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The current issue of Harper's Bazaar proclaims that we are entering a new era, the age of an "unintimidating, personalized kind of pretty." What this means is that for the first time in quite a while, models are opening their mouths, cracking a smile and looking in many instances as though they would rather play beach volleyball than snort heroin. So what is one of the greatest assets that a model can possess in this, the latest dawn of the girl next door? Freckles. You will find them all over the faces of such newcomers as Stacey McKenzie (above, center) and Elizabeth Moses (left), featured in splashy ads for Todd Oldham Jeans and the Gap. Meanwhile, old-timers like supermodel Nadja Auermann are no longer masking their freckles with cover-up. "Editors want women to look touchable, not ostentatious, not perfect," explains Allure's Linda Wells. "Freckles make you look friendlier." Pippi Longstocking, get your Revlon contract.
MISSING IN ACTION
Some of the fall's most eagerly anticipated (or at least most hyped) cultural events won't be turning up after all:
INK Ted Danson's new CBS sitcom--co-starring wife Mary Steenburgen--has been postponed for creative retooling.
U2'S NEW ALBUM The untitled record has been put off from October until early next year.
O.J. PART II Simpson's forthcoming civil trial won't be televised, thanks to an order by Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki.
IT'S 9:30. WHAT'S ON? THE MOST NETWORK TV EVER...
Public Morals (CBS) From Steven Bochco, a would-be Barney Miller for the 1990s
The Drew Carey Show (ABC) Returning show is Friends in a lower tax bracket
Men Behaving Badly (NBC) Definitely not TV's most feminist-minded sitcom
The Jamie Foxx Show (WB) A show-biz aspirant takes a job in his family's hotel
Star Trek: Voyager (UPN) The network's sci-fi line-up angles for male viewers
Party of Five (Fox) The acclaimed orphaned-kid drama is back for another season
TV'S WEDNESDAY NIGHT FEVER
Consider it not necessarily a night of must-see TV but rather a night of hard-to-avoid TV. With all six networks--the big four plus the fledglings the WB and UPN--going head to head with fall programming for the first time, Wednesday will be the busiest night ever on TV. Viewers will be barraged with a choice of 23 shows ranging from Grace Under Fire to Star Trek: Voyager. Overload? Not according to scheduling executives, who believe they have manipulated time slots so effectively that they will be able to call very specific segments of the viewing public their own.
"No one has put the killer home-run show on Wednesday nights yet," concedes Kelly Kahl of CBS, whose network offers Rhea Pearlman's new overaged-college-student comedy Pearl for Wednesdays. "Our main goal is women 25 to 54." The WB is chasing younger men and women, in their late teens and early 20s--tough, given that Fox serves up the adolescent-friendly Beverly Hills, 90210 and Party of Five on Wednesdays. With its sci-fi lineup, UPN is courting older male viewers--but, notes senior executive VP Len Grossi, "not 50-plus CBS older."