Backstage at The Price Is Right: Memoirs of A Barker Beauty (17 page)

Chapter 27

Enter Chantel Dubay

I
missed Gena’s high energy and seeing her bright, smiling face on the set, but I missed Holly more. Holly was sorely missed by everyone. After working with her almost every day for five years, it was pretty tough for me to get through the first few days of taping—knowing Holly would never be coming back to Studio 33. With her, like Dian, went another significant part of the
TPIR
history. Holly was incredibly special to my daughter, Cheyenne, and me. Cheyenne was hurt and disappointed to know that her guru/mentor would no longer be on the set when she came to visit.

It was a bit overwhelming losing Holly and Gena in the same year. The producers obviously had the heads up in knowing that neither Holly nor Gena would be returning in the fall, so they began looking for a replacement during the summer. The call was out, once again, for a new Barker Beauty, but this time, for a Gena Lee Nolin clone. Just in the short year and a half that she was on the show, she had set a new, much higher standard than had her predecessor, Dian. Though the call was still for the wholesome girl next door type, the youth factor had already invaded the show with Gena, who was twenty years our junior. After our first week back, Deana made her debut. We continued the undertaking of seeing more models, with priority focused on the young ladies who were highly regarded from the Dian tryouts, in hopes that we could quickly narrow it down to a few choices and get on with the show’s production.

We were fortunate that Kyle was still available to help fill in the blanks and pick up the slack for the third model position when needed as we continued with the latest round of Beauty hopefuls. But Kyle was feeling a little frustrated just being a substitute Barker Beauty all these years, only called in when it suited the needs of the show. She was also disappointed that she wasn’t seriously considered to take Dian’s place when she’d left. After all, it was Kyle who came to the rescue to fill in for Janice for several weeks after her shoulder was injured. And it was Kyle who had held down the show with just her and Dian after Holly and I were injured during the Showcase Showdown debacle. Kyle was the go-to girl when any given emergency arose; she was dependable, accessible, and reliable. Why then wasn’t she automatically chosen as a permanent Barker Beauty? Kyle was the cute little brunette cheerleader type, but didn’t have the sex appeal that was needed to pull off the swimsuits, which were such a big part of the show. When Gena left, Kyle made it perfectly clear that she wanted this to be considered her
last
official tryout, and if she wasn’t chosen as a permanent Barker Beauty, she would not be returning as a substitute.

As always, Kyle gave it her all and even wore a blonde wig to try and convince the producers that she could fill Gena’s shoes and that she was more than capable of becoming the next permanent Barker Beauty. Unfortunately, the producers weren’t sold. Kyle kept her word, and that was her last appearance.

Cindy Margolis was called back to tape a week of shows to see if she was still interested and available to fill the position. She was delighted and flattered to be called back for another chance to become the newest Beauty; however, by this time, Cindy’s popularity in cyberspace had skyrocketed into a more desirable and profitable arena. She was a more relaxed and confident Cindy. She didn’t need to prove to anyone that she was worth her weight in gold. She told the producers that she didn’t think working on the show would be in her best interest right then because of her hectic work and traveling schedule. She expressed her gratitude for their offer and said she was content to be able to take time out to help during the tryout process.

The producers remembered a charming young lady they’d wanted to call back when auditioning to take Dian’s place. When a call was put into her modeling agency, the production staff was excited to know that she was still interested and available. She was a different type of beauty, more refined and demure than most. She possessed a fresh, clean look with a bright smile and projected a pleasant aura on stage that radiated into the audience and the homes of the faithful viewers. She had sex appeal, but never played it up excessively. After she returned to try out, it was unanimous. Chantel Dubay was a natural beauty and the best choice to replace Gena. Many were close, but none more suited for the position as this rare gem.

Chantel’s first season on the show was a breeze. She was loved and admired by all and the fan mail started pouring in. She was happy being a vital part of the show. She also realized the value of being a Barker Beauty and never expressed a desire to venture out or leave the show to go on to greater fame. Her biggest challenge and complaint was the long, grueling morning and evening commute from her home in Newport Beach to the studio at CBS. It was beginning to take a toll on her. It was forty-five miles one way and normally should have taken her no longer than an hour to get to work. On many days, Chantel’s commute ended up taking approximately two hours one way, depending on the time of day she traveled. But the notorious I-405 was the Godzilla of U.S. freeways, which Los Angelinos have jokingly said was so numbered because traffic moves at “four or five” miles per hour. So much time is wasted sitting in the L.A. traffic that one could conceivably learn a new language in just two weeks by listening to Rosetta Stone.

Chantel decided to rent a one-bedroom apartment close to the studio, where she would stay during the three days of work and go home for the remaining days off. She was enjoying her newfound popularity as a Barker Beauty . She wasn’t married and took pleasure in the fuss and courting from a few male suitors who were even more intrigued by the fact that she had been chosen from among a hundred other beautiful Hollywood hopefuls for the position that she had landed.

As the new kid on the block, Chantel was given the honor of escorting actor/comedian Adam Sandler onstage to join Barker to promote his latest movie,
Happy Gilmore,
in which Barker appeared as himself in a guest-starring role.

In Barker’s famous scene, while teaming up with Gilmore in a Pro-Am golf tournament, a few harsh words were exchanged between him and Sandler’s character, Gilmore, because Barker wasn’t happy with the way Gilmore was playing. Gilmore then throws the first blow to Barker. As the altercation escalates, Barker starts whaling away and beats the heck out of Gilmore. Gilmore fights back and briefly gets the upper hand after he knocks Barker out, declaring, “The price is wrong, bitch!” Barker then reaches up and gets a strangle hold on Gilmore and continues to punch away and says, “I think you’ve had enough.” As Barker is walking away, Gilmore tries to get up, so Barker goes back to finish the job
and
delivers a kick to Gilmore’s chin that knocks him back down, declaring, “No, now you’ve had enough … bitch!”

Barker reportedly took the role after learning that he would win the fight. The movie proved to be a big hit and was later awarded an MTV Award for best fight scene.

Chapter 28

The Movie Friday,

Mrs. Parker

T
o be seen daily on national television by millions of viewers and to get paid doing what you love to do best was like a fairytale, a dream come true. Being a Barker Beauty was one of the most highly ranked, sought-after jobs in the modeling industry. At one time or another, however, the models on the show aspired to achieve higher levels of success by venturing out into other aspects of the modeling or entertainment industry. When an opportunity came around from our individual agents or managers of which one of the Beauties could take advantage, either appearing on a television show or acting in a film, we had to think twice about it, hesitating in fear of having the opportunity interfere with the show. We were never excused from the rehearsals or the show to go out on interviews. There was a conscious lack of support from Barker and the executive producers for us to pursue any other career outside of
TPIR
. One would think that some good press from a Beauty appearing on another TV show or film would increase the
TPIR
viewership and/or create a new audience, as did Barker’s role in
Happy Gilmore
. But heaven forbid it would catapult one of the models into a new income bracket based on a successful endeavor in the industry. Such was the case for television game show hostess and model/actress, Vanna White from
Wheel of Fortune
. Merv Griffin had groomed her and made her a household name. He assisted Vanna in making a fortune by allowing her to utilize her other talents outside of the show; thus, branding her and allowing her to rake in the really big bucks. It has been reported that Vanna was making a minimum of $5,000 per show on
Wheel
. We were lucky to see that much per month.

As fate would have it, in 1995, one such acting opportunity came around for me. I received a phone call from the office of casting director Jaki Brown (with whom I had become friends after auditioning for her numerous times), saying that rapper/producer Ice Cube was particularly interested in me, “the fine black sister on
The Price Is Right,
” and wanted me to come in for an audition for his new feature film,
Friday
. For some reason, my real name wasn’t as well known as I would have liked, but my position on the show was. I suppose it wasn’t my name that struck the uppermost attention on the show! I was generally referred to as, “the black girl” or “the sister” on
The Price Is Right
. I was told briefly about the role of Mrs. Parker on Ice Cube’s movie and told to come looking sexy with short shorts and plenty of cleavage. Hey, say no more. That was right up my alley. Luckily, the audition was to take place on one of the
TPIR
off days and did not conflict with the taping of the show.

When I arrived to the audition at the Raleigh Studios lot in Hollywood, I was handed my sides (pages taken from the original script for a specific character to read during auditions). I dreaded cold readings and hated auditions with a passion. But this was a great opportunity to kick it up a notch while my career was going well as a celebrated television personality, not to mention how flattered I was to know that one of the most popular rap artists in America had put in a special request for me to read for this role. The idea was to exude sexuality and deliver the few lines of dialogue in such a manner that I would captivate and mesmerize everyone in that audition room that had a deep voice and was wearing pants. Once again, right up my alluring alley. Much to my delight, when I entered the audition room, I saw another familiar face (other than Jaki Brown), Patricia Charbonnet, one of the producers for the film. She and I had just met at a party through mutual friends, so I felt even more confident that I would go into the audition and kill it. After the audition was over and before I could get home, my cell phone rang. “Hello, Kathleen, this is Jaki Brown’s assistant, and I’m calling from the casting office to let you know that you have the role of Mrs. Parker, and someone will be in touch with you soon regarding wardrobe and the shooting schedule.”

I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to tell my family the good news. But how would all of this play out in regards to taping
TPIR
? Would my shooting schedule for this feature film conflict with my taping schedule on the show? Would I be willing to forfeit the chance to be involved with this potentially huge movie project? Or would I be willing to take the risk of being fired from
TPIR
if I asked for any time off to shoot this movie? This could be my big break, the opportunity I had always dreamed about and waited for, only to possibly be confronted with the dreadful ultimatum: Hmm …
TPIR
(bread and butter) or
Friday
(who knows)?

In Hollywood, acting opportunities come and go, but the old adage is, “Don’t quit your day job!” I had a general idea from the casting office as to when principal photography would begin, but I had no idea when I would be called in for my several days of shooting. At some point, I had already decided that if there was a conflict, I would call in sick to
TPIR
. Come hell or high water, I was not about to miss this opportunity.

I have always believed that when you are desperately searching for a parking space and when all hope seems dismal, there are parking angels who open up that one space at the right time. I had also come to believe that there were days-off angels. When I received confirmation about my first few days of shooting
Friday,
it worked out perfectly—
TPIR
was down during that week. I was scheduled to work five days and had three scenes. My five days were scattered over a two-week period. Since the first week of shooting worked out, I feared the worst case scenario for my next scheduled shoot dates, and I would have no choice but to call in sick to
TPIR
. I just hoped and prayed that they would occur during the latter part of the week, since we never worked on Thursdays or Fridays. But because the movie was on such a low budget, they scheduled weekend shootings (not including Sunday) and, praise the Lord, my last two scenes were shot on Friday and Saturday.

As I eagerly went off to work on my first day on the set of
Friday
, I met with director, F. Gary Gray, executive producer/writer and actor Ice Cube, and actor Chris Tucker for a brief reading and run-through. The movie takes a look at one single Friday in the lives of two friends, Craig Jones (Ice Cube) and Smokey (Chris Tucker), in Compton, California, who must pay a drug dealer two hundred dollars on Friday night by 10 p.m. Throughout the day, friends and local neighborhood characters pass through, making the plot more interesting, exciting, and outrageously funny.

In my first scene, Craig and Smokey walk by in awe and are mesmerized by the sexy, sultry Mrs. Parker, who lives across the street. Mrs. Parker inevitably flaunts her goods in her front yard, while dressed in micro hot pants and a plunging halter top with her boobs oozing out as she bends over to make sure she gets every blade of grass wet while watering her lawn. She gets satisfaction knowing that she is enticing every man—young and old— who walks by, causing each one to get a hard-on while scoping her out.

As Craig and Smokey continue walking across the street, gawking at Mrs. Parker’s display of over sexuality, Smokey says to Craig, “Damn, Miss Parker is finer than a mothafucka. I want to knock the dust off that pussy!”

Craig and Smokey holler out in unison, “Hiii, Miz Parker!”

“Hi, boys,” she replies.

“When you gonna let me fuuuckkk, Miz Parker?” Smokey says under his breath.

“What you say, honey?” she calls out.

“Nothin’,” says Smokey.

“Miz Parker just don’t know; she needs some young meat. Mr. Parker ain’t hittin’ that right, man,” says Smokey to Craig.

“She knows what she’s doing with those little-ass shorts on,” remarks Craig.

In my second scene, I had the pleasure of working with the late Bernie Mac, who played the role of the lascivious Pastor Clever. Pastor Clever and parishioner, Mrs. Parker are having a brief “prayer session” in the buff at her home before being unexpectedly interrupted by her infuriated, 3’6” husband, Mr. Parker, played by Tony Cox.

In the third scene, we see Mr. Parker throwing Mrs. Parker out into the street along with all of her belongings. Mrs. Parker tries to justify her encounter with Pastor Clever by shouting, “We were just praying, honey! We were just praying.”

By the end of the movie, Craig seemingly overcomes all of the day’s trials and tribulations. The morals of this hilarious story: neighbors should always stick together in the face of adversity, don’t settle an argument with a gun, use your fists, and finally, never smoke your consignment of weed and expect to get away with it.

Because time is money and this was a low-budget production, there was literally no time for more than two or three takes of any given scene while the camera was rolling. Gray was the type of director that would give his actors free reign for improvisation, allowing them to adlib whenever appropriate. Gray’s directing ability proved to be a winning formula for everyone involved in this very successful film—especially for Chris Tucker, who was an adlib genius and funny as hell.
Friday
ranked number two in opening weekend box office receipts in over 865 theaters nationally and remained among the top five films during the first three weeks in theaters.

Regrettably, I didn’t have a theatrical agent when I signed my contract for
Friday
. After the movie debuted, I realized that my name should have been included in the opening credits along with the other featured actors as it was only in the closing credit crawl. Agents and managers fight and negotiate for name credit placement on movies and TV projects in this very lucrative, cutthroat business. Sometimes, the cast will be listed alphabetically, so no one feels that someone is getting a more prominent placement than anyone else.

With
Friday
, the majority of the featured actors agreed to a most-favored-nation clause in our contract. The most-favored-nation clause was originally conceived as a tool that an actor could use to ensure that no one else in the film, having the same stature or playing the same-sized role, was getting a better deal. It also became a means of allowing an actor who would normally command a large salary to work for a lower salary without cheapening that actor’s value. The saving grace in agreeing to work under a most-favored-nation clause is the money earned at the backend of the project, better known as residuals, where the actors receive additional payments after the initial run of a show or production, many times, in perpetuity.

Friday
was made for $3 million dollars and grossed nearly ten times that amount in the first year. It also went on to become one of the most popular and profitable black featured films in history.
Friday
undoubtedly put Chris Tucker on the map as one of the most popular comedian/actors to emerge since Richard Pryor. Many of the other featured actors became huge stars and/or gained wide recognition and worked rather consistently in Hollywood for many years, such as
Friday’s
executive producer and rapper, actor, screenwriter, and film director Ice Cube, Regina King, Meagan Good, Nia Long, Tony Cox, John Witherspoon, Tiny Lister, Paula Jai Parker, Anna Marie Horsford, and DJ Pooh. DJ Pooh, who co-wrote
Friday
with Ice Cube, portrayed the character, Red in the movie. Pooh’s start in the film industry began when he produced the drive-by shooting sequence in the 1991 film
Boyz n the Hood
which also started Ice Cube’s acting career.

I made some great friends while working on the set of
Friday
, one of whom was the late, great Bernie Mac. There is so much to be said about my friend Bernie Mac, whose credits span over three decades and whose amazing talent brought so much joy into so many lives. Among his greatest achievements were starring in his own TV sitcom,
The Bernie Mac Show
, which ran from 2001 through 2006, earning him two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He also joined forces with his fellow comedians and comrades, Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D. L. Hughley as the stars of the 1997-2000 comedy tour,
The Original Kings of Comedy,
which in 2000 became a film directed by Spike Lee
.

Friday
was F. Gary Gray’s feature film directorial debut. He later went on to direct other smash box office films, including
Set it Off, The Negotiator
(my personal favorite)
, A Man Apart, The Italian Job
and
Law Abiding Citizen.
He began his career as a music video director and has directed more than thirty music videos for music artists such as Ice Cube, Queen Latifah, TLC, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Mary J. Blige. Gray has won several prestigious awards for his video and film work.

After coming down from the high and excitement of working on
Friday
, I was revved up and ready to pursue my acting career wholeheartedly and capitalize on the film’s success and my character as Mrs. Parker. I returned to my bread-and-butter daytime television gig at
TPIR
and waited for the next audition call to come. Unfortunately, those calls were few and far between.

It has been noted that my character, Mrs. Parker, is the second most favorite and talked about character after Smokey. My scene with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker has been reported as the most downloaded scene from the movie on YouTube. The original cover of the first video release of
Friday
is a collector’s item, with Mrs. Parker on the back cover.

When
Friday
hit the movie theaters, several guys from the
TPIR
crew went to see it and couldn’t wait to report back to the set to let everybody know about my role as the dynamic, sensuous Mrs. Parker. The general consensus was that I did a superb job and was sexy as hell. By this time, everyone on the set had gotten wind of my role in this new comedy feature film. Because it was an urban, low-budget movie and playing only at select movie theaters, I didn’t really expect everyone to rush out and see it. The other Beauties and the majority of the staff finally got a chance to see
Friday
about a year later when it hit the cable TV circuit. One by one, as they had all finally had a chance to see it, they acknowledged how much they enjoyed it and then proceeded to try and emulate my famous Mrs. Parker lawn watering poses. The entire crew would greet me in the morning with, “Hiii, Miz Parker!” I would in turn reply, “Hi, boys.”