Mel's Patsy

Where style meets substance

Patsy Kensit has the molten looks of Lolita and the hushed pout of the young Bardot. At twenty-one, she's a show-biz kid in bloom, having copped the lead opposite Mel Gibson in next month's Lethal Weapon 2 and having sold over half a million copies (in Europe) of Fearless, her band Eighth Wonder's debut disc for CBS. The London-born Kensit hit the screen at four as Mia Farrow's blonde Thumbelina daughter in The Great Gatsby; at seventeen she shone as the fawnlike vamp Crepe Suzette in Julien Temple's Absolute Beginners. Now married to Big Audio Dynamite's keyboardist, Dan Donovan (son of British fashion photographer Terence), Kensit is single-minded about keeping her acting and singing careers separate. "They really don't mix," she jokes. "It's like a plumber and a baker."

ANGELA JANKLOW