Ms. Jackson, bodacious booty connoisseur

Janet: Three things I like about men ... besides that. Plus: "Survivor" she-devil Jerri Manthey makes "artistic statement" without her clothes on!

Published July 27, 2001 4:40PM (EDT)

Attention, Angelina Jolie, your much-ballyhooed booty has yet another outspoken admirer: Janet Jackson.

"I think Angelina Jolie ... has got something about her," Jackson muses in the British edition of Maxim. "I don't know if it's her attitude or her ass -- but for me that's the most beautiful part of the body."

Well, in a woman, that is. For humans of the male persuasion, Jackson is partial to another part: "I think it's great if the guy has got a good-sized package," she says, alas, not for the first time.

But hey, it's not only what's below the belt that counts for the girl of nastiness.

"The three other most attractive things in a man are a great smile, the self-confidence to carry himself well and a nice accent," she tells the U.K. mag. "British accents are good, and you've got so many hot guys."

Especially when it's really warm out.

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The family that just won't quit

"No. But why should you believe me if I say that now, since I said there wasn't going to be a fourth?"

-- "The Sopranos" creator David Chase on whether there will be a sixth season of the HBO mob show, on TV Guide Online.

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What's in a name?

Uh-oh. We've made Jean-Claude Van Damme angry.

The problem? He hates his nickname, the Muscles from Brussels.

"It's like I'm known as a shellfish," he gripes to the U.K. Mirror.

And as far as the action star's concerned, things are not looking up in the cutesy moniker department. Since he plays a sprout-eating vegetarian martial artist in the upcoming flick "The Monk," he says, "I'll be the Brussels from Brussels."

Then again, alerting us to a name he hates isn't the smartest thing a celebrity ever did, so we might just call him Jean-Claude Van Dumb instead.

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I'm guessing he didn't inhale either

"He tried one a few years ago, but he absolutely hated it. He thinks it's a dreadful habit and is very anti-smoking."

-- A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman responding to reports that Prince William had taken up smoking cigs.

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Rice princess ... revealed

Why anyone would want to look at naked pictures of "Survivor" she-devil Jerri Manthey I have no idea. But why she would want to pose naked for Playboy's current issue is now a matter of public record.

And she swears it wasn't only for the money.

"It was an artistic statement," Manthey tells USA Today. "I realized when I made my decision that it was a risk, [but] risks are what actors have to take."

Well, OK, it was partly for the money. "If I'm going to stand around half-dressed for those other men's magazines, I might as well be naked and at least have some control over it and get paid for it," she says.

Also, posing for the photos gave her a chance to do one of the things she apparently does best: lie around in the sand doing nothing. "I go to the desert a lot," she says. "It's free open space and people run around naked for days. That's the kind of person I am."

Not an evil, controlling kind of person, a naked, frolicking kind of person. Got it?

Extra bits

Some people dream of sailing 'round the world, Richard Dreyfuss dreams of ... teaching history. "This is my fantasy," he said at a press appearance to promote his new TV show, "The Education of Max Bickford," in which he plays a teacher. "If I was going to teach a class right now, I would probably teach it about the American Civil War or the Revolution or the 20th century." And you thought his acting could be boring.

Shea culpa: Ellen DeGeneres says the press is not solely to blame for all the constant hoopla and scrutiny surrounding her former relationship with Anne Heche. "I think we contributed to that," the comedienne told the press this week while promoting her new TV show, "The Ellen Show," which she swears will be much funnier and less political than her old show. "We didn't run away from it or hide it, so again I have to take responsibility for how much my private life became everybody's business." Now if her business could just become part of our private life, we could all buy a mansion in L.A.

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Miss something? Read yesterday's Nothing Personal.


By Amy Reiter

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