by Sharon Saks
photos by Jeff Katz

I was sitting with my chums the other night, three of whom were men, and told them I was interviewing Ellen Barkin. The men all emitted a guttural groan of, "Ooh, she is so hot." They fervently agreed that her crooked smile is one of the most sexy, in a steamy "badgirl" kind of way, in Hollywood today. And there you have the male voice in regards to this busy actress.

I waited for Ellen, bracing for an encounter with a strong, seemingly tough woman, as we met at a restaurant after a rehearsal for her newest movie, Crime and Punishment in High School, directed by Rob Schmidt. Instead, a light, lithe figure comes bounding in. Ellen, wearing no makeup, looks striking. We peruse the menu and she orders "real food." Very refreshing. Even the waitress is enamored by this heavy-hitting actress who actually eats whatever she wants. As it turns out, Ellen's whole family is thin and she is forever fighting being underweight.

Ellen's most recent movie release, due out in mid-July, is Drop Dead Gorgeous, a black comedy about rivaling girls in a beauty pageant. Ellen and Kirstie Alley play the mothers of teen rivals, played by Kirstin Dunst and Denise Richard. Ellen's persona shifts as she describes various movie roles. For Mercy, the psychosexual thriller starring Ellen and Peta Wilson, from "La Femme Nikita," she is coy. With The White River Kid, co-starring Antonio Banderas and Bob Hoskins, in which she plays a very feminine, genteel prostitute, her voice becomes soft and more husky as she depicts her character. She touts the film as "magical."