Kitten With A Whip

Carmen Electra is rightful heir to the throne

By David Fantle & Tom Johnson

If they ever remake the 1964 Ann-Margret film, "Kitten With a Whip," Carmen Electra could fill the part like she could a hip-hugging pair of capris’. She’d be purrfect. In fact, Electra, admits to being a huge Ann-Margret fan, citing  "Bye Bye Birdie" as one of the defining moments in her decision to pursue a performing career at the ripe old age of five.

Electra shares other similarities with the former "sex kitten." Both were raised in the Midwest, Electra, near Cincinnati, Ann-Margret in suburban Chicago. Both received their first career breaks from giant names in show business; George Burns for Ann-Margret, Prince for Electra. Both have had reported flings with pop music icons; Elvis and Ann-Margret and Electra and  Prince, followed by her current marriage to rocker Dave Navarro (they recently announced they are splitsville).

But probably mostly importantly, both stars exude sexuality without being pigeonholed into one convenient show business package. Sex symbol, cover girl, singer, dancer, actress -- Electra dabbles in it all.

On this late spring day, talking from the Beverly Hills home she shares with Navarro and their Yorkshire Terrier Daisy, Carmen was also what you've come to expect - fun, bubbly and refreshingly honest. Wearing a black T-shirt, grey sweat pants and nothing on her feet, Electra talked about her storied beginnings with the "His Purpleness," to her tabloid car wreck romance with basketball star Dennis Rodman to her most recent period of wedded bliss. Electra has packed a lot into her first 33 years.

Born Tara Leigh Patrick, one of six children (one sister, four brothers), Carmen took to dancing early under the tutelage of her mother, who enrolled her in the School for Creative Arts when she was nine. After graduating high school  (where she was voted "most beautiful" and "best dancer"), Carmen moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music and changed her name to Carmen Electra.  Carmen for the play "Carmen Jones," a 1954 movie musical adaptation of the Bizet opera; and Electra from the ancient Greek play. Fortune favors the bold because just before her meager savings were depleted, she landed a role as a backup dancer on the TV show, "Soul Train" and was soon discovered by Prince.

Electra moved to Minneapolis, Prince's base of operations and spent the next two years working and playing with the eccentric genius. The experience produced a self-titled album, that had tepid sales, but more importantly for Electra, taught her volumes about the rough and tumble entertainment industry.

"He's (Prince) an incredible person," she said. "He's so generous and that whole experience really inspired me to push forward and gave me the self-confidence to go out there and forge a career of my own."

Electra returned to Los Angeles in 1993 and in 1997 and replaced Jenny McCarthy on the MTV show, "Singled Out." The next year she was asked to replace another famous blonde, Pamela Anderson on the mega-hit, "Baywatch." Electra, in her revealing red bathing suit received worldwide "exposure" when she joined the cast. Although the show's most buoyant star Anderson had left, Electra was anointed her successor and ably filled her Speedo.

Electra said meeting the swimming rigors of the part was the most challenging aspect of the role.

"Getting the job was a huge accomplishment because I never had any real acting experience," she said. "The downside was all the swimming I had to do. The physical stuff for me was kind of tough. I'm not the greatest swimmer so to try to pretend that I'm an amazing swimmer was really hard. Besides, we had to be in the water at 6 or 7 a.m. and it was freezing!"

While tabloids reported cat fights among the female members of the cast, Electra said the season went, well, swimmingly.

"When I took the role I was really nervous because you put all these women together and there's bound to be competition, some disagreements." she said. "I can honestly say those issues never materialized."

Perhaps the low point in her life came in 1998, shortly after her tenure on "Baywatch" ended, when in close succession she lost her mother to cancer and her sister to a heart attack. It was then that Electra began a very public and torrid relationship with NBA bad boy and occasional cross-dresser Dennis Rodman.

Her shotgun wedding to Rodman in Las Vegas on Nov. 14, 1998 was legally dissolved five months later. For Electra, her relationship with Rodman was more a case of misery loves company.

"I'd characterize that chapter (with Rodman) as a time of self-destruction," she said. "Before that time I remember saying to myself,  'Wow, something's going to happen because things are too good.' So all of a sudden my mother gets stricken with cancer, my sister dies and then so does my mother. I meet Dennis, who I think was in a self-destructive mode as well at the time so you put two people together who are in pain and who don't know how to deal with their feelings. At first it was fun and then it got bad. I had to get away from that situation because it came to a point where I was just sick of feeling sorry for myself. I'd like to sit here and say I don't regret it, because part of me does, but at the same time I guess I really did learn a lot.  Looking at my life now with Dave and seeing how I completely turned my life around for the positive, it was worth it."

An issue that has been gnawing at the male psyche for years is the attraction that hot women (Pamela Anderson, Heather Locklear, Electra) have for ratty, gangly rockers who go overboard with body-piercings and tattoos. It seems like clean-cut guys never have a chance to reel in one of these babes. Electra tried to explain this perplexing reality.

"I had to do a lot of thinking about this one to try and figure it out myself," she said. "The only thing I can think of is that my dad's a musician, my brother was a drummer and he's all tattooed up. I've been around music my entire life. I think that a person that can play music, write music, a creative person is really sexy.

"A guy like Dave is edgy and cool," she added. "He has definitely lived an extreme, full life. But Dave is a very rare case. He's just the sweetest, most generous, loving person I've ever met. I'm really lucky that I've found someone that I'm so attracted to, who keeps me on edge, but would never hurt me."

Electra and Navarro’s relationship leading up to their November 2003 marriage was chronicled on the MTV reality show, "Till Death Do Us Part."  Electra said that she and Dave have a strong desire to one day play the real-life role of parents.

In the meantime, Electra carved out her piece of the fitness craze pie with the release of a series of workout DVD's, including "Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease." (We can't help but be a bit cynical about the real reason this DVD elevates the resting heart rate of the male audience.)

"Actually, believe it or not, it continues to sell well and women come up to me all the time and say how much they love it and they do the exercises," she said. "Some people do it purely for the workout and some people want to learn how to give a lap dance and do sexy moves."

Electra has also carved out a niche appearing in supporting film roles such as "Scary Movie" and "Starsky & Hutch."

This summer she'll be filming a featured part in the sequel to "Cheaper By the Dozen, scheduled for release next year. She'll also appear in two independent movies, scheduled for release later this year, "Getting Played" and  "Dirty Love."

Electra also donates her time to several charitable organizations, including Hospice, which treated her mother during her cancer treatment, Pediatric AIDS and MS. And in a "win a date" with Carmen Ebay auction to support the National Prostate Cancer Coalition, sponsored by TAG Body Spray, the winning bid reportedly went for six figures.

While Electra's physical attributes are still her primary show business asset, she's circumspect about working in a business where most females after the age of 40 are traded in for newer models. It's a double-standard usually not shared by their male counterparts.