- Jensen Daggett, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan,1989. Read for Rennie – the lead of the finale of the second quartet, But writer-director Rob Hldden preferred Jensen – in the first of her 26 screen roles.
- Courtney Thorne-Smith, Melrose Place, TV, 1992-1998. For Alison Parker, a receptionist at D&D Advertising. Pammy’s future French co-star in Bay Watch, David Charvet played Craig Field. Odd casting as the girls were nearly all older than the guys – with the exception of leading man Thomas Calabro, 33, trhe only actor lasting the full 218 episodes
- Gillian Anderson, The X Files, TV, 1993-2002. The truth is now out there! Fox felt FBI agent Dana Scully should be the Baywatch babe…and February 1990 Playmate from the Home Improvement hit series, plus all her nude Playboy shoots. “Somebody who was more familiar in terms of what was on TV at the time,” recalled Gillian in 2008. “They were looking for someone bustier, taller, leggier than me. They couldn’t fathom how David and me could equal success… At the beginning, nobody trusted that I could do anything. I had no body of work behind me at all, and, certainly Fox felt very strongly that I wasn’t the right person for the job.” The producers finally realised that mixing Pammy and X would send out all the wrong signals. She stuck with her jigglevisiot show, Baywatch, 1992-1997.
- Erika Eliniak, Under Seige, 1992.
Her most unpleasant casting., Of course it was. Because it was with the dreaded Steven Seagal. “I remember him saying to me, ‘If you don’t do it, then that girl across the hall will do it, anad she’ll get the job.’ And I said: Well, good, goodbye!” As the Harvey Weinstein casting couch sex scandal took overe all headlines in 2018, the most famous Playboy pin-up since Marilyn also told Hollywood Reporter: “When someone answers the door in a bathrobe, don’t go in that room… I remember Revlon and Guess Jeans both offered me huge campaigns, and I didn’t feel right about going into a room and sitting on a bed. I just had this sense that this was not going to go well.’ Such stories never reflect well on whoever won the roles – in this instance, it was Anderson’s predecessor on Baywatch), Eleniak. She insisted she never experienced any inapropiate behavour from Seagal. “Have I ever been made uncomfortable? Yes. Has anyone tried to -pressure me? Absolutely. But as I’ve said, I’ve never been assaulted or raped… But it doesn’t mean that isn’t terrifying or sad… There is no place for that at work. And I don’t care if you’re in the film or entertainment industry.,. It just doesn’t belong there.” - Elizabeth Berkley, Showgirls, 1994. Scenarist Joe Eszterhas interviewed 50-plus exotic dancers and, aided by Hawaiian weed, came up with All About Eve in Vegas. Pamela Anderson, Angelina Jolie, Denise Richards, Charlize Theron and the inevitable unknown, Vanessa Marcil (too shy for nudity), they all fled his sexy heroine, Nomi Malone.Jenny McCarthy was favourite, except she couldn’t dance. Producer Charles Evans then found Elizabeth Berkley, fromSaved by the Bell. In one of its 2018 It Happened in Hollywoodpodcasts, Hollywood Reporter took unseemly delight in reporting she agreed to audition in his New York hotel room – even adding that “after being blown away by her performance,” he convinced Paul Verhoeven to give her a shot. Unable to land his dream mix of Madonna and Drew Barrymore as the 90s Bette Davis and Anne Baxter,the Dutch director decided to create his own star. He failed – andruined Berkley’s career. “If somebody has to be blamed, it should be me because I asked Elizabeth to be abrupt in that way because her character had a history of drug abuse, so I tried to express that through her abruptness.” So Richards won Verhoven’s next flop,Starship Troopers, 1997, and not Berkley. She never made another A-List film since Woody Allen’s The Curse of the Jade Scorpion in 2001, yet survived on TV: CSI: Miami, Law & Order, The L Word.
- Kathy Ireland, Miami Hustle, TV, 1996. Too much grautious sex and nudity said… the queen of sex tapes! She was immediately sued for $5m but the judge decided that she had never entered into a legally binding agreement. The finished film featured a bearskin more than bare skin.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 6