BON JOVI DOES HOLLYWOOD

Spotlight

The news that Jon Bon Jovi, namesake of the popular rock band, is about to become a serious actor may sound as believable as Ralph Fiennes: Live at Budokan. But this month, as he stars in U-571, Jonathan Mostow's World War II movie about an American submarine crew trapped on a Nazi U-boat, we'll see just how hell-bent he is on his new career. Or, as he likes to say, his "chops."

Bon Jovi—of the tornado-defying hair, New Jersey pride, and fist-pounding anthems—talks about his craft with more earnestness and spirit than just about any other young actor out there. He was already a millionaire sex symbol nine years ago, when he started taking private classes from famed New York acting coach Harold Guskin. When he landed his first role, as a housepainter in Moonlight and Valentino (1995), he went into it with gusto and naivete: after the director had him do two takes... six takes... seven takes, Bon Jovi actually offered to pay for the film. Seven movies later, he's lost none of that Wally Cleaver wonder. With U-571, he got to work with one of his heroes, Harvey Keitel, whose detail -obsessed Method acting still gets Bon Jovi worked up. "I'm worry - ing about hitting my mark and saying my lines. He wants to know how big the raindrops are! I ain't questioning that, Harv.''

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Lest you music fans worry that Bon Jovi, movie nut, will spell the end for Bon Jovi, rocker, fear not. In fact, a line from the 1998 film Meet Joe Black inspired a song on the band's new album, Crush, out this spring. As for the old days, "if you want to torture me, sit me down and make me watch `Runaway," he says, referring to the 1984 video in which fire blasts out of the young heroine's eyes while the Bon Jovi boys wear lots of fake sweat. "Back then, we single-handedly kept VO5 in business" -EVGENIA PERETZ