Tori Spelling: Spelling it Out

Poor-little-rich-girl-everyone-loves-to-hate Tori Spelling is all grown up and hitting the big screen after most of her Beverly Hills 90210 cohorts have spun out. And guess what? She may be overstating the case when she says, "I think I turned out pretty normal," but she's good in the film, The House Of Yes.

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Tori Spelling is giggling like a schoolgirl in a shoulder-shaking, waving-her-hand-in-her-face, helpless kind of way. What's provoking such mirth? She's reading and reacting to the latest spew I've downloaded from the Internet, venomous rants from the public about how unattractive, untalented, undesirable and unnaturally endowed "Beverly Hills 90210" star Tori Spelling is, about how she'd be on the wrong side of a fast-food counter if she weren't the daughter of TV magnate Aaron Spelling. "Excuse me," Spelling gasps, coming up for air, "but I want to say to these people, 'Is all you have to talk about my boobs?"'

Why, exactly, is Spelling laughing? "Because I've sat there being catty about people I don't know," she explains. "I watch awards shows with my girlfriends, going, Omigod, she is kidding with that dress! Look at her tits hanging out. But," adds Spelling with another burst of laughter, "I was also thinking, 'I'm surprised they focused on my boobs, because I think my butt's much better!'"

You needn't consult the Net to hear people making cracks about Tori Spelling. If folks aren't complaining about her rich upbringing and how she used Daddy's connections to break into the business, they're making snarky remarks about how she's got a face only a father could love or how she's undergone so much cosmetic surgery you could make another starlet out of her spare parts. You've probably made some of the same comments yourself.

Spelling is wise to the loose talk about her. She's even aware of the single most spiteful Web site around--a boxing ring in which one can pummel a virtual Tori until she purples.

"I used to cry reading the Internet," Spelling says. "The thing that bothered me the most was when someone said, 'Did you see that new TV movie Tori Spelling was in? I'm sure her dad did it, because why else would anyone cast her?' I wrote back, 'I know someone who knows her, and her dad had nothing to do with that movie.'"

If you're starting to feel sorry for Tori Spelling, don't. She's laughing right back at her detractors these days. While critics and anti-fans have been carving her up, she's quietly carved out a career beyond Beverly Hills 90210. Unlike Luke Perry, who made a brouhaha about quitting the series to do feature films, Spelling made a string of TV movie hits, including A Friend to Die For and Co-ed Call Girl, and became prime-time movie gold. Now she's going for movie stardom. In the Sundance attention-getter The House of Yes, an independent picture that also stars Parker Posey and Genevieve Bujold, she plays a fresh-off-the-farm donut shop clerk.

Sure, Big Daddy did put up the cash for it, but Tori doesn't bump into any furniture, miss the laughs or seem incongruous even against such quirky heavyweights as Bujold. Hate and mock her all you want--at 24, Spelling is tiptoeing though showbiz's land mines far better than any of the actors she's ever shared a TV zip code with.

As I sit close up to Spelling at a terrace table at the Chateau Marmont, it hits me that the camera doesn't accentuate her positives. I would never have guessed that these (now) sienna-tinted tendrils, this defined jaw and these stricken-doe eyes could easily let her pass for Rene Russo's daughter. Seeing her in person, I don't feel it's all that implausible she could have a decent shot at the big screen. My question is, why did she choose an offbeat independent ensemble comedy to get her dad to produce for her?

"He financed it--he had no creative input," Spelling corrects me, sounding touchy. That point clarified, she continues, "I was attached to it before we went to my dad for financing. Parker Posey was already attached to it, and she is to-die-for. I met the playwright and thought it was a sick little script I really liked. I thought, 'Great, an independent feature and an ensemble cast.' When TV celebrities dive into starring roles in feature films it doesn't always seem to work out. We needed financing, and my dad liked it, but it wasn't because of me--I've taken other scripts to him that he turned down."

Did Daddy's girl get a shakedown from any of her costars? "I felt funny going in," she nods. "But, you know, we just clicked. Parker is totally eccentric, totally funny, and she kind of took me under her wing. The first time we rehearsed and read through the script, I was really nervous and Parker kept laughing, going, 'Genius casting.' Her telling me I was funny gave me confidence that I so appreciated."

And how did she find working with Bujold, who plays the weird matriarch of a weird East Coast family? "Scary," Spelling declares. "When I first met her I was really intimidated because she's such a big star. She was kind of quiet at first, almost like the character she plays, and I thought, Oh no. But we had some scenes alone together and she was right there. After shooting she wrote me a letter saying, 'I know it's really hard for you because of the baggage you carry, but you came in, you did this part, and you were wonderful to work with.' I have that letter in my photo album."

What does Spelling herself think of the quirky flick that deals with incest and mental illness? "It's the kind of movie you have to see a couple of times," she observes. "When we showed it at Sundance and my name came up, the reaction was like, 'What's she doing here?' They didn't want to like me. By the end they were just laughing, as they were supposed to, at everything I said. I'm glad I picked something that I could just blend into instead of being the lead. I think I made a good move."

Does this mean her days on the long-running TV series that made her a household name are numbered? "I say this under penalty of death, but no," she answers, giggling. "Even if it wasn't my dad, I would still stick with the show. [Without it] I wouldn't have the opportunities to do these things. I'll stick with the show for as long as it goes."

Spelling's respect for what a series can do for an actress may stem from the fact that she's been acting for close to 20 years. She knows all about the audition circuit. "I did stuff at age five for my dad, but I didn't start auditioning until I was 10. I'd walk into a room and find these little windup dolls, Stepford kids, all made up, with their parents telling them what to do. My mother couldn't bear it. But I was the type of kid that tried something new every week, like piano or skating, so when I said I wanted to act, my parents were supportive because they thought, 'OK, next week it'll be horseback riding lessons.'"

But acting stuck. Why? "I guess because I was so shy that acting was something I could use to come out, to talk to people," Spelling reflects. "I think I turned out fairly normal. I found out right away that I love entertaining people and making them laugh. What I really like to do best is comedy."

Spelling got close to comedy when she nearly won the role that went to Neve Campbell in the horror spoof Scream. But even if she does love comedy, she gravitates toward dark dramas, like the part she went up for but Liv Tyler will probably get in The Cider House Rules.

"I can't blame them," Spelling says of the producers who prefer Tyler. "I look at Liv Tyler and think, 'It's not fair,' because I can't find a flaw on her. And on top of that she seems nice, so it's really not fair. Anyway, I don't know if movies are the goal as much as just finding the right things to do. If something's good, I don't care what arena it's in. I love doing TV. If I found the right TV movies I'd stay with that. But if I got the name 'The New Valerie Bertinelli' or 'TV Movie Queen' I'd start to go, 'Uh-oh, have I done too many?'"

But let's discuss some of these TV movies.

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