The first thing that must be said about Carmen Electra – with no disrepect intended – is that she almost literally is a Barbie doll made flesh, and not merely because of those gravity-defying body proportions.

In person, she is utterly tiny – far more so than is the norm with models-turned-actresses – which may account somewhat for her one-time relationship with the ultra-diminutive Prince/The Artist Formerly Known As/Whatever. I say ‘somewhat’ , because it’s not as though the woman is lacking in other tangible assets (two of them are especially glaring, as you may notice if you carefully examine the picture opposite with a magnifying glass).

Her impossibly exotic looks and near-dusky complexion are probably a result of her improbable-sounding Cherokee, Irish and German ancestry, and allowed the young Tara Leigh Patrick (shock horror: Carmen Electra is not her real name!) early breaks into the modelling world. A move to Los Angeles in 1991, however, was to change the girl’s fortunes considerably.

“‘I’d been there a week, when I went to this club called Spice, where I was approached by a woman who said that she had this all-girl band that Prince was producing, and I had the look they were after. We ended up going to Prince’s house in LA. And he was really nice, but kind of quiet. Basically, I auditioned right there in front of him at 2am (one can only imagine). He played piano and I sang ‘Do Re Mi’ from The Sound Of Music. I was once in The Sound Of Music musical, so I knew the song. And then I danced.

“Now, the whole time he’s sitting there, he’s just waching me with no expression on his face. So there I am, dancing my butt off, doing the Booty Shake and everything (laughing) – and he still has no expression, so I’m thinking ‘He thinks I suck. I’ve gotta take some more classes.’ So I go home and don’t hear a thing for two months.

“So I got in touch with Prince’s bodyguard because I’d recorded some demos on my own that I wasn’t really happy with, and I thought it would be great if Prince would help me out. I finally got a phone call ages later, at around 4am, and it was him. He said, ‘I wrote you a song – if you like it, you can sing it.’ It was called ‘Carmen On Top’ and I loved it. The catch was that I had to go to Minneapolis to record it. So I ended up living there for two and a half years.”

And so it came to pass that Carmen became yet another protege/conquest for the Artist, and was signed in 1992 to his Paisley Park label. Despite the massive push which followed – an opening slot on Prince’s Diamonds and Pearls tour and an aggressive marketing campaign in Rolling Stone magazine and on MTV – Carmen’s musical career was to prove ill-fated. All the same, Carmen remembers both the time and her most famous consort with particular fondness.

“I had this mad crush on him, and every time we danced I’d fantasise about him and what it would be like to be with him. We’d go out on dates; we’d go out to the club or to a movie, out to dinner or a concert, but he was recording and I was recording. We were so busy, we never really had time to start a proper relationship. I was very attracted to him – I think he’s a musical genius and a really beautiful man.”

Between 1993 and 1995 Carmen hit the wilderness years, and was reduced to hanging around LA with other wannabes. Her also-ran status, however, improved significantly after breast implants enabled her to land a nude spread in Playboy magazine in April of 1996, and later that year a ‘role’ in the Playboy Cheerleaders video. Carmen is still fairly upbeat about the experience.

“Well, you know one thing I should say is that I was never a Playmate. What I did was a Celebrity Pictorial. My shoot was really tasteful and it was exactly what I wanted it to be. And you know, I’ve been a dancer since I was five, so I’ve always been very comfortable with my body.”

Certainly, her work with Playboy resurrected Carmen’s career, and led to a job as co-host on MTV’s dating show Singled Out, taking over the duties once performed by Jenny McCarthy. Their shared career trajectory (taking this role and a spate of comedy cameos) have led to many comparisons between Carmen and McCarthy, but Carmen remains unperturbed by this state of affairs.

“I think at first, especially when I just took over Singled Out, people were wondering ‘Who is this girl? Is she going to be like Jenny?’ But all the kids at MTV were really supportive and said ‘Carmen, you are doing a great job!’

A couple of appearances on the shortlived TV spin-off Baywatch Nights meant that Carmen ultimately stepped in for that other quintessential icon of the ‘90s, replacing the legendary Pamela Anderson on the original Baywatch.

With Baywatch came the tabloids, which became even more difficult to deal with when Carmen left a three-year relationship with Cypress Hill’s B-Real for a shortlived (even by Californian standards) two-week marriage to National Enquirer headline-maker Dennis Rodman. Has she any regrets?

“No. None at all. That’s where I was at that time in my life and I learned a lot from it. I had lost my mother, who was my best friend. During that time, I sort of became numb because I had to accept the fact that she wasn’t there anymore. While I was going through this painful time, Dennis was there for me. And it was fun, being with Dennis, but I felt I was surrounding myself with people because I didn’t want to face the pain. Then I was watching Oprah and she said ‘in order to heal, you have to feel’. So I gave it a while, spent some time alone to accept the loss of my mother and really feel the pain. So even though Dennis was a distraction I learned a lot from him.”

Is it hard carrying out acting duties with such a glamorous image?

‘Well, I just finished shooting Get Over It which was fun (it’s an extremely weird sort of Shakespeare-meets-rock-opera high-school musical), and also a movie called Perfume. It’s kind of hip-hop meets the fashion industry, and I play Omar Epp’s girlfriend in the movie. It was great because it was all improvised so we never knew how a scene was going to end. As for the glamour, yeah it’s definitely hard to get rid of, but I knew what I was getting myself into. I mean, I’ve never been ashamed of my sexuality, which is why I posed nude for Playboy. It was a choice that I made and something that I wanted to do. It was the same when I went on to do Baywatch. But I followed just what I wanted to do – against my agent’s advice, against whoever. I do think it’s harder – you really have to prove yourself. But if you do, it’s great.” b

Carmen Electra is appearing (briefly) in Get Over It, playing nationwide from June 7th