In our Sex Stars on 1979, we predicted big things for Canadian model D.D.Winters.

It took awhile, but eventually, she proved our point. As alter-ego Vanity, she

snagged a stint as Prince's paramour and the sultry siren of Vanity 6, a trio

whose self-entitled album spawned the smash "Nasty GIrl". Then came two solo

Motown LP's Wild Animal and Skin On Skin and movies such as 52 Pick Up and

Berry Gordy's "The Last Dragon", in which she played a video jock with an eye

for singles. People are always saying to me, "Don't move around so much, just

stand still," she says. "But I have alot of energy."




Vanity's new movie, Action Jackson, is a thriller co-starring Carl Weathers;
she plays a coked-up chanteuse trying frantically to derail from the fast
lane. To prepare for the part, the singer-cum-Method actress dived deep into
the sorid underbelly of L.A., talking to addicts and pimps ("They're drowsy
but real sharp"). "It's the best role I've ever had-I get to be funny, cool,
energetic. And I've got a lot of that crazy personality in me already." The
film boasts her rendition of a steamy song, "Undress". I'ts not a request she
usually has to make twice. "I'd like to say. "Hey, everybody, take your clothes
off and relax." I feel my most comfortable when I'm naked."

After falling for her at the American Music Awards, Prince dubbed her VANITY.
"He said to me that we were each other in another life, and I believe that."
Until recently, the king of her heart was Nikki Sixx, who seemed for a time
be doubling on the wedding bells. "We defintely plan to marry within a year,"
Vanity told us when we first spoke to her in Rome, where she was hosting
the TV variety show Fantastico. The next week, the romance was kaput. But
nothing is likely to slow the vivacious Vanity down. And she's nothing if
not verstile. "When I go away to act, my singing misses me; when I make an
album, my acting misses me. I've just always been on stage. I think I'm a
natural-born performer." Although she feels the two careers compliment each
other--she doesn't hesitate to pick favorites: "I think that at this point
in my life, definitely much better at acting." Vanity relaxes by painting
"surrealist" canvases, many of them brazenly erotic. She also intends to write
her own film this year, and, she says, there's another album in the works.
What about another movie? "Definitely."


Q: As a child you dreamed of being a star?


V: Yes when I started looking at television and going
to the movies and stuff like that. But really when I
was a child I wanted to be a lawyer. I think that was
just to make my daddy proud of me. But as a teenager
when I started to going to the movies and to concerts I
decided I wanted to sing. Plus I could always sing. I
used to sing in the church choir.



Q: Did the performers that you went to see inspire you?


V: I would think, "I'd like to be up there". And I wasn't
really a big fan of anybody's. I wanted to be on the other
side. I wanted to entertain people. And I love the enjoyment
that people get out of it.



Q: So when did you first get the opportunity to feel the
warmth of applause?


V: Through Prince.



Q: Before that you'd never been on stage?


V: No.



Q: So your dreams of becoming a star began to show a
glimmer of reality through your association with Prince?


V: Right.



Q: So we know the story of how you met Prince backstage at
the American Music Awards. How did you get the guts to
approach him? What did you say?


V: Nothing. I didn't know who he was.



Q: So what transpired?


V: He just kept following me around, bugging me. He wanted
to wear my clothes. He called me that night late, three or
four in the morning and I cursed him out. I told him that if
wanted to call me he could do so at a decent hour. The next
morning he called me at ten o'clock and asked me out on a
date. I told him since I didn't know him I would only go out
on a date with him if we double dated.



Q: So who went with you?


V: Morris Day.



Q: Great Chaperon! You seem to be such a romanticist, what is
your astroligical sign?


V: Capricorn.



Q: Your a super talent. You paint, act, sing, write music, what
type of training prepared you for these various endeavors?


V: Nothing except a little training.



Q: Once you began singing lead for Vanity 6 did you take any
voice lessons at that time?


V: A few, I had a voice coach.



Q: And you had critics who fancied you for a pretty face with
little talent.


V: Oh sure, but that doesn't bother me. I've been taking flack
ever since I was born. I've been hearing "Oh she's beautiful
but she's dumb, she can't do anything else." You know I don't
try to prove myself to the world. Right now I'm proving something
to me. And the most important thing to me in my life is art,
and I can do that. That is a natural God given talent. If I'm
not a good actress to someone or I'm not a good singer, I'm
not there to please them. I'm here to please myself first and
if they enjoy me, get a kick out of me, fine. I'm a clown and
I love to put on the outfits and play. But when it's really
serious and when it's really me, it's sitting down in there
and getting into my head(gestures to room with artwork)which
is another side of me that people really don't know about.



Q: Are you kind of private?


V: Real private. That's my life on canvas both my lives. The
Vanity 6, the wild animal in black and the other in pastel
represents the real soft,low-key, relaxed Christian. That's
where my real talent lies. I would retire doing that. That
makes me happiest. That's so far from the bullshit.



Q: What about your education, did you finish high school?


V: No. I was fifteen when my daddy died. After that I left home
and was on my own. I moved to seven different cities, I even
lived in Tokyo.Life has been my education.Growing up that's
where the acting comes in. When I was a kid my father owned
two junkyards. I played in the woods and I was a wild kid.
I climbed trees and I was like a boy, my daddy's boy.


Q: The costumes for Vanity 6 created an instant sensation. Who
came up with the concept of wearing lingerie?


V: Prince. He loved lingerie, I loved lingerie.



Q: What was your immediate reaction to the idea?


V: My reaction was to put clothes over the lingerie and to take
those coverups off during the act. I added the capes and the
tuxedo jacket and the long boots.



Q: Did you co-write the song "Nasty Girl"?


V: Sort of, I came up with the idea before I was even singing.
Prince would call me up late at night after a gig and we'd
talk for hours, until five and six in the morning. So I told
him that I came up with a song and I gave him the lyrics and
he wrote them down. So I wrote it but I wasn't thinking about
a band or anything like that. I was living in New York and
when the man called and asked me to move to Minneapolis, I said
"what?!" Because I had just moved to New York to become a star.



Q: Did you move to Minneapolis?


V: Yeah. I did. As a matter of fact I moved the next week.



Q: Did you live at his residence, the purple mansion?


V: For awhile. But he no longer lived there, he has many houses
now.



Q: Was there any apprehension about getting involved with this
individual who wanted to expose your body and sensulaity to
the world, what was your gut feeling?


V: I was scared. It was a total drastic change in my life.
It was a shock but at the same time it was like, "Oh God,
this is really happening, now what do I do?"



Q: Is it true that in searching for the perfect name for his
new protege', Prince suggested the name Vagina?


V: Yes it's true. You didn't believe it huh? Oh, he told me I
was going to be Vagina, I told him that I was not going to be
embarassed. He said, "You can spell it Vagena, please." He
started begging then. It's shock treatment. Prince likes to
shock people.



Q: Weren't you cast as the lead in Purple Rain?


V: It was a project I wrote for Prince and The Time. We spent a
a couple of months with the director and then I didn't do it.



Q: Why?


V: Personal Reasons.One major reason was because I wanted to
change my life again. I felt I needed to be on my own and not
with a group, and I needed to make my own decisions.



Q: Well apparently the decision didn't affect your career
adversely, you've made three major films since that time.
So in comes the new leading lady, Apollonia. Where the fans
confused by the switch? Didn't your identities get mistaken?


V: Yes, it was to be expected. Though we're two completely
different people. But it's the look and the rumours, but it
never bothered me. And Apollonia has always been quite
nice to me.



Q: At the 1985 American Music Awards Prince had been nominated
for several awards and every act associated with Prince seemed
to be present including yourself.


V: I remember being so happy to announce the award for Purple
Rain. I only agreed to present the award because I wanted to
show him that I still loved him. And he was shocked because
here's Vanity giving him the award for Purple Rain, it didn't
make any sense.



Q: You had on an outfit that was very similiar to his.


V: I know, wasn't that amazing, he saw mine first.
Check it out. I mean we think alike.



San Francisco- "I know this is the right key," a Tri-Star Pictures publicist sighs
while trying in vain to unlock the door to the hotel suite occupied by Vanity, in
town to promote to promote her role in a film called The Last Dragon.


"I hate to do this," says the publicist, knocking loudly on Vanity's door.
"Because I don't think she's quite ready yet."


When there's no response, the door is tried once more and immediately springs
open. Standing a few feet away is Vanity herself clad only in a see-through
pink lace teddy. She lets out a high pitched "Oopps!", then prances back into
her bedroom. What a way to start off an interview session with one of the most
striking women in the entertainment business.


Since parting ways with Prince and the Vanity6 combo in 1983, the singer/actress
has done little to soften her bad girl image. Her first solo album called
Wild Animal, yielded the suggestive single, "Pretty Mess." Then came her part
in The Last Dragon, a Motown production presented by Tri-Star.


"I like juggling acting and singing," says Vanity, after slipping into a silk
skirt and sport coat. "And in this film, I just wanted to be good."


She defintely is the best thing in The Last Dragon. On her role as a video DJ
named Laura Charles, Vanity says,"I'ts all supposed to be fun. Laura dresses
they way I dress and is very much like my personality. If I was a kid and into
Vanity, I'd go see it."


"I grew up in a very strict enviorment in Ontario," offers Vanity, when asked
about the roots of her wild nature. "It was very good for me. I learned the
highs and lows of life very young. I got experience very young-becoming the
bitch, losing the bitch, then leaving home when I was 15."


Shifting from Montreal to New York to Japan, Vanity worked mostly as a model.

She aspired to be a singer and an actress. but by 1981 had made no great strides

towards either of these goals.



"I ended up in L.A.," she says,"and went crying to my agent. I was worried about
my career. I wanted things to come faster. He told me, "Don't worry, baby. Your
day will come. Here are two tickets to the American Music Awards. Go enjoy
yourself." And wouldn't you know it, that night I met The Kid.


Vanity continues,"We started dating and got really involved before I did anything
musically with him. Prince was like my teacher. It was like going to school
the school of Prince, I suppose. He opened up some real fantasy worlds inside
me that needed to be awakened. I was very lucky.. Then one day, he said to me,
"I want to put together a group around you." I was shocked, because I didn't
expect it. But to Prince, I suppose it was a dream."



This group, VANITY 6, included two other women - Brenda and Susan. They
performed in skimpy lingerie as the opening attraction on Prince's 1999 tour, then
cut a self-titled album on Warner Brothers. "Nasty Girl", "Wet Dream", and

"Bite the Beat" were a few of their memorable tracks.


Regarding the birth of her name, Vanity reveals, "At first Prince wanted to call me
Vagina. Even though he pronounced it Va-geana, that would have been too weird."
His next choice was Vanity. I liked that."



Using her exposure with Prince as a springboard, Vanity launced a solo career
in late '83 and recorded her own album, Wild Animal. Vanity says, "I just had
to do. I wanted to paint something that totally mine."


Vanity speaks highly of Berry Gordy,"He's given me all the freedom I need,"
"I've also been able to go to him like a father."



Even in the wake of the enormous commercial success of Purple Rain,
Vanity says, "I don't regret branching out on my own. But you know, the

female character in Purple Rain was mine. I wrote some of her dialog, some of

of his dialog. We all shared very much. And now Apollonia has, well, a chance

to be big. Prince gave her a shot. Now it's up to her."


Looking at the options now open to Vanity, she says,"I'd love to do some stage
work, but I think I'm probably a better actress than I am a singer. I don't
have a huge range. I'm not sure I could ever be a great singer, but I want to
be a great actress."



Later this year, she begins work on 'Never Too Young To Die'. "I get to play a spy,
the lead," she says. "It should be fun and because it's being filmed in L.A.,
I'll get the chance to spend a lot of time at home."



A Westwood resident for the past few years, Vanity says, "Mmmmmm, I like it

down there. I thought I'd hate it 'cause I lived so long in New York, but

L.A. is great and, you know, I just bought a new car, a grey and black XJS Jaguar.,

I've never had my own car before. Back home in Canada, I just used to drive my

family's trucks and tractors. Now with my own car, I can scoot around L.A.

and it's so warm. L.A. brings out something different in me, the glamorous side
of me."


"I want to write a film script someday,"Vanity continues. "And I will. I wrote the
the script for "Pretty Mess". Even though I had to rush it, I think it's cute
and...pretty. I like to show that side rather than the Raquel Welch Of Rock and Roll
side, which I don't mind, but I want to bring something unique to rock and movies.
I want to help bring back glamour."

Great article. Thanx, Goldi.

I liked that! She seems so sweet and geniune. I understand what she meant when she said became a b***h. Sometimes a hard life can bring that out in you. Life can make you hard sometimes. You learn a lot from those times. It doesn't mean you have turned rotten to the core. It just means that you have to learn to survive. I really liked that article!

I noticed you lifted this from my site. Don't think I didn't notice you tried to be slick and combine to different articles. At least if you are going to use something credit where you got it from...Same with your avatar.

Serveitupfrankie*

serveitupfrankie said:

okay first off i didnt try to combine the two articles, when i put them up i forgot to put a well enough spacing between them and of course i found it on a site where the hell else would I get it from? besides who the hell actually says where they found stuff from, besides i found the two of these articles like months ago and saved them on microsoft word. And my avatar what am i gonna do say in my singnature, by the way of you were wondering where i got my avatar from it was from this place?!?!?! It was a picture that i used as my avatar you know it scales it down for you.

I ask specifically if you use anything from my sites that you credit the site...Obviously you're guilty because you immediately changed your avatar

Servitupfrankie*

ewww!!! man when i read that i started thinkin "if one of my ghetto ass friends saw that they'd probly name their kid vagena"..lol
[This message was edited Wed Jun 23 23:28:34 2004 by Moonwalkbjrain]