>Jenny McCarthy
FACE VALUE
BODY LANGUAGE, ACCORDING TO EXPERTS, constitutes more than 65 percent of human communication. In that case, Jenny McCarthy, 24, the blond, leggy host of Singled Out, MTV's dating game for the young and rowdy, speaks volumes. Crossing her eyes, turning her nose up into a pig's snout, flailing, tugging male contestants' hair, Jenny is body-talking a mile a minute.
But saying what? PEOPLE consulted two specialists.
Raymond C. McGraime, a consultant in nonverbal behavior at the Center for Integrated Teacher Education in South Huntington, N.Y., viewed one random episode of Singled Out. McCarthy, by his count, "punched, poked, elbowed or pulled the hair" of the show's male contestants between 35 and 40 times. And the guys loved it! "On a subconscious level," McGraime explains, "men are hesitant to make physical contact with women. They're scared of rejection. With Jenny wrestling and poking them, they get to have contact with her at no risk to their self-esteem."
The "pig" nose? "That is an emblematic gesture that says, 'I don't like you,' in a very playful manner," claims Beth Le Poire, associate professor of communications at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "And crossing the eyes is saying, 'I can't believe what you're saying.' Jenny does both in such an exaggerated way, it's almost like flirting."
Conclusion: "Her appeal," suggests McGraime, "is that you never know what she's going to do next." Her body signals us: Stay tuned! And we do.
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