‘Women still scare me’

Press, 13 September 1983, Page 15

‘Women still scare me’

Take a husky heart-throb of six feet four, who is rich, famous and charming ... and you have a man millions of women have fantasies about — the allaction star of “Magnum,” Tom Selleck. You also have a man who, he admits, will “run a mile from women fans who see me as some sort of sex object.” There are plenty of those about — as the popularity of the latest “Magnum” television series ’ showed. Since the break-up of his 10-year marriage, Selleck has avoided another permanent relationship, and says he is wary of risking another marriage. “It makes you wonder about your chances of making a go °f things second time around,” he said. “Being a successful TV figure puts all sorts of strains on a relationship. “Women still scare me when I don’t know them very well!” We met in Yugoslavia, where he was making his first big movie, “High Road To China” — which should be released quite soon. I was waiting for him by the hotel pool, when there was a buzz that was even louder than the mosquitoes, and hordes of women — all oohing and aahing — converged on Selleck, who immediately beat a hasty retreat. "I get nervous when surrounded by women,” he said when we eventually met.

The meeting was not easy. Bodyguards were on patrol outside the elevator, and outside the hotel suite. Inside, the telephone was cut off — almost as soon as he had arrived, women fans from all over the world were calling him at all hours of the night.

Finally, I met him at a party, discovered that his eyes are bright green, and ms teeth flash in a smile that seemed to say: “All the better to eat you with ...” He asked politely if I would like a drink. When he handed it to me, I was sure the ice would melt in the glass before I had even had a sip ...

“I just don’t go in for all this beefcake business,” he said. “It really embarrasses me.

“Exposed is the only word to describe it, and it makes you feel like some kind of freak.”

Selleck has had a special clause inserted in his contract that he will not strip down to bathing trunks unless it is essential to the plot. As for nude scenes: ‘Not for anything,” he said. “I really feel that all this so-called adulation I’ve been getting since I began to play ‘Magnum’ is for Magnum himself, and not me. “I could go anywhere before, and although women didn’t actually turn their backs on me, they certainly didn’t rush to crowd round me.

“I was — I still am, I hope — just an ordinary guy. I got into showbusiness by accident, when I was on a management trainee scheme for United Airlines, and took part in a television quiz show. “Some guy from 20th Century Fox spotted me, and there I was ... discovered.” It was while he was with Fox studios that the legendary Mae West gave him a part as a young stud in the movie, “Myra Breckenridge.” “It was so tiny that if you blinked you’d miss me. It was just as well, really, because it was a terrible movie, and there was no

way it was going to lead to the big time.” More tiny parts followed — eight years of them — in both films and TV. Then a cigarette commercial suddenly made his face one of the best-known in the United States.

“Again, I was discovered,” he said with a grin. “People kept saying, ‘We’ve got to have him in a series.’ In fact, I made seven pilots and they all led nowhere. Then, just three years ago, came ‘Magnum’.” It is a part that has changed his life. To get it, he had to give up the chance to play the Harrison Ford role in “The Lost Ark.” He also missed starring opposite Julie Andrews in her latest film, “Victor, Victoria.”

There were personal problems, too. His 10-year-old marriage to the actress, Jacqui Rae,

broke up, and they were both bitterly hurt by the rumours that this was because of his success as the TV private eye. “In fact,” said Selleck, “we were separated before I had even done the pilot for the show. The decision to split was mutual.”

Since then, not surprisingly, Selleck has been involved with quite a few women. So far, he insists, there is nothing permanent. “I suppose, in a way, ‘Magnum’ is to blame for that, too. I find myself hesitating to get involved with anyone. “I keep wondering: would a girl still want to go out with me if I was just ordinary, unknown Tom Selleck, and not just because I happen to be appearing in a big TV series?”

As far as I’m concerned, the answer would have to be YES!