Jamie: The heat's going to come in at the end, huh? Like you two are looking at each other and.. .kapow!
Vanessa: Right. Exactly. A sequel? We'll see. I did have to sign sequel rights-that I would be available. So that did feel good.
Jamie: You did? That's great! Now, the house. You're getting your house renovated, or are you getting a new house?
Vanessa: We're renovating the house.
Jamie: Where is the house?
Vanessa: In Westchester County in New York. Which is about 45 minutes north of New York City. Out in the country.
Jamie: How big is it?
Vanessa: It will be six bedrooms. It was built in 1905. It used to be the country retreat for the owner of the New York Railroad, H.H. Smith. And it used to be a small house with a little stone carriage house. When we bought it, the people had connected the two. Now we are making it even bigger
Jamie: It must be gorgeous.
Vanessa: It's real nice. High, lofty ceilings. And it's a beautiful country retreat. We have two ponds and a big hill and tennis court. We're putting in a pool and we have about 17 geese on our property that come every year and about seven deer and all kinds of critters that my dog likes to chase.
Jamie: Who is taking care of all that while you're away?
Vanessa: The builders are living in it. We have a whole Croatian crew, from Croatia.
Jamie: What?
Vanessa: My architect works with this guy who is Croatian and he has a whole Croatian team. They have Croatian beer and the Croatian flag in our living room now. It's wild. But they're excellent workers. They've done everything by hand and they've done this elaborate roof thing with no beams at all. It's amazing. No support beams. It's gorgeous. It's a very cathedralAype feel.
Jamie: When will they finish?
Vanessa: Probably not till next September. Probably take a good year.
Jamie: Take another year?
Vanessa: Well, we started in September 50 a year in total.
Jamie: You're on the set and you're out here. Are you talking to the kids?
Vanessa: I talk to the kids from my trailer all the time. The days that I have off I usually fly home. But when I'm here, if I have the whole day to myself, I try to schedule a facial or try to get a massage or work out with my trainer.
Jamie: What do you watch on TV? What do you like?
Vanessa: I watch the E! channel all the time. Usually the "Today" show in the morning and Regis and Kathie Lee at nine. And I've been renting a lot of movies. Jamie: What kind of movies do you like?
Vanessa: These are classics. I have Rear Window, I have Avanti, Where Angels Fear To Tread. What else? Love Among the Ruins, To Be or Not To Be...
Jamie: You like the old black and white films? Like on A&E?
Vanessa: I love musical theater ones. Yeah.
Jamie: Vanessa, do you have girlfriends? Are they girlfriends in the entertainment industry?
Vanessa: Most of my close girlfriends aren't in the industry. They're housewives, or career women. One of my best girlfriends is teaching in Paris. She teaches Art and Montessori over there. I've known her since second grade. Another girlfriend lives in Irvine [California]. She's a mother of two and her husband is a basketball coach for UC-Irvine. She was at my wedding. Another girl [Diane] is a mother of four living in New Jersey. Her husband went to school with Ramon and Diane went to school with me. So we hooked them up on a blind date and they got married and had four kids. So we take a little credit for that. But those are my closest girlfriends. Most of them went to high school with me and I kept in touch.
Jamie: Did you ever encounter jealousy?
Vanessa: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jamie: How did you handle it!
Vanessa: Yeah. Jealousy and betrayal always hurt. And that's the one thing about women that is kind of divisive. It seems that the way to hurt other women is to steal somebody's man, or to talk bad about somebody because of their own lack of self-esteem and their own insecurity. That's what it all stems from.
Jamie: You think that's only women? There are some pretty vicious men.
Vanessa: Yeah. But the most hurtful experiences that I've had with women have been because of jealousy.
Jamie: Did you experience it when you won the Miss America contest?
Vanessa: Not blatantly. Actually because there were four sisters that year, we all kind of hung together. It was four and then there was one Puerto Rican girl-five of us, all together. So it was the most they ever had in terms of minorities. There wasn't too much jealousy among us.
Jamie: No I'm not talking about among you. I'm talking about your schoolmates and stuff.
Vanessa: No. They were all happy.
Jamie: What were you doing when you won? It was a fluke, wasn't it?
Vanessa: Yes. I was a junior at Syracuse University, majoring in musical theater. It was a fluke because I had never really been in that pageant system and was asked to do it because I had been in shows at Syracuse. But I didn't get any kind of jealousy from my friends.
Jamie: Now you married an older guy. Isn't Ramon twelve years older than you?
Vanessa: He's thirteen years older, yeah.
Jamie: Thirteen years older. But your husband deserves a lot of credit for your success today, right? In fact when I told somebody I was coming over here-and I had a lot of "somebodies" I was telling-they were saying, "Her husband did so much to help her." Do you think that if Ramon didn't come into your life at that point, you would have been as strong as you were?
Vanessa: As strong? Yes, absolutely.
Jamie: I mean, you were strong. You're like a steel monster, because you were able to handle all of that [negative publicity that eventually dethroned you as Miss America].
Vanessa: I think him coming into my life was a nice distraction because it was an escape from the reality of what was happening-with all the turmoil in my life. But strength is something that has to come from within and comes from my make-up and my background and I think my experience of being a fighter.
Jamie: But didn't he kind of orchestrate the publicity and stuff?
Vanessa: He handled the press conferences and was my PR person. So he handled all the interviews. I was man-aged by Dolores Robinson, initially. [Dolores, who is actress Holly Robinson's mom, is a top-drawer Hollywood agent.]
Jamie: I didn't know that!
Vanessa: Yes. So he was not my manager in the beginning.
Jamie: Who are you managed by now?
Vanessa: I'm looking right now.
Jamie: But your husband was...
Vanessa: Uh huh. Right now I've got two great agents, a record company and a business manager.
Jamie: Do you need a manager?
Vanessa: At this point, for this year, no. Because I already know what films I'm doing and my agents have taken care of that and stuff. But it's nice to have somebody to pull it all together.
Jamie: Yeah. Somebody to think about where you're going and say, "Well, you're heading this way." I know Dolores told me that she was concerned when Wesley [Snipes, who she managed then] did Sugar Hill. She was looking at building his career one way and this was something that he just wanted to do.
Vanessa: Right. That's the same thing with Broadway. The record companies don't understand why I wanted to do Broadway. They didn't get it. The president of the record company did not understand that move at all. So, as an artist, you've got to say, "I don't care what your strategy is, I want to show people that I can do this. Or I believe, in my heart, this is what I want to do. And it's my career!" So I certainly can understand why Wesley chose to do that and why I'm doing a small independent film after I do this. Because I want to work. I know it's a great director and a great actor and it will let me flex my acting muscles.
Jamie: With Wesley, I think at the point that he's reached now, he can do pretty much what he wants because he's established. What do you think this movie [Eraser] is going to do for you once it comes out? Do you think it's going to put you over the top as they say?
Vanessa: No because I'm not starring. I'm not in Arnold's role. I think it'll show people that I can act-not only sing, but act. As for people who didn't know me, hopefully it will open doors for me to do other feature film roles.
Jamie: I think this is going to be major.
END
