Monday, March 12, 2007
Carmen Electra
Early life
Career
After moving to California, she met singer Prince (a Minneapolis native), who persuaded her to change her name to Carmen Electra. Soon after, she signed a recording contract with Paisley Park Records, Prince’s company, marking the start of a short-lived rap career. In 1995, Electra started appearing in various television programs. Then, in May of 1996 she was featured in a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine, the first of several. This exposure led to higher profile television appearances, including Baywatch (cast member from 1997-1998) and MTV’s Singled Out. She returned to Baywatch for the 2003 reunion movie, Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.
Electra has appeared in several films, such as Good Burger (1997), The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999), the horror spoof Scary Movie (2000) and also appeared in Scary Movie 4 (2006),Epic Movie(2007), and the remake of the 1970s TV show Starsky & Hutch (2004). She has also made cameo appearances as herself in the comedy American Dreamz. She regularly performed with the exotic dance troupe The Pussycat Dolls. Electra also created the highly successful Carmen Electra Aerobic Striptease series of DVDs which combines classic stripping moves with a low impact workout. Her most recent movie appearance is as Eugene Levy’s trophy wife in Cheaper by the Dozen 2.
Her acting work is regularly derided by critics; in the Roger Ebert review of the film Dirty Love,
“The Carmen Electra character, meanwhile, struts around like a “ho” in a bad music video, speaking black street talk as if she learned it phonetically, and pulling out a gun and holding it to a man’s head because she thinks, obviously, that pulling guns on guys is expected of any authentic black woman. A scene like that would be insulting in any other movie; here it possibly distracts her from doing something even more debasing”.
In 2005, she joined the voice cast of the animated series Tripping the Rift, replacing Gina Gershon as the voice of the sexy android “Six”. In late 2006, Carmen began to be featured in commercials by Taco Bell.
Electra is the current spokesmodel for Ritz Camera Centers, appearing in their television and print ads with CEO David Ritz. She is featured in some video spoofs of Lonelygirl15 that are advertising Epic Movie.
She is a playable character in the video game Def Jam: Fight for New York and is one of the celebrity challenges in the videogame, ESPN NFL 2K5, along with Steve-O, Jamie Kennedy, and others.
Public persona
Electra achieved notoriety during her on-again, off-again marriage to basketball star Dennis Rodman from 1998 to 1999. The wedding to Rodman took place at Little Chapel of the Flowers in Las Vegas, Nevada. Later, she had a brief affair with Tommy Lee, the ex-husband of Pamela Anderson. Borrowing another page from fellow Baywatch companion Anderson’s publicity playbook, Electra was quoted in August 2004 that she was thinking of having her breast implants removed. She told World Entertainment News Network,
I had nice breasts to begin with. They weren’t the biggest boobs, (but) I just think it was really trendy (to have implants) at a certain time, so I decided to do it. There are moments when I think it’s kind of silly and I wish I would’ve just stayed natural.
On Baywatch: “I never had my own name on a bathing suit on “Baywatch”. I was always given one that said Pamela (Anderson) or Yasmine (Bleeth). I earned my own suit, at the end of the season, which I now have framed”.
Personal life
On November 22, 2003, Electra married Dave Navarro, former lead guitarist for the rock band Jane’s Addiction. The couple documented their courtship and marriage in an MTV celebreality show called ‘Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave. In 2006, Electra claimed that when she was eight years old she had a lesbian crush on Joan Jett. She remembers especially lusting after Jett while watching the music video of “Do You Wanna Touch Me” where Jett opens a trenchcoat to reveal her bikini clad body. Electra claimed to also lust after supermodel Kate Moss: “I fancy Kate Moss. She has the best style. People need to give her a break. Yeah, I’d love to meet Kate. You can’t deny her beauty and her sexuality”. On 17 July 2006, she and Navarro announced their separation. Their rep confirmed their separation to Star Magazine. Electra filed for divorce on 10 August. It was finalized on February 20, 2007.
As a result of her mother’s death from a brain tumor, Electra cofounded Head to Hollywood with Ken Baker. It is “[a]n organization that brings brain-tumor patients and their families to Tinseltown for a VIP experience”.
Discography
- Carmen Electra, 1993
Single songs
- Fantasia Erotica
- Go Go Dancer
- Everybody Get Up
- 2-4-6-8 (Playboy’s Cheerleaders film contains a music video of the song)
Filmography
- An American Vampire Story (1997)
- Good Burger (1997) (uncredited)
- Starstruck (1998)
- The Chosen One: Legend of the Raven (1998)
- The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999)
- Christmas Vacation 2000 (1999)
- The Great White Dope (2000) (short subject)
- Scary Movie (2000)
- Welcome to Hollywood (2000) (documentary)
- Sol Goode (2001)
- Perfume (2001)
- Get Over It (2001)
- Rent Control (2002)
- Naked Movie (2002)
- Whacked! (2002)
- Uptown Girls (2003)
- My Boss’s Daughter (2003)
- Starsky & Hutch (2004)
- Mr. 3000 (2004) (Cameo)
- Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon (2004)
- Dirty Love (2005)
- Lil’ Pimp (2005) (voice)
- Searching for Bobby D (2005)
- Getting Played (2005)
- Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005)
- Date Movie (2006)
- Scary Movie 4 (2006)
- American Dreamz (2006) (Cameo)
- Aerobic Striptease Vol 1.2.3.4.5
- Epic Movie (2007)
- National Lampoon’s Pledge This! (2006)
Upcoming:
- Full of It (2006)
- Hot Tamale (2006)
- Beyond Legend: Johnny Kakota (2006)
- I Want Candy (2007)
