By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
September 15, 1998
The October issue of Playgirl screams “Leonardo DiCaprio Nude!” But that’s not the whole truth.
The slender star did not pose nude for the magazine. Rather, the magazine printed stills from 1995’s “Total Eclipse,” a little-seen art-house film in which he portrayed bisexual poet Arthur Rimbaud.
The lowdown on what you will see: some blurry views of Leo’s butt, as well as a couple of stills of him kissing a male co-star. His naughty bits are well-hidden from any prying camera.
The pictorial reads like a racy issue of Tiger Beat, complete with breathless factoids such as: “Skinny Leonardo doesn’t like that his arms are rail thin so he’s considering weight training. His grandmother also thinks he’s too thin and should come over to her place for some home cooking.”
This week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly also features the skinny on Leo, but it focuses on his acting. Go figure.
It’s talk show host Conan O’Brien who graces the cover in the main feature, “Late Night’s King of Cool.” Best line: “People say, `Wow, the show’s getting really good,’ ” huffs (Conan sidekick Andy) Richter. “Screw you! The show’s always been good.”
Also good is a touching tribute to filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, who died on Sept. 6.
Le Francais, Charlie Trotter’s and the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel are three of the top restaurants in the United States and Canada, according to a survey published in the October issue of Gourmet. Readers evaluated more than 3,500 restaurants, judging food, presentation, service, ambience and wine lists.
No, that’s not Farrah Fawcett on the cover of the October issue of Details. It’s former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson aping the pinup poster that helped catapult the former “Charlie’s Angel” to infamy. Quoth Anderson, “Somehow or other I always end up naked. Or in a bathing suit. Or underwater.” Uh, OK.
More interesting is the excerpt from Jackie Chan’s autobiography I Am Jackie Chan. The glib persona Chan has cultivated in his films belies the sacrifices he made. He writes in the book that his childhood instructor told his parents, “I will have complete responsibility for the boy. I will feed, clothe and shelter him at my own expense. I will provide for his care and protection, and I
will give him the finest training in the world in an art that surpasses all others: the art of Chinese opera.” Chan remembered, “I didn’t realize it at the time, but from that day on I would be the property of the China Drama Academy. I was 7 years old.”
