Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409140039
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GAIL SHISTER KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
"I'm the happiest girl," Lake says, stroking her beloved cockapoo, Dudley. "I have that beautiful man of mine to go home to. My family is healthy. I have a great job that I can bring my dog to. This is a great time in my life. I've had awfully good karma the last few years."
Good karma, iron will and, as her executive producer, Garth Ancier, puts it, "a missing genetic gene of nervousness" on camera.
Once the 250-pound, size-24 teen-age star of John Waters' campy film classics (``Hairspray,'' ``Cry Baby''), the new Ricki Lake has dropped 7 sizes to a 10, met and married her soulmate and, in only one season, become host of the fastest-growing talk show in TV history.
And if that's not depressing enough, she doesn't turn 26 for almost three weeks.
"Ricki Lake," Generation X's answer to such geriatric giants as "Donahue" and "Sally Jessy Raphael," began its second season Monday.
"Ricki," designed for 18-to-34-year-olds long on attitude and short on attention span, is a Nielsen juggernaut. Since the September 1993 premiere, Lake's ratings have increased 200 percent. With an average five million viewers per day, she ranks only behind her idol, Queen Oprah, in the syndicated chat-'em-up game.
"Our show is a clear voice for young people who like talk TV but can't relate to what else is out there," says Lake, relaxing in her small, windowless office.
"People who watch `Donahue' are over 50. Our show is for young people, but we've reached the point where old people - people over 30 - watch us, too. I don't mean that people over 30 are old. That would be offensive. I mean people who are over 30."
"Ricki's" meat and potatoes is relationships, teased with snappy first-person titles worthy of, well, a John Waters movie. Some recent examples: ``Summer's Over and So Are We,'' ``I'm Not the Only One Carrying His Baby'' and ``I'm Not Gay Anymore.''
Shows move at a breakneck pace, perfect for a generation spawned on MTV. New guests are introduced in each segment. And no matter how sleazoid the visitors - near-fisticuffs erupted twice during a recent taping of "I'm Always Attracted to Violent Men" - Lake keeps her cool.
And stays warm. It is that infectious warmth, along with a disarming "I'm OK, you're OK" candidness, that makes Lake so easy to be around, says Baltimore-based filmmaker Waters.
Waters, 48, cast a slimmed-down Lake in this year's "Serial Mom," which was her first project after her weight loss. (It was released on video last week.) He says he has her in mind for every movie he does. "She's a major part of my life. I don't care if she weighs 300 pounds or 100 pounds. I've had very good luck with big girls. Ricki looks good either way."
The Fat Question. It's ancient history and Lake is bored senseless by it, but she knows it's always out there, waiting to be asked.
Here we go again: Began piling on the pounds gradually her junior year of high school in Westchester County, N.Y. Ate "everything that wasn't good for me." Was "totally unaware of what I was doing to my body." Peaked at 250 pounds over her 5-foot-4 frame.
By May 1991, she had hit bottom. One day, without telling anyone, she threw out everything in her refrigerator and began a diet. No scales. No goals. No therapists. No trainers. It wasn't particularly healthy - at times, she fainted from hunger - but it worked. Gradually, she lost 125 pounds and regained her self-esteem.
"I didn't set any goals because I didn't want to fail," says Lake, who now works out with a trainer three days a week. "I still don't weigh myself. My trainer does. I don't want to get into a thing where if I gain a pound it ruins my whole day."
Rejoicing in her new bod, Lake has turned into a bona fide clotheshorse. Her taste runs to J. Crew and Tweeds; she likes shopping from catalogs. Despite her star status, however, she "can't get that poor mentality out of my head" and searches for bargains. (Takes the subway, too.)
The search for a young, hip female to host a proposed syndicated daytime talk show began two summers ago, when Ancier, 36, a former hotshot at Fox, put up $75,000 of his own money to shoot the pilot.
What impressed Ancier most, he says, was Lake's "complete lack of nervousness" on camera.
"Put me on TV and I sweat and have heart palpitations. Ricki's completely natural. When we were doing the pilot in New York, she was sitting with us, eating cookies and talking, then she said, `I have to do David Letterman now.'
"She walked on and said, `Hi, Dave.' Other people on his show that day were in the hall, hyperventilating, practicing how they'd say hello to Dave."
The camera's red light has never made Lake nervous. "Taking my SATs, I was nervous," she says, "but I've always been comfortable in front of the camera. I can't get nervous. It's what I love to do. What could possibly go wrong? I could trip and fall? Worse things have happened to me."
``Ricki Lake'' is the fastest-growing talk show in TV history.|
by CNB