The story of V

Steve Bornfeld

Friday, Jan. 19, 2001 | 9:47 a.m.

Who: Vanessa Williams.

When: 9 p.m. today, Saturday and Sunday.

Where: Le Theatre des Arts at Paris Las Vegas.

Tickets: $60.

Information: Call 946-4567.

Tonight on the "Sun True Hollywood Story":

Narrator: There she is, the Miss America who resigns amid humiliating scandal and rebounds as one of the most popular and respected performers in the world and is one of the few ex-Miss Americas to amount to more than a Trivial Pursuit bonus question.

All without snorting, shooting or otherwise ingesting any illegal substances. (You mean we can actually do a "True Hollywood Story" about someone who never signed the guest registry at Betty Ford? Cool!)

Vanessa Williams: "I've had one of those careers where every success I've had, people say, 'I didn't know she could do that.' After awhile, you just say, 'OK, this is going to be another surprise for people.' I'm used to it and I'm always prepared for it."

Narrator: This is the story of a woman of incredible grit who soars into the history books when she becomes the Miss America pageant's first black standard-bearer, nose-dives into an ugly quagmire when an adolescent mistake flares into a tabloid wildfire, and rises from the ruins to become a star of recording, television, movies and the Broadway stage. This is the story of a performer who will take the stage at Paris Las Vegas this weekend. This is "Vanessa Williams: The Sun True Hollywood Story."

Creepy theme music ... Commercials ... Creepy theme music.

Narrator: Her drop-dead gorgeous looks are undeniable. Cherry blossom lips. Caribbean blue-green eyes. Cafe au lait skin. As a 20-year-old Miss America, she is, quite simply, hot. But as a 37-year-old mother of four, maturity only deepens her porcelain beauty and ripens her intelligent sensuality.

An admirer on a Vanessa Williams fan website: "Vanessa Williams will be a babe when she's 50!"

Vanessa Williams: "I'm more empowered the older I get. I'm not one of those people who say, 'Oh my God, another year, I wish I looked the way I did when I was 20.' I feel more connected to life at this point. I don't mind wearing the battle scars of age and life because I think it makes you more appealing."

Narrator: Vanessa Williams is born March 18, 1963, in Millwood, N.Y., a suburb one hour north of New York City. Her parents, music teachers Helen and Milton Williams, send out a birth announcement that reads: "Here she is, Miss America." She and her brother, Christopher (now an actor) are raised in a home rich in arts and culture. Vanessa masters piano and French horn.

Vanessa Williams: "I knew I wanted to be on Broadway and dance and sing and act. I used to go watch Alvin Ailey's dance troupe. Every year my mother would take us. Donna Wood was the premier dancer. She was my icon. Lena Horne, also. I saw her on Broadway. Diahann Carroll was another woman who floats from feature films to TV to theater. And Debbie Allen is a triple threat who can sing, dance and act. Those are the people I admire."

Narrator: Education is prized in the Williams household. Vanessa's parents, both of whom hold master's degrees, insist on the use of correct grammar in the home. Over dinner, they train their children on black history with flash cards. Brownies, Girl Scouts, dance, theater and track fill young Vanessa's life. An independent streak emerges -- as does teenage rebellion.

Helen Williams, to Redbook magazine: "We saw this personality change during high school. Outside she would be cheerful and outgoing. But when she came home, it was like a blue funk had swept in the house. She'd march into her room, slam the door and not come out until dinner time."

Narrator: The solution? Her father takes Vanessa's door off its hinges.

Helen Williams: "We said, 'If you are not going to communicate and be a part of this family, then you lose the privilege of privacy.' It lasted a week. When we saw a change in attitude, he put the door back up. Vanessa always said we were very creative in our discipline."

Narrator: When the "Sun True Hollywood Story" returns, Vanessa Williams enters college -- and makes beauty pageant history. Twice.

Creepy theme music ... Commercials ... Creepy theme music.

Narrator: At Syracuse University, Vanessa Williams blossoms, studying musical theater. Her striking looks and talent get noticed.

James Clark, chairman of the drama department: "I remember quite distinctly when she did a play called 'The Golden Apple' and she played a kind of gypsy woman. I remember being very struck by her as soon as she walked on stage. That beauty that she has just radiated over the footlights. Your eye was just drawn to her. She just came alive, those great eyes she has. A sense of presence."

Narrator: Her beauty, inevitably, brings her the Miss Syracuse title. Miss New York State follows. Then ... Miss America. The first black Miss America. And all the honor -- and burden -- that entails. Some in the black community complain that she isn't "black enough." White racists object to a black woman representing American beauty. Some protest her pro-choice views. Others simply resent her being from New York.

Vanessa Williams: "I wasn't ready to be a representative and speak for everyone. I was a 21-year-old college kid. Between studying dance and taking voice and piano lessons and trying to study in between, well, I had been in a relatively sheltered world. It was definitely a big wake-up call to grow up and have a lot of opinions that normally I wouldn't have thought about."

Narrator: Then the bombshell explodes. Provocative nude photos she had posed for with another woman when she worked as a photographer's assistant are published by Penthouse magazine. Miss America officials are appalled. One declares: "I have never before seen anything like these photographs. Ugh. I can't even show them to my wife." That leads to her becoming another first -- the first woman to resign the Miss America crown.

Vanessa Williams: "I've learned to trust my gut and my own instincts. Posing for those pictures bothered me, but I wasn't strong enough or assertive enough then to say what I really felt. That's not just a life lesson, that's a woman's lesson: learning that you don't have to please everyone."

Narrator: Declaring that, "I am not a lesbian and I am not a slut, and somehow I am going to make people believe me," she sets about doing just that ... When the "Sun True Hollywood Story" returns, Vanessa Williams turns sordid scandal into smashing success.

Creepy theme music ... Commercials ... Creepy theme music.

Narrator: As a defrocked Miss America, Vanessa Williams' career comes under the care of PR wizard Ramon Hervey, who becomes her manager and, eventually, her husband. While starting a family, she also starts the climb toward show business legitimacy. Doing backup vocals for George Clinton attracts the attention of record executives, who sign her to a contract -- and opens the floodgates. The impressive run of hits sporting her silky, soulful vocals -- and 10 Grammy nominations -- begins. Among the breakouts: "Dreamin," "The Comfort Zone," "The Right Stuff," "The Way That You Love," "Save the Best For Last" (knocking Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time" off its perch atop the charts) and "Colors of the Wind" from the film "Pocahontas."

Vanessa Williams: "The one area that I didn't even have a desire to be in was recording. I knew I wanted to be on Broadway and sing and dance and act."

Narrator: So be it. On the small screen, Williams racks up credits in "The Odyssey," "Don Quixote," "Bye Bye, Birdie," "Stompin' at the Savoy," "The Jacksons: An American Family" and, most recently, "A Diva's Christmas Carol." She also turns in big-screen performances in the action flicks "Eraser" with Arnold Schwarzenegger and "Shaft" with Samuel L. Jackson. But her most heralded work is in the textured black-family drama "Soul Food" ("fierce intelligence and honesty" is how the Los Angeles Times describes her performance) and in "Dance With Me."

Vanessa Williams: "I've had my best roles in television. I've been in two big-budgeted action movies, but they're not tremendously stimulating as an actor. More of a physical feat than anything, trying to keep up with the stunt work. In the smaller films, 'Soul Food' and 'Dance With Me,' they're the ones people tend to watch over and over and want to own."

Narrator: And in 1994 her cherished Broadway dream is realized when she replaces Chita Rivera in "Kiss of the Spider Woman." She proves so popular that the show's run is extended. The New York Times notes: "Whenever she's on stage, the temperature in the Broadhurst Theatre shoots up about 20 degrees."

Vanessa Williams: "There are no tricks on Broadway. You're the real McCoy. If you can't sing or dance or act or have presence, it's all revealed when you're onstage. My goal was not to be Miss America. The beauty aspect was a sideline to what the true goal was and what my experiences prepared me for."

Narrator: When the "Sun True Hollywood Story" returns, Vanessa Williams aligns her personal and professional lives.

Creepy theme music ... Commercials ... Creepy theme music.

Narrator: Vanessa Williams' marriage to Ramon Hervey eventually ends, but the emergence of a new man in her life, 31-year-old Los Angeles Laker Rick Fox, leads to marriage and another child.

Vanessa Williams: "Having a younger husband who is learning through my experiences makes me feel like a teacher, like revisiting my youth. It makes me feel young and a little more optimistic than I would be at this stage. I could be a bit jaded because I've seen a lot. He still has a lot of hope. It's nice to have his outlook at times."

Narrator: Vanessa Williams eventually moves her family from California back to upstate New York, where they live in the small town of Chappaqua, near her parents. Her father provides musical instruction to her children, who attend the same public school system their mother did. "Passing the torch," she calls it. And although pop music now embraces the Britney Spears/Christina Aguilera crowd, Williams' success in recording, Broadway, television and movies leaves her well-positioned for the future.

Friend Luther Vandross, in an Internet interview: "The way Vanessa looks, the way she sings, that inexplicable something called charisma all work in her favor."

Vanessa Williams: "I have four wonderful kids and a great husband and a career I'm in control of. I love getting older and every challenge that it brings. And I've learned that there's always a tomorrow."

Narrator: You said it, sweetie. Speaking of which: Tomorrow on the "Sun True Hollywood Story," the inspirational tale of a one-hit-wonder rock group whose members blew all their money on drugs and women, hit rock bottom but rebounded and now operate a used car dealership in Newark, N.J.

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