Gayheart is a Monkey

Fame has its ups and downs, and for Rebecca Gayheart one of the downs was having a magazine call her "Über Slinky Monkey." "It's not like any of the articles are ever accurate," Gayheart says of her press in the latest Freewheelin' magazine. The monkey headline, found in a publication she refuses to name, was a new low. "So there's this really ugly picture of me, and my friend Ivana is flipping through the magazine, and she says 'Rebecca, what is this?' and it's a picture of me all greased up in a bikini. It says [in newscaster's voice] 'Rebecca Gayheart: Über Slinky Monkey.' I'm like, Oh God, someone just called me an über slinky monkey, and what is an über slinky monkey anyway?"

Though Gayheart's star is on the rise thanks to her role in this fall's ABC drama Wasteland, the former Noxema girl has the occasional fantasy of trading in celebrity for maternity. She says that while holding a friend's baby she thought "Man, what am I doing? I could give it all up for this." In the latest version of that dream, Gayheart leaves Hollywood happy and pregnant. "I wanna get really fat and wear big baggy clothes. I don't want to worry about looking cute when I'm pregnant. I just want to go there and get fat."

Until motherhood calls, Gayheart will shrug off the press and continue pursuing her goal "to always work with material I like, directors I like, and actors that I respect." One director she likes but won't work with right away is fiancè Brett Ratner. "I'm sure we will work together," Gayheart explains. "I just think we should wait until we're older. I'll be 50, at least."— John Aboud TVguide.com.