As soon as Michele Maika won the coveted role of Rick Schroder's love interest on NYPD Blue, she knew that nude scenes were in her future. "My manager called and said, 'Guess what? Your bare butt's going to be on NYPD Blue!' " says Maika, 28. But the actress didn't meet Schroder until the morning of their first scene together—in bed. "It was pretty hilarious because it was like, 'Hi, Rick, nice to meet you. Let's get naked!' " she recalls. "I knew they couldn't show too much of me, but they sure showed a lot more than I thought they would." The exposé ends, for the moment, on April 13, when the drama focuses on the couple's out-of-bed relationship. "I'd say my wardrobe in my first two episodes cost about 3 cents," Maika says. "I think that price has since gone up because I'm clothed throughout this entire episode. And I'm perpendicular."
A little mood music
His hit "Wicked Game" set the sultry mood for 1990's Wild at Heart, and now another Chris Isaak song, "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing," is generating heat on the trailer of the late Stanley Kubrick's psychosexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut. "I don't think it hurts to have Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman making love to your music," says Isaak, 42, who will perform on An All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash, airing April 18 on TNT. The crooner, whose song was originally featured on his 1995 album Forever Blue, was quick to give his blessing to the filmmakers. "I said, 'I just have one question: When you're using my music, is there nudity or violence?' " he recalls. "They said yes to both. And I said, 'Okay, we're a go!' "
Wheel life
"I get things from 'You annoy me so much' to 'You make me cry,' " says Ally McBeal's Jane Krakowski of fan response to her quirky character, Elaine. As for the most popular question about the FOX dramedy, she says, "Of course, they ask about the unisex bathroom." Krakowski, 30, who costars with Party of Five's Scott Wolf and Dawson's Creek's Katie Holmes in the big-screen dark comedy Go, admits being on a hit TV show has its advantages with the opposite sex. "I get asked out at red lights now," she says. "Sadly, it's a long-term relationship for me if I'm still thinking about him by the time the light turns green."
Eating for two
Chris O'Donnell, who costars in the new comedy Cookie's Fortune, says that he has probably hung up his cape as Robin the Boy Wonder for good. "I don't think they're going to do another Batman with me," says O'Donnell, 28. "If they do another movie, they'll wait a couple years and then reinvent it with new actors." The good news for O'Donnell, who is expecting his first child with wife Caroline in September, is that he won't have to worry about squeezing into that Robin suit anymore. "I think I've put on more weight than my wife at this point," he says. "Ever since my wife found out we were going to have a baby, it's been, 'Goodbye, healthy food!' and 'I want steak! I want potatoes!'
Mod man
While filming The Mod Squad, the movie version of the hip 1968-73 TV series, Omar Epps learned that you can't be mod if you don't have the bod. "My biggest stunt was getting into the pants," says Epps, 25, who plays Line. "They were ridiculous tight. Then you're running around for eight hours. We almost had to cut the pants off at the end of the day." In fact, the actor concedes that he is no match for the original Line, played by Clarence Williams III. "I'm like the play Line," says Epps. "I don't even have the big Afro, so I'm already losing, like, 50 points right there."
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!
