Not just another model-turned-actor, Denise Richards has done very well in Hollywood, with many roles to her credit. It was her star turn in 1998's Wild Things, though, that generated the most press, and certainly the most Internet interest in her career. The actor is refreshingly philosophical about her claim to fame, and wonders aloud how a mere kiss (actually a bit more than “mere,” and titillating for its menage-a-trois distinction) could precipitate such attention. There’s more to Richards than that kiss.

The strikingly pretty 15-year-old up-and-comer moved with her family from their Illinois home to New York, where her modeling career took off. Photographed there and in Tokyo and Paris for magazines and commercials, Richards was a success. Her next home (and career) was in Los Angeles, where she was cast in television’s Life Goes On (1989), and also where, the next year, she met Melrose Place’s Patrick Muldoon, with whom she now has lived for ten years. In 1991, Richards appeared in TV’s Saved By The Bell and Married With Children. She went on to roles in the TV movies Eerie, Indiana (1992) and Bodies of Evidence (1993), and the series Against the Grain (1993), as well as appearances in Seinfeld (The Shoes episode - 1993) and Lois and Clark (1994). Richard’s film debut came with National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon (1993), and she took on Tammy and the T-Rex and Lookin’ Italian in 1994. More TV followed -- 919 Fifth Avenue (1995), PCH (1995), Weird Science (1996), and In The Blink Of An Eye (1996).

The next year was big -- big roles in big pictures. Richards starred with Muldoon in Starship Troopers (1997), then went on to that famous kiss (and celebrated nudity ) in Wild Things (1998). In 1999, the actor worked steadily, filming Tail Lights Fade, Drop Dead Gorgeous and the James Bond flick, The World Is Not Enough (for a couple of Razzies -- Worst Actress and Worst Couple, the last shared with Pierce Brosnan).

Upcoming for the actor are roles in The Third Wheel and Starship Troopers II. As well, her popularity is such that she is booked for at least a half dozen gigs as awards presenter this year. To counter all those Internet shrines erected to her Wild Things image, Richards plans to have her own website up and running soon. Web surfers will be given a chance to see what casting agents already know -- that that famous kiss was delivered by a hard-working actor with talent, presence and charm.