Tori Spelling: Spelling it Out

"I cringe at C_o-ed Call Girl_," Spelling admits. "I just thought about my 90210 image and was like, 'What's the farthest I can get away from being the good virgin?' Also, it's always been a dirty little fantasy of mine to be a stripper. I didn't get a fair shot at it in Co-ed, though. See, I'd gone to a couple of strip clubs and wasn't impressed. With a lot of dancers it's about sex and grinding and doing it. But I also saw a girl who had a beautiful body and was a beautiful dancer. When I had to strip in Co-ed, [the producers] said, 'Just do a little thing, you don't have to really dance,' I could have done a lot better than that. So, even if the movie I did wasn't so hot, whatever success I have, I feel like I deserve it because I've tried so hard. I've always tried so hard."

Despite all Spelling's efforts to grow up, get grounded and be treated with respect, petty rumors swirl around her relentlessly. Like the one about how she supposedly paid several thousand dollars' worth of fines for taking her beloved pooch on the people elevator instead of the freight elevator in her ultraluxe condo high-rise.

When I ask Spelling about this, she whips out a wallet photo of pet Grade, an abandoned dog she rescued, rehabilitated and adopted while filming The House of Yes. "I won't take her in the freight elevator," she admits. "But," she adds, "that's become kind of an exaggerated bullshit story in the tabloids. There was a rule in the building that you couldn't take animals on the regular elevator, so I got together with other people in the building who have dogs and we were like, 'Look, we pay to live in this nice building, why should we go down a separate elevator?' Now they've compromised. What bothers me, though, is that whoever leaked that had to be somebody who works in the building."

OK. What about the story that her pet parrot bit her, which resulted in a suspicious nose wound? That one's true, too. "Birds get really nervous if you don't give them all your attention, and they attack you," explains Spelling. "I used to come home and kiss her, going, 'Hi, Charlie bird,' and I guess I was a little late. She bit me, and there was blood running everywhere. I called my mom and said, 'I think I have to go to the hospital.' I gave Charlie to my makeup artist and she's fine now. She never bites."

For a finale I need to check out the more flamboyant rumor that Spelling got so merry at the landmark Beverly Hills restaurant Trader Vic's that she didn't make it to the powder room. "You heard a rumor that I couldn't make it to the bathroom at Trader Vic's to throw up?" she says, clasping her hands to her mouth and giggling. No, I explain. Not to throw up... "That I peed at Trader Vic's? Ohhh, sick! I've peed in some great places, but Trader Vic's is not one of them. I'm queen of the sidewalk and parking lot, though."

What does Spelling want out of life that makes an existence full of rumors like these worth it? Stardom? "Everyone on 90210 got to be as big a celebrity as you can get," she observes. "Having been where people take notice of you, I can tell you it's a tough road. I'd rather take great parts and not be a huge thing where you can't walk down the street without someone saying, 'Who's she with?' If people notice me, great, but if they don't, it's even better. Once I was sitting somewhere and two girls were staring at me. One said, 'That's her,' and the bitchy one said, 'No, she just wishes she were Tori Spelling. Look at her trying to copy Tori's style.'"

Speaking of style, what's with the buzz that Spelling emulates everything Drew Barrymore does--the hair, the clothes, the career moves? "Why did you bring that up?" she asks, eyes hyperalert. "Is that a rumor? Drew is one of the only people I'm friends with, but I also think of her as one of my idols. I love how free she is, how she says whatever she wants, goes wherever she wants. Actually, after Boys on the Side I did my hair like hers with the curls, but it looked way better on her."

I ask Spelling about another relationship in her life, the prolonged romantic, psychodramatic relationship with Nick Savalas that ended five years ago. For a while, her quarrels with Savalas were tabloid gold. I personally witnessed one of their spats years ago in a Santa Monica restaurant. Spelling was taking Savalas's boorish abuse while everyone in the place wanted to deck the little punk. The whole incident screamed Damaged Self-Esteem. How could she stand it?

"I was a young, naive girl. 'Codependent' is probably the best word," Spelling begins. "It was my first adult relationship. I was out there on my own for the first time, in my own apartment, and I was like 'I'm going to prove everyone wrong about this guy. I'm going to change him.' I would sit at home and cry all the time." Shaking her head in disbelief at who she was back then, she adds, "I'm not one of those women who are man-haters. I have no bitterness toward men, even though I've had some not-so-great relationships. There are some good ones out there, I'm sure." Does she still have a problem staying away from the bad ones? "Oh, yeah, but the degree of badness is lessening as I get older. They all have to have an edge, but now they don't have to be horrible guys. When you're in a relationship where you feel bad about yourself, you start to feel that no one else would want you."

How did the doting parents deal with seeing their only daughter heartbroken? "They were heartbroken," she recalls. "I'm glad my dad never had [Savalas] shot or anything like that."

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