A Queen of the Bees.

A half-Dane, half-Irish heart-stopper straight out of ChiTown, Virginia Madsen is one of those uncommon actresses with tons of credits and little to show for them (but things may be looking up for her with her Oscar-nominated "comeback" role in SIDEWAYS). A single Mom who's worked steadily throughout the 80s and 90s (took 15 minutes of staring for me to pin a name to her in a STAR TREK: VOYAGER episode), she got a "don't blink" vignette in Lynch's overblown DUNE as one of the royal babes seated around Jose Ferrer, but the indie standout FIRE WITH FIRE earned her many Hollywood friends and a lot of accolades (I still liked her best opposite Tom Hulce in SLAM DANCE). Bogged down mightily by CANDYMAN and the unforgivable HIGHLANDER 2: THE QUICKENING, she gave fellow fleshmongers everything and more with the Dennis Hopper potboiler THE HOT SPOT (an uninhibited, sinus-clearing classic with some of the best nude scenes around); assuming you can tear yourself away from the rest of her, use the "zoom" feature on your DVD player and check out her eyes: they shift from green to brown with the right lighting and angles (weird!). Though she's getting along in years now, she's held up better than many of her contemporaries, and can out-act most of the scrawny cupcakes in today's flicks. The face, the bod, and the brain.....one of the few women I'd actually consider marrying.