Carmen Electra mobbed at stripclub
Carmen Electra was part of a mob scene in Montreal’s downtown club strip, where she was hosting a burlesque performance at the Opera Nightclub.
There, the two-time Playboy cover girl was jetted in to introduce the "Belluscious" act. And while she wasn’t actually going to be getting up to any sexual antics on stage herself, the crowd was eager to see if they could press the flesh with the former Mrs. Dennis Rodman.
"I’m just a girl from Cincinnati, Ohio, who had big dreams and managed to get here," she told the Globe, shortly before heading onstage. Born Tara Leigh Patrick (her stage name was supplied by none other than the artist currently known as Prince), Electra is also busy shilling her latest video, another entry in her hugely popular Aerobics Striptease series.
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But don’t let the sexy persona fool you: Electra has something to state about culture and politics. She concedes the American psyche has a split personality when it comes to sex. Americans clearly have a healthy libido, while also retaining a seriously puritanical streak. Thus the same culture that spawned the likes of Madonna, Britney Spears and Electra can also be consumed by sexual scandals involving conservative senators and gay sex.
"At the end of the day, we all have wants and desires and fantasies," says Electra, furrowing her brow. "Some may be deeper than others. When you’re in entertainment you have more freedom to express your sexuality and your fantasies. Political people are a bit different – they often have to be a certain way, and if they’re not in reality, it’s more shocking."
For the record, Electra has not yet decided which presidential candidate she will endorse in 2008, but says she is "extremely excited" by the prospect that America may well have its first female president.
Electra says she is not personally feeling the crunch felt by many in the Los Angeles film milieu, given the current writers’ strike. She was part of the reality-TV phenomenon, with her 2004 series ‘Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave, documenting her marriage to guitarist Dave Navarro. The marriage ended shortly after the show did, with Electra filing for divorce earlier this year.
"I still think marriage can be amazing. It’s a moment in your life when you’re celebrating your love with someone. I’m definitely not against marriage now. I’ll definitely get married again. As a girl, I always saw myself having a big, Brady Bunch family. But getting married in Vegas? No."
Electra found herself in the midst of a tabloid-media frenzy last year when she confessed that she had a "girl crush" on lesbian rocker Joan Jett. "I guess any time you say something to the press you can’t be surprised," she says now. "I stopped telling my crushes to reporters because it takes on a world of its own."
As for the Joan Jett revelation titillating her lesbian fan base, Electra says "I love all my fans and I’m grateful for them. I performed at the Dinah Shore [celebrity golf tournament] two years in a row, and I was honoured. Keep rockin’, girls!" It was there, she says, that it became clear she had a legion of lesbian fans. "And yes, I support same-sex marriage."
Does Electra feel that the intensely sexual nature of her celebrity ever holds her back? "No. I feel like you can walk in the door and people just won’t expect as much from you. When you put an image out there of a sex symbol, people just see that image. So anything you give them outside that image is a plus. I’m grateful, really. I love doing what I do.
"I love the spotlight and I love the cameras."
