GEORGE WAYNE Q & A

Look Who's Talking Kirstie Alley on her pets, her chins, and John Travolta

Kirstie Alley made a mark in the 1980s as a half-Vulcan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but it was her affinity for comedy that propelled her to stardom with Cheers and, later, Veronicas Closet. Recently, the onetime coke-abusing sex symbol parlayed her highly publicized weight gain into the Showtime series Fat Actress. Now that she has very publicly shed those pounds, Alley gets prodded by our correspondent on her closeness to John Travolta, why men shouldn't wear underwear, and life after five years of celibacy.

George Wayne:Your bosom buddy John Travolta is truly an awesome human being. Certainly one of the most genuine and sweetest icons I have ever met. How did you two become so close?

Kirstie Alley: John and I met on Look Who's Talking and we ended up doing three of those movies together. But I think we became so close because I am sort of the female version of him, and he is sort of the male version of me. We have so many similarities and things that we love, and we are sort of eccentric.

G.W.Give me an example of what you are talking about.

K.A. Well, I have 26 animals: lemurs, chinchillas—all kinds of things. But that is not how John and I are eccentric. We are sort of both stuck in a time warp of the 1940s. We expect everybody's home to be run like a five-star hotel if at all possible.

G.W.Is that eccentric or anal?

K.A. Well, anal would mean making sure everything is perfect. Eccentric is John's being an ice fanatic. I don't know if you know that. John has to have an exact kind of ice or it makes him uncomfortable. John's ice has to be crystal clear, so he can clink it. I like my ice to be foggy, because that means it's crunchier and easier to chew.

G.W.I can't decide who got thinner faster, you or Star Jones.

K.A. I don't know how much weight she's lost, and she's never said how she lost it.

G.W. / was just about to say that—and neither one of you will fess up to gastric-bypass surgery.

K.A. Well, I can't fess up, because I lost it on Jenny Craig. I'm not a surgery girl, but she's never said how she lost it, so it makes me a little suspect.

G.W.So the 54-year-old \fat actress" is no longer fat. What caused you to balloon in the first place?

K.A. I believe I got fluffy because I got lazy.

G.W.Which is interesting. It is a phenomenon: there are certain celebrities—Janet Jackson, Leo DiCaprio, and Tobey Maguire come readily to mind—who when they are not working just balloon, just let themselves go. Have you seen Janet lately? ⅜She's a whale. When you were, like, 300 pounds, it was rather

obvious that you weren't getting laid.

K.A. I looked like I was 300 pounds? What a lovely compliment.

G.W.O.K., the camera added a few hundred pounds—what can I tell you? Anyway, you weren't getting laid for a reason, which is why you are striving for that slamming body. You want to get laid again. The double chin is always the last to go—do you still have more chins than the Hong Kong phone book?

K.A. That's funny. Actually, my face is the thing to go first. I first get skinny in the face.

G.W.Were you always the funny girl in high school?

K.A. Yeah, I think I was definitely the funny girl, not that I was trying to be funny. I have always been sort of awkward and selfdeprecating.

G.W.And insecure?

K.A. Yes, I was incredibly insecure, because I was incredibly introverted about my name. Nobody had the name Kirstie. I came from the Linda-Karen generation. G.W.One of your declarations is that men should never wear underwear. Why?

K.A. Because I think that V line below their stomach is just really beautiful and sexy, and I think that when you unzip their jeans you should see that, and not a pair of white underwear.

G.W.I agree. The obliques are the new erogenous zone. So what else can't you live without, besides your eyeliner and lilac perfume?

K.A. I could never live without my animals.

G.W.Your coterie, your zoo ...

K.A. I couldn't live without it. I rarely like people who don't like animals.

G.W.Thank you, Kirstie Alley.