ARTICOLO ORIGINALE TRATTO DA MAXIM

Melrose Hellraiser  (pag. 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)

ALYSSA MILANO is used to being stared at, and that's hardly a surprise. At 16, she was already hogging the spotlight as Tony Danza's increasingly curvaceous kid on ABC's hit sitcom WHO'S THE BOSS? - and she had a best-selling exercise video and four platinum pop albums in Asia.
"I'll never be as popular as that ever all", she laughs.
We ain't so sure. Since she went from Danza's moppet to a grown-up sexpot on MELROSE PLACE, and started burning up movie screens in films like FEAR with Mark Wahlberg and the indie flick HUGO POOL opposite Sean Penn, Milano has quickly become a Hollywood starlet to watch. And she's got a scary number of fan Web sites to prove it.
With big burnt-almond-colored eyes and a diminutive 5'2" frame, Milano is a woman who sneaks up on you. But what she lacks in height she makes up for with charisma. Unlike your average fucked-up former child star, Milano is always on the move, pushing herself in a million directions at once.
Underneath her mogul-in-the-making exterior is a warm, generous, and unaffected young woman who as far as we've determined - suffered no ill effects from prolonged exposure to Tony Danza.

By Paul Young
Photographed by Andrew Eccles
Styling by Karen Shapiro

 

MAXIM : You were such a nice kid on Who's the Boss? and now, on Melrose Place, you're one nasty piece of work. Is it more fun being bad?

ALYSSA : Well, my chararter isn't really bad. She just doesn't have a mental editing process. She says exactly what's on her mind, like, "That outfit is horrible! Why did you put that on? I'm worried about you". And the thing is, she really cares! But it's a great acting exercise. Truthfully anyone can be great in an Ang Lee film, but if you can pull off a episode of Melrose Place, you've got talent! [Laugh]

MAXIM : What would Melrose Place be like if it were on cable instead of network Tv?

ALYSSA : We say that all the time. I wish someone would finance a cable version because it would be fabulous to be able to say stuff like you fucking bitch! You know, the sort of things people actually say. And of course everyone would be naked throughout.

MAXIM : Why is Melrose such a big hit?

ALYSSA : I don't mean any disrespect to the guys by this, but it's a show that's run by women. The men are the bimbos. The women are the ones who have the companies and dominate the relationships, which I think is a interesting twist.

MAXIM : You were quoted in the Los Angeles times recently, saying, "If you know any cute smart guys, send them my way! Ok?" you get any action from that?

ALYSSA : I told the same story on the Tonight Show - about how I've been single for so long, and how I was seeing this guy who was brushing me off. I've talked about being single so much in the press that it has become my thing. And now I'm getting thousands of proposals on my E-mai1 every day. But it's funny. I meet some of the most amazing, successfull women, 21-35 years old, and they're all in the same boat. So it may have something to do with men's inability to deal with us. I just bought this five-bedroom house in Beverly Hills, and I know it's going to be the kiss of death.

MAXIM : Why's that? You think that guys will be intimidated by it?

ALYSSA : Totally

MAXIM : Do you have a policy on dating costars?

ALYSSA : At this point beggars can't be choosers!

MAXIM : I Heard you like to wear men's underwear. That true?

ALYSSA : Oh God! I've gotten so much flack for that! Look, women's under wear goes up your butt, and men's underwear just fits better. Once in a while, I just feel like being cozy.

MAXIM : Other than a change to borrow his Jockeys, what do yoo look for in guy?

ALYSSA : To me, laughing is the best thing in the world. If I can laugh with the guy I'm with, I'm happy. As far as looks, I'm into the "man-child" guy. Like George Clooney, who's 40 but still looks much younger than he is and has that boyish twinkle in his eye.

MAXIM : Anything else?

ALYSSA : Creative stimulation. I need to have that conversation at three in the morning that really makes you think. A lot of guys have only about two, different topics - after that they've shot their load.

MAXIM : Were you always ambitious?

ALYSSA : Always. I mean, I started out in the biz at seven years old because I went to see Annie on Broadway and I looked at my parents and said, "I want to do that". And they were like, "Yeah, right". And then a friend of the family took me to an open audition for the show, and my parents had no idea that I was going. There were 1,500 kids and four were picked. I was one of them.

MAXIM : How did your stange asian singing career come about?

ALYSSA : When I was 15 they showed Commando [featuring Milano as Arnold Schwarzenegger's kid] on public television in Japan. and these movie magazines started getting these letters about me. So I did some interviews where I talked about Annie. Some Asian music exec read that, assumed that I could sing, and offered me a recording deal. I recorded four albums that all went platinum. I mean, they were huge sellers. I even had a "Best of".

MAXIM : You said in an interview, around tha same time, that you wanted to be married by 23 and have six kids by age 36. Remember that?

ALYSSA : Well, that plan just went all to shit, didn't it? [Laughs]

MAXIM : So no offspring. You did end up with a bunch of tattoos, though, right?

ALYSSA : WI have five. Rosary beads on my back, a vine of flowers on my right ankle, an angel holding a cross with my ex-fiancé's initials SRW - which now means "Single Rad Woman" - on my left ankle, a fairy on my stomach, and a big sacred heart on my lower back. I've always gotten them at times when I was sad about somethng... Relationship problems or the fact that it had rained every day for a month. But I've always thought they were really beautiful.

MAXIM : Are tattoo a form of rebellion for you?

ALYSSA : Sure. It's a pretty shitty time for kids right now. I mean what else are we supposed to do? We can't do drugs anymore and we can't have careless, fun sex, right?

MAXIM : Doesn't your mom have tattoos too?

ALYSSA : She has one on her back. She got it after I finally got enough courage to tell her about my first one - the vine on my ankle. I'll never forget when I showed it to her. She just sat there and looked at it for a long time, and I thought, Oh shit, I'm in big big trouble now. And then she's like, "Where did you get that done? Because I've always wanted one". So I took my mom to the tattoo parlor, which was the most amazing bonding moment ever.

MAXIM : There was a scene in Fear where your character talks about how showing off her sexuality is a kind of power. Do you feel that way?

ALYSSA : Not really, but I'm sure a lot of women do. I was brought up in a house where sexuality and your own body were beautiful, normal things.

MAXIM : What about all those nude pics of you that are circulating like crazy on the Internet?

ALYSSA : My mother has a company now that are working to get nude celebrity pictures off the Internet. [Mom also maintains the official Web site, www.alyssa.com.] A lot of them are totally fake. I mea my 15 year-old brother gets harassed by his friends because of these [doctored] photos they find of me on the Internet. Not cool.

MAXIM : What is cool about the Net?

ALYSSA : I don't know, I just love it, I really do. The fact that you can look up literally anything, right at your fingertips, is just amazing. It's a great tool.

MAXIM : When you're home watching TV, do you ever come across Who's the Boss? and watch it obsessively?

ALYSSA : Yeah, I do sometimes. And it's weird because it's like watching someone else. People always ask me what my favorite episode was, and I can't say because it's such a blur. I don't remember the lines or anything. It's weird. It's like they're the lost years.

MAXIM : Were there any episodes that were directly inspired by your own life?

ALYSSA : A few. When I started developing they wrote an episode called "Sam's First Bra". The writers were like, "Okay she's 13 and she has boobies now. We better address this issue". And that was hell for me! I mean it's hard enough going through puberty by yourself, but to do it in front of millions of people!

MAXIM : Do people really believe that you and Tony Danza slept together? You were, what, 12?

ALYSSA : People ask me that all the time, and I have no idea what they're thinking... whatever!

MAXIM : To ask a corny question, what sign are you?

ALYSSA : I'm a cusp of Sagittarius and Capricorn, with Scorpio rising.

MAXIM : Which means?

ALYSSA : It means I'm crazy! No, actually a Sagittarius loves to travel, is very independent, and not really marriage material. A Capricorn is a stable homebody. In other words, I'm a complete contradiction. And since I'm a Scorpio rising, apparently people see me as very faithfull, but very sexual.

MAXIM : And are you?

ALYSSA : Of Course!

 

 

ALYSSA AT A GLANCE

BORN:  December 19, 1972, in Brooklyn, NY. Dad is a music composer, and Mom is a former fashion designer.

BIG TV BREAK:  at age 11, she snagged the role of Samantha Micelli on Who's the Boss? after the producers came to Brooklyn looking for an "authentic" Italian dynamo to play Tony Danza's daughter. Played Samanatha from 1984 to 1992.

MELROSE PLACE CHARACTER:  Jennifer Mancini, the devious younger sister of the odious Dr. Michael Mancini - at least until "We find out I'm not really his sister and we end up in bed together!"

LEAST EROTIC WEB RUMOR:  That the Disney ani- mators who drew Ariel, The Little Mermaid, took their inspiration from Alyssa.

LIKELIHOOD OF YOU DATING HER:  Well, she's avail- able. Since Scott Wolf (the Tom Cruise lookalike on Fox's Party of Five) broke her heart in 1995, she's been a free agent. But you had better not be cynical, pretentious, or incredibly keen to form a nuclear family. "I don't want kids until I'm around 30", she says. "And I don't know if I want the husband with it".