party lines

Ricki Lake Discovers Alcohol, Boys

Ricki

Ricki Lake shaves.Photo: Getty Images

Give Ricki Lake, newly slim former talk-show host and 39-year-old mother of two a glass of wine, and she’s as flirty as a co-ed in Cancun. “How old are you, are you even old enough to drink?” she asked us at the recent Wine Spectator–sponsored “Women in Wine” breast-cancer fund-raiser in Atlantic City. “Feel that,” she said, indicating her thigh. “I just shaved, and it feels so good. Doesn’t that feel soft?” We obligingly copped a feel. My, it was soft, we thought. Then an image of a placenta-filled bathtub shot into our mind, and so we removed our hand and took a long slug of wine. Uh. We nervously mentioned something about natural birth. “I’m fascinated with the world of birth,” Ricki enthused. “I love the rite of passage, no matter how a baby comes into the world and a woman becomes a mother, whether it’s vaginally, C-section…” Here our eyes glazed slightly over, so we tried to change the subject. How about Robin Leach? He’s put on a little bit of weight. “I’m not commenting on that,” Ricki responded, and soon enough the conversation dried up. Later, at the after-party, we saw her cavorting merrily with an unidentified, unshaven young suitor. We can’t help but wonder if she used one of the other pickup lines she tested on us: “I’m not even wearing a girdle!” —Darrell Hartman

Ricki Lake Discovers Alcohol, Boys