Kelly Lynch: Naked Lynch

Kelly Lynch keeps her clothes on but lets down her hair to talk about what it's like working with leading men such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Patrick Swayze, Michael J. Fox and two of the Baldwin brothers.

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I'm about to meet Kelly Lynch at the Hotel Bel Air restaurant for lunch and, Frankly. I'm hoping I recognize her. It's not that the 34-year-old actress, who lives in L.A. with her screenwriter husband Mitch Glazer and nine-year-old daughter, Shane, has feiled to make an impression on the big screen. But am I meeting the brunette junkie from Drugstore Cowboy, the redheaded lesbian from Three of Hearts or the leggy blonde doctor from Road House? The bumper crop of press clippings I've collected isn't much help either, for in them the Former Elite model sports every look from '70s disco moll to topless Dorothy Hamill.

Perhaps she'll come in a newer incamation, left over from one of her three recent films. She could stroll in wearing a gunnysack in the spirit of the rural, slice-of-life flick The Beans of Egypt, Maine, or go retro like the glamour-minded '50s housewife she plays in the family drama Imaginary Crimes, or show up looking like the sexy wife of Alec Baldwin, her character in Phil Joanou's mystery thriller Heaven's Prisoners.

Turns out I was concerned for nothing. Regardless of what she's wearing, it would be pretty hard to miss Kelly Lynch. Poised at a table near the garden, dressed in avocado trousers and a matching sweater. Lynch is the picture of show-biz sophistication.

"I wasn't sure you'd be blonde," I say as she welcomes me to the table. But before she can reply, menus are thrust into our hands.

DENNIS HENSLEY: So, what's good for lunch here?

KELLY LYNCH: I might have a hamburger, I've been rehearsing with John Travolta and every day he has two lunches and dessert. Yesterday it was a hamburger, sushi and a huge piece of chocolate cake, but he looks and feels great--he doesn't care. It's so refreshing.

Q: Remember when he was all naked and bulled for Staying Alive?

A: He said he hated it. Life's too short. I don't exercise, I don't do anything and I'm thinking about having a cigarette. The more they tell me I can't do something, the more I want to.

Q: What's this movie you're rehearsing?

A: It's called White Man's Burden.

Q: Great title.

A: Isn't it? The funny thing is, that's what I call one of my girlfriends: white man's burden.

Q: So you're spending your afternoons with Tony Manero...

A: I can't believe I'm working with these guys. I mean. John Travolta. Tom Cruise, Michael J. Fox, Billy Baldwin, Alec Baldwin, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon. Hello? I told John that my favorite thing in Saturday Night Fever was him saying "Al Pacino" and doing the muscle thing in the mirror, and he did it for me. I've yet to get him to dance with me, though.

Q: Do you think a good dancer equals a good lover?

A: Absolutely. It's all about rhythm and so is sex.

Q: So, is your husband, screenwriter Mitch Glazer, a good dancer?

A: He's a great dancer. I could tell when I met him. He was with Sue Mengers and I was with my agents having one of those William Morris Agency lunches. You know.

Q: I have them all the time.

A: Exactly. You know how that goes. He came walking up to the table and I felt in love with him the second I saw him. I thought I'd pretend like I was not interested so I started shoveling food in my mouth. Then Sue Mengers and my husband-to-be sat down at their table and he said. "Who is that?" and Sue said. "You want that? I could get you that." It was really like she pimped for me. Sue.

Q: Does she get a percentage, like, for every 10 times you have him, she gets him once?

A: I'm sure she'd like to work that deal out.

Q: How did you end up getting together?

A: Mitch is shy and he doesn't ask women out, they ask him out. Well, I'm the diva, you ask me out. So I held out and he finally called me and a month later we moved in together.

Q: What was your first date like?

A: First, we talked on the phone for hours, He's so good-looking and I didn't really trust that--I've got all these had stereotypes about good-looking men, so it was great just to talk to him. When we had dinner the first time, he went to the bathroom 12 times. I thought he was a drug addict, but he was so nervous that he had to go throw water on his face, thick of something to say and come back.

Q: You once said, "I'll probably have 100 affairs with wonderful men and never fund one who can deal with me." You've obviously changed you tune.

A: I sure have. It's the last thing I expected. The parts of me that are the worst make him laugh and love me go figure. We've been together for five years and married for two.

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