Press

Meet the women of Coyote Ugly: the best-looking things ever to happen to softball and beer.

By Laurie Drake

It's been 17 years since Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of boy movies like Armageddon and Top Gun, delivered a girl movie like Flashdance—and made Jennifer Beak a star. But he's about to do it again for 23-year-old Piper Pcrabo in his new film, this month's Coyote Ugly. "We looked at thousands of people for the lead," says Bruckheimer, "but only Piper had the innocence and the acting ability, so she got the job." Perabo plays Violet, a fresh-faced kid from New Jersey (which she actually is) who works in a Manhattan bar called Coyote Ugly (which there actually is), staffed with employees who arc anything but.

On this day of filming, Perabo and the rest of the cast, which includes model Tyra Banks and former ER star Maria Bello, arc playing softball against another bar's team for a scene in a New York park—well, really a Little Leaguefield in Encino. California. (Its a good thing the Little Leaguersarc in school, because the actresses in their skimpy uniforms are showing a little more than bunt.) Standing behind the backstop between takes, Pcrabo swings a bat and speaks about her role as an aspiring songwriter who, working as a bartender, overcomes stage fright to start performing her songs professionally. "It's also a love story, and Adam Garcia plays the boy!" she says, flashing a megawatt smile. "I think the makeup department puts more blush on me when I fall in love. Hither that or it's me—I know I always blush when he conies on the set!"

When the Coyote Ugly girls get to the inevitable bar-top dancing scenes, there will be no time for blushing—only another opportunity to show off the results of their demanding workout schedule. "I have to be strong enough to throw men out of the bar, and carry around big cases of booze." says Bello, who plays Lil, the bar owner who runs the place with an iron fist and Harley Davidson arms, courtesy of fake tattoos. "We're all seeing the same trainer—Piper, Adam, a bunch of us—four or five times a week." (The trainer on loan, Jorgen De Mey, is Bruckheimer's own.) Perabo, a size 4 who admits she "eats like a horse," adds, "I haven't lost any weight from my workouts, but I'm more muscley. And they've given me more stamina for the long days of filming. Like this morning—I was picked up at my hotel at 5 a.m. for hair and makeup and wardrobe, and we'll shoot until the sun goes down." If Coyote Ugly has legs, as they say, then it will be a long time indeed before the sun goes down on Perabo.