Behind The Crown: Bombshell Beauty Ali Landry
Source: Behind The Crown Online
Bombshell Beauty Ali Landry by Nicholas Walker
It's rarely possible to pinpoint exactly when a person is catapulted into the public eye. Do you remember when you first became aware of Madonna? Or Bill Clinton? Or Puff Daddy? but Ali Landry is different. Her big moment came at halftime of Super Bowl XXXII, when a silence fell over bars nationawide as Ali sauntered across the screen in the first of her now infamous Doritos commercials. Never before had a snack food been the gateway to stardom Even though Ali had already appeared on The Bold and the Beautiful and won the Miss USA title in 1996, it was that Super moment that made her more recognizable than the triangular chip she was endorsing. "When people recognize me they say things like, 'Oh, I want to get a chip so I can throw it at you,'" she says. "Or, 'Can you wide your mouth just liek you do in the commercial?' It's been very positive for me, but you can see how that sort of thing could get annoying."
A Miss USA crown gave Ali Landry her first taste of fame but it was a corn chip that launched her into stardom. In a 1998 Doritos ad campaign she performed splits and backflips around a laundromat, catching flying chips in her mouth and fueling the snack-food fantasies of teenage boys across the country. "I still have people coming up to me and saying, ‘Oh, it’s the Doritos Girl,’ she says, "but now they say my name and I’m like, ‘Yes! I’ve arrived!’
NBC’s summer hit Spy TV has helped get her there. As host of the Candid Camera clone, Landry, now, 31, has steered the family show into a Top 20 hit, introducing secretly taped pranks on unsuspecting victims. "She’s very wholesome and likeable," says Spy TV’s executive producer Jeff Boggs and really, really hot."
For Landry, the beauty is in the pranks, like the one where a temp receptionist tried to hide Fabio under her desk after he'’ been caught in an apparent tryst with her boss. "I grew up around practical jokes," says Landry, who hails from rural Breaux Bridge, La., where her extended family of 42 cousins all of whom lived within a 10-mile radius tricked each other with hidden snakes, Vaseline-slathered door handles and bathtubs filled with life fish. "So it’s nice to do a show I can totally relate to."
Despite the fun, she was also focused. It’s hard, coming from a small town, to see past the perimeters of that," says Landry. "I didn’t know what my goal was, but I knew I had to get out and do something exciting." The oldest child of Renella, 50, a hairdresser, and Gene, 56, a retired oil production operator (sister Gena, 24, a TV script coordinator, shares Landry’s L.A. townhouse; brother Ty, 22, is a cable technician in Louisiana), Ali made her first stop on her tour of beauty at age 4, when she entered the Crawfish Festival’s Little Pincher contest, which led to Miss Teen Louisiana, then Miss Louisiana and, finally, Miss USA in 1996. Landry dropped out of the University of Southern Louisiana and, when her reign was over, headed to L.A., where she picked up work on the soaps Sunset Beach and The Bold and the Beautiful before her childhood gymnastics training won her the Doritos ad. "At the audition, I thought, ‘I can do some pretty cool stunts and flips in a small space, so I’m just going to do that,’” she recalls. “I think that’s why I got that job.”
Romance came easily too. Though Landry says she can count on her fingers the men she has ever kissed ("Kissing for me is a very big deal"), she was never short of male admirers. She’s probably been through them all," says Gena. "She’s dated the bad boy, the rock star, the nice boy next door."
These days, though, there is only actor Mario Lopez, her boyfriend of three years. The couple met when Lopez emceed the 1998 Miss Teen USA pageant and Landry was a commentator. He was instantly smitten. "She was very much a lady," says Lopez, 28, who co-hosts the TV talk show The Other Half, "very classy and very sweet to everybody." Landry wasn’t so sure. "I thought he was a playboy," she says. "But he was very persistent."
Busy work schedules mean the pair see each other only on weekends, usually feast on Landry’s Cajun cuisine. "I cook," she says, "I'we make a bed on the floor and stay up watching movies with our popcorn and M&Ms." She also keeps in close contact with her family ("A perfect day for me is just being with my parents, cooking and visiting with my cousins) and would like kids of her own in the near future. As for Mr. Right, "I’ve learned it’s not like it is in the movies," she says. "You want Prince Charming to sweep you off your feet, but you have to work to get the relationship you want."
Not that she’s afraid of hard work. She has shot two films in 2002 including Who’s Your Daddy?, due out in the fall and plans to expand her role on Spy TV next season by taking part in some of the pranks. And then there’s all that looking over her shoulder. As Spy’s host she knows she’s a prime target for an onscreen gag of her own and she’s not taking any chances. "I am a little paranoid," she admits. "I’ll be in the restroom, looking in the vents for cameras"
With so much of her career spent in front of a camera, it’s no surprise that Ali Landry handles the bright lights with evident ease. A six-hour photo shoot is just another day on the job unless she gets to try on some of her favorite eclectic Western fashions.
"It was just kind of how I grew up. Everybody had the big belt buckles and the cowboy boots and jeans and shirt. It isn’t anything new to me or trendy to me. It’s just a little bit of home," she says. Home, of course, is Cajun Country, the rowdy, go-for-broke southwest section of her native Louisiana where French is many people’s first language, and family and friends come first.
One of the benefits of growing up in cowboy country is that Ali knows Western wear and has a well-developed fashion sense for the dos and don’ts. It’s very ‘in’ to wear a whole complete outfit, but I’ve always mixed in different Western pieces. What I love about dressing Western is that you can wear one piece and mix it into your wardrobe," she points out.
The stylish 28-year-old readily admits that she also loves to go over the top. It’s that Cajun thing again. "My background is Spanish and French, so if I’m going to dress up I always go the Spanish route," she confesses. "I love cowboy boots, but I’m very into girly things this season. I have a lot of clothes like that, and it’s one of my favorite, favorite looks. I love these skirts, and I love the corset, and I’ve always been a huge fan of turquoise. I have a nice little collection, and I always grab pieces here and there."
Moviegoers will soon be getting more than their share of opportunities to see Ali take center stage on the Silver Screen. "I have three films coming out. One is called Outta Time, one is called Who’s Your Daddy, and the third is called Repli-Kate. It’s from the producers of American Pie. I play the lead," she says, then quickly changes her mind.
The truth is I actually play two characters, she adds with a laugh. One is a reporter for a science magazine who ends up going out on assignment to do some research and interviews some scientists at a college. Don’t ask me how, but a drop of her blood ends up on a slide, and she accidentally gets cloned. That means there’s two of her, so these guys decide to create the perfect woman one who watches sports, drinks beer, and doesn’t like flowers. It’s such a cute story."
Repli-Kate may in fact turn out to be the ultimate buddy flick, with a cast that features not one but two Ali Landrys. This much is for sure it’s bound to have a happy ending.
Ali plans to continue her highly successful relationship with the famous chip, but she wants to branch out into more demanding fields as well. In addition to a forthcoming movie release - Beautiful, alongside Minnie Driver - she is currently co-hosting USA's Farmcclub.com, a combination record label, web site and telvision show, which features such high-profile talent as Eminem, Dr. Dre and Limp Bizkit.
In Beautiful you play a former pageant winner. Did they write the part just for
you?
No. It might seem like it, but it just worked out that way. In the film, Minnie wins, and
since I'm the titleholder, I have to give her the crown. It's pretty much what I do in
real life as the host of Miss USA, which made it really easy.
What was it like being Miss USA?
It was cool, but I had a team of chaperones. There were these three women that I had to
travel with; I don't mind because they were really cool. but I also had to live with
someone, another woman. That wasn't fun. She was the house-manager, and no one - not guys,
not even my parents - could stay over. i couldn't even close the door when I was in my
room. It was like I was 12 years old.
Doing all of those pageants, you must've been in a chick fight or two.
You know what, I was once, and that's so not me. But it wasn't at a pageant, it was a
while ago. I had a boyfriend...I've always had a boyfriend, but I never date. I don't like
to mess around, and I don't like to waste my time. I just meet a guy and he's instantly my
boyfriend. But this guy was cheating on me. I caught him at my cousin's house with a girl.
they were watching a movie, and I walked in. She was so much bigger than me.
Did you kick her oversized ass?
I'll never forget. i came around and slapped her. Then I had made up my little thing that
I was going to say and I said it. I don't even remember what it was - just that it was
well-rehearsed. It was like one of those things you see on TV, when they put in in slow
motion. That's exactly how it was. The guy came back to me in the end, but I dumped him.
I guess he won't be living in the new house you've purchased.
Oh, no. I won't live with a guy until I'm married! I'm old-fashioned. For now, anyway, I
have a roommate. She goes with me to get my pedicures. One time she talked me into getting
waxed. let me tell you, bikini-waxing hurts more than anything in the world, and I'm no
stranger to pain. I screamed so loud, you'd have thought they were pulling out my teeth
What's the most pain you've ever felt?
I was in an accident on my way to work in San Diego just last year. Somebody hit me, then
I hit the roadside barrier. i don't know how my car didn't flip, but I spun around the
whole bunch of times on the freeway. I'm all right, by my back still hurts. Luckily the
car's all right; it's the car I won when I was Miss USA. i still have it; it's a '96
Trans-Am convertable. It's not really my style.
Maybe you should drive a motorcycle
. I know how. It's dangerous, but it's really cool. I had a boyfriend who had one, a
Harley, and he taught me how to drive it. People's jaws would drop when I'd pull up on
that thing by myself. It was a big one, really tough and loud. i miss that.
So what was your toughest job?
I once had to do a show with the Taco Bell dog. Beforehad, they told me, "Ali, you
have to go to his dressing room and meet him." Apparently if the dog doesn't like
you, he won't go on with you. I couldn't believe it. Just feed him his treat and send him
out. But no, I had to go to his dressing room and try to bond with him. So forgive me, but
I'm not a Taco Bell dog fan. He wouldn't stop shaking. I guess Chihuahuas get really
cold...I don't know.
Did he have a seizure while you were saying your lines?
No, but I had to sit like a statue while the dog sat on a little pillow beside me. They
wouldn't even let me hold him. Every time I moved, he'd run away. They treated that dog
better than me. He even got better food in his dressing room - chicken and hamburger. It
was all sort of ridiculous. I understand the dog is making a lot of money, but come on. He
had a stand in, a stunt dog. Please!
You were on that show America's Greatest Pets. What's the most ridiculous thing
you've ever seen a dog do?
I've seen dogs ski, skateboard and sail. I've even seen dogs surfing by themselves. Do you
have any idea how much free time you must have to train a dog to do that kind of thing? A
lot. The dogs were cool, but I always wanted to see more about their owners.
Can you do any of those things?
You know what, I went to Bali last year and learned to surf. I got up the first time and
rode in all the way to the beach. Everyone was really impressed. It's on tape, and it was
on television too. It was for I! Wild On; I hosted it once.
Funny you should mention that. We spoke to Wild On's Jules Asner last month.
She said that's the one place she wishes she could've gone. She was so jealous.
I don't blame her, it was the most amazing experience ever. She can hate me - that's OK.
We had our own two-story villa mad of bamboo, a sort of open-air thing. Our bathroom was
outside, and there was this beautiful stone shower with a marble tun in its own little
hut. You could go nude if you wanted to. My sister and I did; she wouldn't stop. I
couldn't get her to put her clothes on when it was time to go. It's such a beautiful
thing, and it's such a natural thing, it's not a big deal. When you're there, you just
want to become as much as part of nature as you possible can.
So instead of working, you spent your days running around naked?
Let me just tell you, I'm from Louisiana, and I know Voodoo. I'll put a curse on you if
you repeat that.
Will you really?
Actually, I've never cursed anyone. Although I might have done a little love spell or
something like that. I think it worked too