To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > People May 2, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/2000/05/02/nptues 'N Tact Baby one more time: Teen pop stars don't put out. Plus! Playboy courts Swank; Jackson disses Singleton; Hewitt trashes Di. Oh my. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Amy Reiter Remember when sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll were as inseparable as John and Yoko? Well, hold onto those memories, rock fans, because there's a scary new trend in pop music: virginity. Last week, Britney Spears confirmed to the U.K. press that she was still "intact" -- and intends to remain so until some special fella slips a diamond on her digit. "I hope I don't make a mistake and manage to remain a virgin," said the syntactically challenged singer, who is currently linked to 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake. A Spears spokesman confirmed that Britney is "devoutly Christian" and that the choice for premarital chastity is entirely hers. (Never mind the bubble-gum popster's penchant for come-hither crop-tops. She doesn't mean to tease, she explains, it's just that "it's too hot to wear full-length T-shirts when I'm dancing.") And Britney and Justin ain't the only members of the Tiger Beat set who aren't getting any. Those androgynous Hanson brothers, it seems, aren't exactly mmmbopping their brains out, either. Isaac, 19, tells TV Guide that, while he and his younger brothers aren't "monks or something," they too are taking a stand against premarital sex. "The safest way is to just not [have sex]," he says. Kids these days! - - - - - - - - - - - - Prinze, the plucky plucker "It hurts, [but] I have to tweeze 'em in the middle once a week. Otherwise, I look like Bert from 'Sesame Street.'" -- Freddie Prinze Jr. on taming his wayward unibrow in People magazine. - - - - - - - - - - - - Centerfolds don't cry? Now that Playboy's bagged Darva Conger for a nude spread, what'll it do for an encore? There's a rumor 'round town that Hef's folks are fixing to offer Hilary Swank a "pricey sum to pose in the buff." And that they're hoping to convince the Oscar winner to appear as both a woman and a man -- à la "Boys Don't Cry" -- with the latter being shot by a famous art photographer. So is there any truth to it? "No idea," a Playboy spokesman who'd just heard the rumor himself told me. But, he says, "I'm nosing around." Time to splurge on a subscription? - - - - - - - - - - - - So much for standing by her man "If my husband runs for office? I'm going to run the other way!" -- Kim Basinger on Alec Baldwin's political peregrinations in the Toronto Sun. - - - - - - - - - - - - Shafted! You know all that talk about Samuel L. Jackson getting shut out of the filming of a sex scene for the opening credits of "Shaft," in which he'll star? A body double will stand in for Jackson because, rumor has it, director John Singleton and the crew didn't want the attitudinal star back on the set. Jackson, of course, says the media fingered the wrong dick. But I'm not so sure ... "A director has to earn my respect. John failed to do that, so there were some tense moments," Jackson told the Calgary Sun. "I resented that we had to pull him out of his trailer some days to get him to direct." But come time for a sequel, the actor predicts, "I'll be back, but I'm pretty certain he won't." See what a nice guy he is? - - - - - - - - - - - - Juicy bits Ladies and gentlemen, it's James Brown and the Flames. An office building in Augusta, Ga., that belongs to the soul music legend was badly damaged by fire on Friday night, reports the Associated Press. Firefighters suspect arson in the blaze that raged through the offices of James Brown Enterprises. Yeow! Once a love rat, always a love rat. The late Princess Diana's sleazy ex-boyfriend James Hewitt claims he only had an affair with Di out of pity. He stayed with her, he reportedly says in an upcoming BBC interview, "because I felt that she couldn't have handled any more rejection. That's why ... She was very lonely, very ill, very sad and needed an outlet, and I think I was the outlet." Or the piglet, depending on how you look at it. salon.com | May 2, 2000   - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer Amy Reiter is a staff writer for Salon People. For more columns by Amy Reiter, visit her column archive.