Swimsuit model and sometime actress Kathy Ireland, 33, known for her highly toned body and high-pitched voice, may look and sound demure, but don't believe it. In a current TV ad for Baked Lay's potato chips, which also features supermodels Vendela and Naomi Campbell, Ireland lets loose with a resounding belch. "It's something I learned as a kid," she says. "I don't like to brag, but everyone in my family is quite good at it. If someone's rude to you, it's a good instant comeback. It gets rid of them. If you want to be left alone, it comes in handy."
ACCIDENTALLY ON PORPOISE
Despite using all her considerable charms, actress Bridget Fonda recently found it hard to make a splash with certain costars. Swimming with wild dolphins off the Bahamas for a segment of Dolphins in Danger (TBS, Sept. 1), a documentary about the environmental hazards faced by the mammals, Fonda found herself persona non grata. "It was all I could do to keep their interest," says Fonda, 32, who resorted to doing fancy dives and making funny noises. "I tried everything, but they got bored and moved on." Then she accidentally found a way to get their attention: "I inhaled some water and was choking. As soon as I started to choke, they were really interested."
THE TWINKIE DEFENSE
British actress Pam Ferris, 47, has made her American film debut in Matilda, Danny DeVito's wicked new comedy based on Roald Dahl's children's book. "My English friends said, 'Oh, you're going to Hollywood!' " says Ferris, a brunette, explaining that they assumed she would soon be blonde as well as beautiful. Not quite. For her role as a bullying school headmistress, Ferris had to become a kid's worst nightmare. "The makeup people looked at my face very carefully and did the opposite of beautifying," Ferris says. "I got an extra bit of nose, extra eye bags, lots of false eyelashes—except not on my eyes but on my top lip and between my eyebrows." Still, all that was minor compared to the scene in which the students get even with the hideous headmistress. "In Matilda," she says, "my most humiliating moment was having a Twinkie shoved in my ear."
ROCK OF AGES
"I have to be honest with you and say I just really don't get a lot of what my teenagers play," says former teen idol Donny Osmond, 38, of the alternative rock that Don, 17, and Jeremy, 15, the older of his four sons, like to blast. Osmond, who has played the lead in a road show of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for the past four years, will guide VH1 viewers through his era this week as host of 7 Days of '70s, a series about the decade and its music. It is a project Osmond would not have undertaken 10 years ago. "For a time during the '80s, I totally denied what I used to do," he says. "I hated the fact that I sang 'Puppy Love,' that I did the Donny and Marie show." But with '70s nostalgia booming, Osmond finds himself retro-hip. "I showed Jeremy one of my album covers, and I had on these bell-bottoms [in] an American flag [pattern]. And he's like, 'Dad, those are great, man. I want some.' "
Get up-to-the-minute celebrity news and photos on your cellphone, iPhone or Blackberry at www.people.com!
