More Sexy Beasts

Allow me to begin by once again (and once again and once again?) stating my emotional and psychological tilt toward women. For their humor. For their charm. For their warmth. For their gentleness. For their sweetness. For their good-naturedness. For their vivaciousness. Truly, the Paul Rudd character in the successful big-screen “bromance” I Love You, Man and I are, to quote Rudd in the film, “girlfriend guys.”

All this is said as a way of introducing the fact that I was recently looking through my (vast) magazine collection and, in perusing the (very) various back issues, I came across two different magazine issues that especially stand out, that particularly speak to me, that rise upward like rockets and shoot their sparks throughout the cosmos. Those magazine issues are, respectively, the August 2003 issue of Heart & Soul magazine with its cover story on my girl Robin Givens and the June 2004 issue of Femme Fatales magazine with its story on my other girl, former Baywatch babe Traci Bingham.

First up, Heart & Soul on Robin. The writer, Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn (who, in the magazine’ s list of “Contributors,” describes her session with Robin as “[c]oming face to face with the most popular girl in high school” and “like meeting up with the girl you thought you knew everything about, but [then] realizing how much you have in common”), begins with a quite stylish quote from Robin (”I feel okay now…I know what I want instead of what you think you’ re supposed to have. I know what makes me happy.”). Littlejohn goes on to report that, from the moment she met Robin at her hotel–and this was surprising to discover, considering the wholesale bashing Robin had gotten from much of the media up to that point–she was “relaxed and friendly.” Robin bore this out by sharing with Littlejohn, and us, an amusing and amiable telling of what happened when she stayed up late while her two sons were in Kentucky with their grandmother, Ruth Givens(”I didn’ t know what to do, so I’ m just staring at the TV, thinking, ‘This will put me to sleep.’ And I’ m just sitting there!”). Then, Littlejohn tells of–and this, also, is a surprise to find out about, since a great deal of the media had really pounded upon Robin up until then–”fans beginning [sic] to take notice–gawking, waving and doing random drive-bys, yelling, ‘You look good, girl!’” Following is a sensitive and stylish sum-up of where Robin stood at that point (”At 38, Robin Givens is a woman reborn, clearly revelling in a new sense of self outside the Hollywood spotlight–a nascent inner tranquility that comes from embracing life’ s simpler things…Robin Givens is a Catholic mamma’ s girl, a big sister and a doting mother who is no longer defined by the trappings of a box-office-driven career. Acting is now simply what she does.”). After a while, she deftly articulates how it felt to grow up sans a father (”It was a big thing to have a single mom and not have your dad around…you just feel this sort of unworthiness, and the pattern begns there…If you’ re not good enough for the first man in your life to stay, then why should any of them stay?”). From there, Littlejohn expertly recaps Robin’ s past (”Givens has long been known for her love life, beginning with a romance with a Saturday Night Live comic named Eddie Murphy. She’ s had public romances with Brad Pitt and tennis pros Murphy Jensen and Svetozar Marinkovic, whom she married and quickly separated from.”). Littlejohn also tells of Robin’s courting and marrying Mike Tyson, culminating in relating the couple’ s “misguided” 20/20 interview by Barbara Walters (Robin, by the way, looks absolutely lickable in the two accompanying photos, first clad in a sumptuous L’impasse white floral gown, then posed in an ingratiatingly girlish way and wearing an Anja Flint faded olive jersey dress–the latter pose used on the DVD of Flip the Script, a very funny and very humanistic romantic comedy wherein she was the leading lady). Littlejohn follows that up with a deft sum-up of Robin’ s career post-Tyson (”She starred in TV projects such as The Women of Brewster Place and The Penthouse“–literally the best made-for-television film ever, mostly because of her–”and she was her way to box-office stardom with critically applauded roles as Imabelle in 1991′ s A Rage in Harlem and the next year as Jacqueline Broyer in Boomerang“–the latter being her greatest filmic performance). Some time later, Littlejohn warmly relates Robin’ s relationship with her sons, quoting the Lifetime network’ s Intimate Portrait executive producer Tiffany McLinn as contending: “[Robin and her sons are] like the Three Musketeers. Robin was raised by a single mother and takes on that role quite easily and effortlessly…[S]he is first and foremost a mom, not an actor.” A bit further on, after reporting Robin’ s then-present, which was made up of producing the show Uninvited for The Heritage Networks and upon the “playfulness that carries her through the nine-hour day of primping, prodding and poking [at a photo shoot]–and never once is there a diva moment,” Littlejohn quotes Robin’ s then-Head of State co-actor Chris Rock as compassionately asserting, regarding her past: “You don’ t want to see anyone judged for things that happended in their 20s…We’ ve all done things in our 20s.” Still later, after perceptively pointing out: “[W]hile Robin Givens may not have always been in fashion, she has always been popular,” she cites our girl as thoughtfully contending: “I know what it is to feel like you’ re lost and what’ s the point of living. And I know that if you hang in there, He’ ll work it out for you.” Littlejohn’ s very alert and very insightful article concludes on an up note with Robin saying: “You know when little stuff would bother you? Now it’ s like ‘This is me. Take it. Leave it.’ It’ s feeling comfortable in your own skin. As a woman.”