Elizabeth Hurley: Elizabeth's Reign

The extraordinarily beautiful, tirelessly stylish Elizabeth Hurley clears away several misconceptions about her--that she started out a model, that she goes to parties minus underwear--and also talks about her new movie, Permanent Midnight, her relationship with Hugh Grant and her just-wrapped movie with Matthew McConaughey, Ed TV.

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Most people seem to think they know who Elizabeth Hurley is. I thought I did until I read up on her for this interview. When I actually looked at where she's come from, I realized that a lot of what I'd simply assumed about her simply wasn't so. Perhaps you, too, are confused about who Elizabeth Hurley is. In fact, how could you not be? She holds a half dozen jobs. She's the fabulous-looking Estee Lauder model. She's Hugh Grant's longtime girlfriend. She's the actress who starred as a go-go spy girl opposite Mike Myers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. She was the producer of Grant's medical thriller Extreme Measures. And she's the international party girl who gets gussied up to the nines and appears regularly in paparazzi shots and gossip columns.

The truth is, Hurley has always been an actress first. As soon as she got out of high school in London, she did commercials to put herself through acting classes. At 21, she made her big-screen debut in Bruce Beresford's segment of the directors' gallery multipart 1987 film Aria and got parts in TV series like Inspector Morse. At 22, she won raves for playing a thom-studded English rose living in Nazi Germany in the BBC's Christabel, Dennis Potter's adaptation of Christabel Bielenberg's memoir. Her career was on the upswing. And not only that--she'd fallen in love with Hugh Grant, her costar from a low-budget Spanish movie she'd made the previous year. Nevertheless, she decided to pack her bags and head to Hollywood. For two years she slogged through auditions, but when the most notable result of her efforts turned out to be the role of a terrorist opposite Wesley Snipes in Passenger 57, she headed back to England.

That's where everything really began. In 1994, Hurley accompanied Hugh Grant to the London premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral wearing a low-cut, form-hugging, held-together-with-safety-pins Versace number that caused a publicity sensation second only, perhaps, to Marilyn Monroe's upwardly mobile flounces over the subway grating in The Seven Year Itch. Within a year, Estee Lauder made a multimillion dollar offer for Hurley to be their new face. Then came a deal with Castle Rock that allowed Hurley to expand the London-based production company she ran with Grant. There was even a Hollywood acting gig in the works, Dangerous Ground with Ice Cube. Things looked grand for Hurley. Then the bomb dropped. On June 27, 1995, Grant was arrested off Sunset Boulevard for hiring a prostitute to give him sexual services in his BMW. The scandal swept right through the tabloids and out into the mainstream press like a Malibu brush fire. Still, the Estee Lauder and Castle Rock deals held. So did the Hurley-Grant relationship.

As I rap on the door of a suite in one of Manhattan's quietest, most expensive hotels, all these images of the celebrity Hurley are running through my brain. Then the real Hurley greets me, invites me inside and welcomes me with great verve, impeccable good manners and what feels like completely unforced warmth. She is tawny, slim and come-hither in a sleeveless blouse, narrow slacks and sandals, and her voice is rich and plummy. Instantly liking her, I tease her about the Nabokovian pseudonym she's registered under, and, using the fictional code name (not Lolita), I ask, "Shall I call you L---?" Hurley laughs and fires back, "Sure, and I'll call you Baby." Fine with me.

After raiding the minibar and ordering enough room service dinner for four, we settle into a big couch and I begin by asking her if she had any inkling what kind of fame she was jumping into when she fastened those Versace safety pins four years ago. Laughing, then downing a bracing belt of her alcoholic beverage, she declares, "That dress was a favor from Versace because I couldn't afford to buy one. His people told me they didn't have any evening wear, but there was one item left in their press office. So I tried it on and that was it. So much for career machinations and forethought."

"Surely you must have known that gown would raise a few eyebrows, though," I say.

"Virtually everything that's happened in my career has happened inadvertently," she replies. "I've never understood all the attention. Never."

Hurley's ease of tone as she says this doesn't lead me to believe she's being anything but honest here. Still, the sheer volume of press she generates--most of which includes photos of her at some event--makes her claim of inadvertence seem rather disingenuous. I ask how it happens she's always dressed cover-girl ready in furs, diamonds and risque gowns. When I proffer newspaper clippings and photos testifying to her status as a brilliantly strategic show pony, she rolls her eyes and shakes her head in wonder, then finally says, "I love glamorous women. Hugh adores glamour, as well. I'm completely behind women dressing up and looking as good as they can. I could go out in a gray frump's frock, but I suit orange much better than I suit gray."

Hurley seems to believe her film career is just as "inadvertent" as her celebrity profile. "I get roles more because of chance than because of clever calculation," she declares. "For instance, thanks to Austin Powers I'm earning more money acting than I have before and getting better scripts. But that film was not what I feel comes naturally to me. I'm actually a more melancholy, more serious actress. I mean, in England I got known for very sad, dramatic, quite heavy emotional BBC dramas. But my goal is always: better films to act in, better directors, more varied movies and roles."

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