HOT LOVE

Click the pics of My Love for the big ones...

She ought to win an Emmy, because the squeaky clean Love has never tasted alcohol, much less been plastered. “I just acted silly,” she explains later. “Really loose.”

Raised in rural Texas, Love is the ultimate girl next door, never realize how damned hot she is.

You know this from the I Know What You Did Last Summer slasher flicks, in which her wet, clingy halter tops kept you gratefully distracted from the even flimsier plots. But she isn’t just a wholesome sex symbol—she’s also a mover and shaker with her own production company, a recording career, and every movie studio in town banging down her door. All budding moguls should look like this.

Maxim: Well here you are, Jennifer Love Hewitt—Maxim cover babe. Are you excited?

Love: Totally! And totally surprised. If I picture myself on the cover of a magazine, it’s like, Dork Digest. Or Nerdy Newsweek. Not Maxim. So I’m psyched.

Maxim: What does your family think?

Maxim: You do sort of, uh, pop off the page. When did you develop?

Love: Early—I was 11. It was a little weird. My mom raised me to feel comfortable in my skin and to appreciate it because it’s sort of what makes me me and all that. I went through a period where I wore big sweaters; then I just got used to them.

Love: When older men who probably shouldn’t have been looking started looking at me—that was weird. Salesmen were really extra nice, and I was going, Hmmm, I wonder why.

Maxim: It’s been reported that you have special names for them.

Love: Can I clear this up in Maxim?

Maxim: Of course.

Love: You see, we had this joke on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer. All the girls wore tiny tops, so we called it I Know What Your Breasts Did Last Summer. We made another joke that we’d name them, and I said mine were Thelma and Louise, but I was kidding. Now I read it everywhere, and people getting autographs will ask, “How are Thelma and Louise?” I’m like, “Oh, my God, people, it was a joke.” I don’t wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and say “Good morning, Thelma. good morning, Louise.”

Love: They’re not. They’re mine, and they’ve always been mine. [Giggles loudly] they’re nice, and I like them!

Maxim: Even knockouts like yourself sometimes wish they had someone else’s body. Is there anyone you find especially va-va-voom?

Love: Catherine Zeta-Jones. Love her body. Salma Hayek. Love her body. Some people, it just oozes out of them. And others only ooze it at certain times. But guys look at those women and go, “A-a-a-ah—she’s hot!” They look at me and go, “A-w-w-w, she’s cute.” And just for one day, I would like them to be hot—for someone to go “Your’re hot!”

Maxim: OK—you’re hot! Really, trust us on this. Do you ever wear certain clothes to feel sexy?

Love: I have my standard little skirts and tops. I have a purple dress and black go-go boots that make me think I look all right in this! And, um…the leather pants I got at the photo shoot.

Love: Yeah! I really liked them. I think they do the trick.

Maxim: You started your career by singing in county fair livestock barns in Texas. Did you ever step in a fresh cow patty?

Love: Oh, I think I stepped in more than one in my lifetime. I think there’s a certain all-American quality that comes from places like that. I still go nuts whenever I see a Dairy Queen. If I had grown up in Los Angeles or New York, I would be a bit more city than I am.

Maxim: When you came to L.A. with your mother when you were 10, what made you realize that things were different here?

Love: When we hit the 405 freeway. It was weird to see that many cars all going the same direction. In Texas terms, it was like a cattle stampede. Big cows going very fast, and none of them knowing where they were going.

Love: We have hot chicks! We’re not making a sappy teen-girl show by any stretch of the imagination. And they guy characters aren’t weenies or pretty boys. They do guy things and they make guy comments.

Maxim: Go back to the hot chicks.

Love: [Laughs] They’re beautiful and they’re sexy…and they’re really, really talented.

Maxim: Tell us your best sex and relationship secrets.

Love: Sex secrets? [Laughs] I have none. In a relationship, the other person has to know that you have a certain amount of time during the day for them. You don’t have to be consumed with them or spend every minute on the phone, but you should be able to make that person feel like you’re thinking about them.

Love: I think that’s human nature. Of course, I’ll make a comment, like “what in the heck are you lookin’ at, freak?” It might make me feel bad for a minute, but it wouldn’t be a relationship-breaking think or cause a fight.

Maxim: Scenario: You’re supposed to meet him; you show up and see him talking to another girl. What’s your first thought?

Love: [Robot voice] Kill girl. Kill other woman! No, my first thought is to ask why, if he’s waiting on me, is he talking to her. If she came up to ask for directions or is someone he knows, big deal. Introduce me. But if he struck up the conversation, and I walk up, and 10 minutes later he’s still talking to her, then I would be in my car on the way home. “Enjoy your pizza. By yourself.”

Maxim: When you want to attract a guy, is there anything you do to get his attention, besides using Thelma and Louise.

Love: I just smile. I don’t really try. I think if you try too hard, then they’re coming over for the wrong reason. I think if you click with somebody or you don’t, and they’re either interested or they’re not.

Maxim: What’s the craziest pick-up line you’ve ever heard?

Love: Some guy pulled up next to me in traffic while I was in my convertible with the top down and asked me how to get to Vegas. At first he was like, “You go…” Then he smiled, and I realized that was just his way of talking to me.

Love: See, I’m so stupid. I think lines like “Is your father a thief? ’Cause he stole all the stars and put them in your eyes” are cute. I find it much more attractive when people don’t really know how to talk to other people.

Maxim: How about “Your clothes look great, but they’d look even better on my floor”?

Love: That is just crappy, and I wouldn’t spend a moment of my time with somebody who talked to me like that.

Maxim: You couldn’t even laugh something like that?

Love: Oh, I’d laugh at him, all right. I’d laugh at him all the way out the door.

Maxim: Do you watch any sports?

Love: Boxing and hockey.

Maxim: Wow, I was expecting something like ice skating. Boxing and hockey are pretty brutal.

Love: Oh, I love watching people beat the crap out of each other. Very manyly sports. Boxing particularly. I just love that it’s man against man, and the technique that goes into it.

Love: I dont’t have one. I dont’t like swearing. I’ve had to say the F-word in movies before, and I’m not a big fan of it.

Love: Coca-Cola.

You’ve released three pop albums. Have you ever made out to your own music?

Love: That’s just a little disturbinb. The best music for that kind of thing is Billie Holiday. Or old doo-wop songs.

Maxim: You live at home with your mother. Does that cramp your style if you want a guy to spend the night?

Love: No, because I don’t really do that.

Love: Sure—my mom is totally cool. We have so much fun together. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

Maxim: You’re tunring 21 in a few months. Do you have big plans?

Love: I think I want to go to Vegas.

Maxim: Just not with some random guy in traffic.

Love: No, I want to take six or seven of my family members and friends, and I want to pay. All I want for birthday presents is, like, $20 from everybody so I can just blow it and have a good time.

Love: I would, just to try it out. Slot machines or something. You’re supposed to do something crazy on your 21st birthday, and that’s about as wild as I’d get.

Maxim: You’ll be legal—you could have a drink while you play.

Love: Not interested. My personality is scary enough as it is.

Maxim: What with the new show, movies, and singing, you’re probably the hardest-working girl in show business. What else do you have in common with James Brown?

Love: I dance very similarly to him. I can get a little funky, I think. I’ve got a lot of soul and rhythm…when I’m by myself.

Maxim: Do you scream like him, too?

Love: When I’m in pain. Or maybe if I’m falling down the stairs.

Story and Images: © 1999 Dennis Maxim Inc. All Rights Reserved.