"It was just lip touching, nothing fancy," says Erika Eleniak of her legendary kissing scene with ET's Elliot. "But we were both nervous. He was part of some 'girl haters' club at the time, and I sat in my dressing room and cried."

Thank god then for the two men in her life: Stephen Spielberg ("He always made us laugh"), and TJ, Eleniak's first boyfriend ("I'd kissed him already, he was better at it, too, so that took some pressure off"). Pre-pubescence aside, the experience ultimately proved worthwhile. "I just thought I was doing an alien movie, under the title 'A Boy's life'", she explains, "when I saw the finished version, my jaw dropped!" Avoiding the Barrymore road to temptation, courtesy of a dedicated "mom", she soon landed a plum part in 'Baywatch', alongside Pamela Anderson, ex boyfriend Billy Warlock and David Hasselhoff. However, she did decline to follow the latter's path into pop. "And be 'that girl from baywatch' bouncing around in in a pair of cut off shorts? No thank you!"

Since appearing in Playboy, and jumping out of a cake topless, ("Originally there was a costume, but that soon went") in Under Siege, her acting career has remained steady.

Appearing in two films this year, 'The Opponent' and 'The Librarians', and midway through a divorce, Eleniak spends her free time as a volunteer with pre school children. It is a move that has delighted the kids ("The other day a boy called Eddie said: 'Miss Erika, I love you.' He just melted my heart") and one would imagine, their dads alike. "Well, now that you mention it, the pyjama day did seem to go down rather well..."