From The Star Tribune - Minneapolis-St. Paul - July 7, 2006

MAXIMUM EXPOSURE: STARLETS BARE ALL IN MEN'S MAGS

Men's magazines serve as a step on the show-biz ladder. Why do celebrities grin and bear it?

by Neal Justin

I was standing at a magazine rack recently, searching for my usual fare -- you know, the New Yorker, the Economist, Solar Power Today -- when my eyes inadvertently landed on FHM, one of those wildly popular laddie mags.

There, dressed in itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, hot-pink underwear, was Kristin Chenoweth.

I almost fell back into the self-help section.

The 37-year-old "West Wing" veteran won a Tony for playing Sally in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." She was Marian the Librarian in a TV version of "The Music Man." She pitches for Old Navy. Her last album consisted of Christian spirituals. What was she doing on the cover, wearing little more than a big, toothy grin?

Raising her profile, of course.

"Laddie mags," a term borrowed from jollier olde England, are a surefire way to get your face -- and the rest of you -- across America.

FHM, the genre's most successful title worldwide, came stateside in 2000 and crossed the million-a-month sales mark by 2002. Its biggest rival, Maxim, boasts a circulation of 2.5 million and a worldwide readership of 13.7 million. Maxim is so hot right now that it's lending its name to a $1.2 billion hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

"We literally create careers for people," said Jimmy Jellinek, who was named Maxim's editor-in-chief in May after leading the charge at its spinoff Stuff. "We can take an album and make it go platinum. If you're just coming up, we'll make you a big star. If you're already a big star, we'll make you a household name. We're into macro, not micro."

Jellinek said the combination of big names with little lingerie is a way to reach young males, a group coveted by advertisers.

"You've got four seconds to capture a reader's attention at the newsstand, and the best way to do that is with beautiful women they admire," he said. "It's all about the name, the name, the name. What they're wearing or how much they're wearing is irrelevant."

Not that the mags want anyone posing in a snowmobile suit. It seems as if celebs are expected to choose between Catholic schoolgirl skirts, hot pants, bikinis or nothing at all, with hands covering the naughty parts.

The stars say it can be a lot of fun.

"It's great to feel like a sexpot for the day," said Jennifer Love Hewitt, who has twice graced the cover of Maxim. "I'm a normal person and I'm never going to look like that unless there's five hours of hair and makeup and a great photographer, so it's fun to have those pictures so you can look back and say, 'Huh, I was hot for an hour.' "

Former "Frasier" star Jane Leeves decided to pose for Maxim in 2000, in part to record how she looked before having kids.

"I was a dancer. I worked hard for my body and reaped the results of it," she said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with it, as long as it's done with a sense of humor and a little wink."

Jillian Barberie, who does the weather for Fox-TV's NFL broadcasts and participated in "Skating With Celebrities," said she turned down requests from the lad mags for years, worried that it might add to her reputation as someone coasting on her looks. Then she changed her mind.

"I found out that the naysayers would always be critical anyways," she said. "If people think I look a certain way, and it's sexy, then what the hell. It was a decision I made for myself and I loved it."

Saying 'no' to Playboy

But like many celebrity cover girls, Barberie hasn't hopped on the "bunny" path.

When she was negotiating a deal with a major network, one of the first things it wanted to know was whether she had posed nude for Playboy. They were relieved to find out she had gotten an offer, but had passed.

There's still a huge gap between flashing a little skin and exposing one's entire body. Wrestler Stacy Keibler turned down Playboy twice, but has appeared in a leather bra and panties for Stuff.

Deborah Gibson, a popular pop singer in the 1980s, did opt to appear in Playboy. She said the shoot was less provocative than some stage shows in which she has performed.

"My friends were actually more shocked to see me in 'Cabaret,' " she said. "If you're living in the real world, in changing times, it's not shocking. Nudity has become kind of passé. When I was approving the photos, I wasn't as concerned about the shape of my body as I was with what was going on in my eyes, because I was very comfortable and I wanted that to come across."

The March 2005 shoot also was instrumental in helping Gibson shed more than her clothes. Despite her stage credentials, most people still think of her as the teenage mall rat, singing such bubblegum pop as "Only in My Dreams."

"To acknowledge that you've changed, to feel the freedom to change the rules as you go along, that's liberating," she said. "You don't want to get stuck in the image that maybe you even bought yourself."

Gibson is not alone. Others who have shaken up their image by posing fully nude or barely dressed include Tiffany, Kirsten Dunst, Jessica Biel ("Seventh Heaven"), Lacey Chabert ("Party of Five"), Melissa Joan Hart ("Sabrina the Teenage Witch") and Pamela Anderson (she used to be such a sweet, innocent girl).

No pay, just good play

Playboy does offer celebrities one fringe benefit that they won't get from Maxim: a paycheck, sometimes north of $1 million.

While the lad mags don't offer a cent to their stars, the payoff in publicity can be priceless.

Keibler was a significant name for years among pro-wrestling fans. But she said it was a cover appearance on Stuff that landed her an agent and a role on "Dancing With the Stars."

Jaime Pressly was more known for her photo shoots than her movie roles before landing a juicy part on the sitcom "My Name Is Earl."

Nonetheless, she downplays the role the mags had on her career. "I never looked at it like I was the girl from Maxim or Stuff. I looked at it as press for whatever I was promoting at the time," said the star of such cinematic classics as "Joe Dirt" and "The Karate Dog."

Rebecca Romijn, one of Maxim's most popular cover models, said it's all part of the game.

"You're sort of required to do them," she said. "Every actor sort of does what they can to hawk their project. It's part of your professional obligation."

It's a relationship that is likely to continue. Sales were down for most magazines in the second half of 2005, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, including five of the six parenting mags, five of the eight health/fitness mags and 18 of the 21 shelter mags. But numbers are up -- sometimes way up -- for periodicals featuring celebrities in provocative poses.

That's why you saw a topless Jennifer Aniston last fall in GQ (up nearly 5 percent in sales), reminding Brad Pitt what's he missing. That's why a naked Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson were draped across a foldout cover of Vanity Fair (up 8 percent). That's why Playboy (down 1.5 percent) hired away former Maxim executive editor James Kaminsky, who is promising more celebrities -- and a bit more clothing -- in future issues.

It's hard to say how far this will go, but if you see Ann Coulter on the cover of U.S. News & World Report in a nightie, don't say we didn't warn you.