Heidi Fleiss hasn’t sold her story yet. But last week on “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung,” Fleiss, who might consider legally adding the prefix “alleged Hollywood madam” to her name, denied rumors of a slush fund at Columbia Pictures to pay for call girls and called the frenzy over her arrest last summer on pandering charges “embarrassing.” “I felt like the Elephant Man,” said Heidi. “‘I am not an animal. I am a human being’.” Yes, but did “Wild Kingdom” ever get ratings like that?
Fox’s “Melrose Place” could use a ratings boost, It might get one next week when the show rolls out a new character. Lauren, a young, chic madam (ring a bell?), lures Sydney into the life. Says Kristian Alfonso, who plays Lauren, “It’s not a role you do a lot of homework for.”
That’s good news, considering the glut of seamy parts now available. Scads of hooker projects are in development (including “Pretty Woman II”), and two films about prostitutes, both titled “Bad Girls,” are due out next year. One’s an independent release, the other a big Hollywood Western, starring such girls of varying badness as Drew Barrymore, Andie MacDowell, Mary Stuart Masterson and Madeleine Stowe.
That cast will get a lot of ink, but fame does fade. Mediahungry ex-madam Sydney Biddle Barrows griped recently that The New York Times was misspelling her name. Heidi doesn’t have that problem–yet.
