffling batters with his lethal arsenal of sliders and curve-balls, posted a 12-4 record with a 3.13 ERA and won two crucial postseason games en route to the team's World Series title. "I say he's an artist," says Omar Minaya, assistant general manager of the New York Mets, who also scouted him. "He has a combination of command and velocity you don't find very often."
In 1996, Hernandez, a pitching hero in Cuba, was banned from the sport because his half brother Livan, now a Florida Marlin, had defected. So the day after Christmas 1997, he, girlfriend Noris Bosch and six others left Cuba on a 20-foot fishing boat. Less than three months after the U.S. Coast Guard plucked the group from a remote island, Hernandez, who says he's 29 (a 1994 Cuban baseball card indicates he's 33), signed a four-year, $6.6 million contract. Now he savors the high life with a luxury condo in Miami and a hotel suite in Manhattan. But he couldn't fully rejoice until October, when Fidel Castro let his mother, ex-wife and daughters, ages 8 and 3, come to the U.S. Now, says Hernandez, "I can only thank God for letting me walk these paths, which I consider to be the best in my life."
SAMMO HUNG
(MARTIAL ARTIST/ACTOR)
Sammo be nimble, Sammo be quick, Sammo jump over the...stunt guy, feet first into the window of a car? Sure. And wink while doing it. After all, before bringing his girth and mirth to CBS's surprise hit Martial Law, Sammo Hung, 46, perfected his moves (and broke nearly every bone he owns) in some 140 grueling Hong Kong action movies. "I'm so impressed with him," says Law costar Arsenio Hall. "Not just physically; he's talented on many levels. He sings, he fights, he directs. He knows Chinese opera."
But the man Time magazine dubbed "America's least likely, most refreshing network star" is the first to admit that after two decades of directing (including this year's action comedy Mr. Nice Guy, starring Jackie Chan) more often than acting, he's not exactly in fighting, Pacific-rim trim. "I must do exercise again," says the 5'9", 240-lb. Hung, who plays Sammo Law, a Shanghai supercop who joins the LAPD. "I stopped so long I have to come back slowly." First, though, the Hong Kong-born actor, who trained from childhood at the notoriously rigorous Peking Opera School and first appeared on U.S. movie screens as a stunt player in 1973's Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee, has other hurdles to leap. With the help of his wife, Mina, who was 1986's Miss Hong Kong, he is diligently studying English. Words like "knife" are still a problem—"I say, 'Why put the 'k' there?' "—but in other respects, Hung (who has four children from a previous marriage) is already very much a Tinseltowner. "It very surprised me that I get the job in Martial Law," he says. "I like acting, but what I really want to do is direct."
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!
