Get ‘em off! It’s a given that striptease has, erm, taken off again. Just look at the amount of clubs springing up – from For Your Eyes Only to Spearmint Rhino. But what’s a little more surprising is the number of semi-serious actresses who fancy attaching the tassles and getting down’n’dirty. Jessica Alba’s done it. Salma Hayek’s had a go. Twice. Lindsay Lohan bumps’n’grinds in her latest straight-to-landfill release (see above) . Britney Spears is apparently ready to shed her clobber for Quentin Tarantino’s remake of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. Even Dame Judi Dench shakes her thing in Mrs Brown. (No she doesn’t – Ed).<\/p>
The one star who definitely won’t be pole vaulting anytime soon is Christina Ricci (the one chained to a radiator in her smalls in Black Snake Moan?). She says: \"It used to be something that we were sort of ashamed of. But now, the hottest thing to say is, 'I can work a pole!' . It's just stupid.\" Really? Check out our gallery and make up your own mind...<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-i-know-who-killed-me-2.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - i know who killed me"},{"captionHeading":"JESSICA ALBA AS NANCY CALLAHAN IN SIN CITY","caption":"
The Californian uber-babe, who appears uncomfortable in any form of apparel, shimmies her way through Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s stylised take on Sin City. She plays exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, an angelic dipper whose speciality is a lasso. Ride ‘em cowboy. Aged eleven, she was rescued by Detective John Hartigan (played by Bruce Willis), who must have done a good job as surrogate parent as she’s now an exotic dancer. Alba, whose grandparents were so strict they wouldn’t let her wear a bathing suit around the house, claims she is too anxious to go topless. She also renounced her born-again Christianity because she felt she was being judged for her appearance. Shortly after Sin City she donned a dental floss bikini for surf-crock Into The Blue.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-sin-city-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - sin city"},{"captionHeading":"DEMI MOORE AS ERIN GRANT IN STRIPTEASE","caption":"
A surgically-enhanced Demi Moore joined the pole dancing sorority when she appeared as a former FBI secretary forced to take her clothes off to finance a custody battle for her child. Burt Reynolds pops up as a corrupt congressman who becomes obsessed and later snared by the resourceful goodtime girl. For this Moore was paid $12.5m, a record fee for an actress at that time. Critically panned, it underwent last minute edits after a preview audience laughed at all the wrong bits. For chest trivia fans, this was the sixth time she showed her breasts on film.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-striptease-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - striptease"},{"captionHeading":"TERI HATCHER AS KATHERINE ‘KIKI’ TANGO IN TANGO & CASH","caption":"
The job of a cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers provided the perfect warm-up for Desperate Housewife Teri Hatcher to gets her kit off in the 1989 buddy cop drama. She plays Katherine “Kiki” Tango, the sister of a pernickety drugs cop played by Sylvester Stallone. Before taking the mirrored stage in Tango & Cash, Hatcher played a mermaid in The Love Boat and the girlfriend of poodle-permed power balladeer Michael Bolton in a pop video. After her clothes-shedding show, she went on to achieve fame as Lois Lane in The New Adventures of Superman and was also a Bond girl in the Pierce Brosnan outing Tomorrow Never Dies.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-tango-and-cash-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - tango and cash"},{"captionHeading":"NATALIE PORTMAN AS ALICE IN CLOSER","caption":"
The erudite actress, who once studied the enzymatic production of hydrogen as a student (you can bet Jessica Alba hasn’t done that), almost made the stripper’s art respectable when she received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for the role of Alice in the cerebral romantic drama Closer. She played an American exotic dancer who becomes the lover of Jude Law’s Dan, a failed writer. Says the Harvard graduate: “I don't think of the character as a stripper or a pole dancer; she has several different jobs throughout the story. That one just happens to be the most salient one for audiences, I suppose. It's not a conscious decision to show a new side – namely my backside! It's more just trying different things.\" Right.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-closer-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - closer"},{"captionHeading":"SALMA HAYEK AS SANTANICA PANDEMONIUM IN FROM DUSK TILL DAWN","caption":"
Hayek – the first Mexican to be nominated for a best actress Oscar – plays a stripper-with-a-twist (she’s a vampire queen) in the 1996 action-horror film from Robert Rodriguez. Introduced as: “The mistress of the macabre, the epitome of evil, the most sinister woman to crawl on the face of the Earth\" (whither Vanessa Feltz?), she also has a novel use for a snake. After seducing the customers at The Titty Twister, she also stops gyrating long enough to take a chunk out of the neck of Quentin Tarantino’s robber-on-the-run Richie Gekko. He bleeds to death. Rodriguez had earlier given Hayek her first break alongside Antonio Banderas in Desperado. Apparently, in real life Hayek hates snakes.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-from-dusk-till-dawn-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - from dusk till dawn"},{"captionHeading":"SALMA HAYEK AS SERENDIPITY IN DOGMA","caption":"
After her bloodletting outing as a vampire queen-cum-stripper in From Dusk Till Dawn, Hayek was ready to take pole position again in Kevin Smith’s Dogma. She played Serendipity, a muse with writer’s block who resorts to stripping to make, erm, ends meet. Serendipity claims as a muse she inhabited a body on Earth so she could get credit for her work, only to find that her powers of inspiration couldn't be used for personal gain. So she started stripping.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-salma-hayek-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - salma hayek"},{"captionHeading":"BRITT EKLAND AS RACHEL SCHIPTENDAVEL IN THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY’S","caption":"
The Swedish actress, who is better known in a kit off scenario (cf The Wicker Man), played – bare with it – an innocent Amish girl from rural Pennsylvania. Arriving in New York, with a routine of dances based on biblical stories, her set is deemed to dull for the burlesque clubs. However, a sneaky club promoter – in a bid to humiliate Denholm Elliot’s moral crusader - bills her as Madamoiselle Fifi, performing the \"dance that drove a million Frenchmen wild.\" In the following brouhaha, she invents the striptease. Job done. Trivia: Norman Wisdom also starred…but mercifully kept his clothes on.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-The-Night-They-Raided-Minskys-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - The Night They Raided Minsky's"},{"captionHeading":"LOLITA DAVIDOVICH AS BLAZE STARR IN BLAZE","caption":"
Younger readers may well know her as a granny in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, but the Canadian star first blazed a trail in, em, Blaze. She beat off the challenge of 600 other hopefuls to land the role of “burlesque artiste” Blaze Starr, a flesh-revealing stage performer who caught the eye of ageing Earl Long (Paul Newman), the flamboyant 1950s governor of Louisiana. Apparently, Davidovich, who also married director Ron Shelton, purposefully put on weight to play the busty bodice-discarder.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-blaze-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - blaze"},{"captionHeading":"DREW BARRYMORE/LUCY LIU/CAMERON DIAZ IN CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE","caption":"
The sophisticated script of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle required Ms Diaz. Ms Liu and Ms Barrymore to don cleavage spilling uniforms to demonstrate their credentials as feminist free-thinkers determined to stamp out global crime. In a strip club. The titillating trio, acting on the orders of a bloke they never see, undress to impress (actually, they don’t) at LA’s Pussycat Dolls club. Decked out in what appears to be Salvation Army uniforms, Diaz acts as a distraction, stripping and pouring water over her breasts, while Liu and Barrymore give their target a lapdance in order to get what they came for. Think The Spice Girls meet The Bill.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-charlies-angels-full-throttle-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - charlie's angels full throttle"},{"captionHeading":"GRETCHEN MOL AS BETTIE PAGE IN THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE","caption":"
The intriguing life of Bettie Page – the Nashville wannabe teacher who ended up a fetish model and pin-up – is respectfully brought to the big screen by the actress Gretchen Mol. Of course, this means Mol, who takes the part of Bettie, decking herself in all sorts of outlandish get-up including thigh-high boots, whips and chains. Mol would go on to star in the American remake of Life on Mars. Page would discover God. Apparently, in the the famous Jungle Bettie pics, Page posed with cheetahs. In the movie, they are jaguars. Don’t lose sleep over it.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-the-notorious-betty-page-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - the notorious betty page"},{"captionHeading":"ELIZABETH BERKLEY AS NOMI MALONE IN SHOWGIRLS","caption":"
It could have been all so different. At the age of eight Elizabeth Berkley once auditioned for the role of Annie…but was turned down because she was too tall. Just over a decade later she was getting her kit off in director Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls, a movie generally acknowledged as being one of the worst ever made. A torrid tale of rape, lesbianism and unsuitable relationships, Berkley played a drifter who wanders into Las Vegas and climbs the seedy hierarchy from stripper to showgirl. Since its release, the film has achieved a cult status on video and DVD and has since become one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-showgirls-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - showgirls"},{"captionHeading":"JESSICA SIMPSON IN THE DUKES OF HAZZARD","caption":"
Striptease was almost a contractual requirement in this cinematic celebration of America’s redneck south as experienced by good ‘old cousins Bo and Luke Duke, played by Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville. The clothing removal scene was provided by Jessica Simpson as their pneumatic cousin Daisy, whose striptease routine in a red bikini distracts some old letching redneck long enough for Daisy to discover the whereabouts of Bo and Duke. While many pre-pubescents were ogling Simpson, there were probably a whole lot more coming over all unnecessary at the sight of the boys’ Dodge Charger.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-the-dukes-of-hazzard-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - the dukes of hazzard"},{"captionHeading":"JAMIE LEE CURTIS AS HELEN TASKER IN TRUE LIES","caption":"
The unashamed pilfering of the Bond franchise wasn’t the only take off in Arnie’s super-slick action fest. No, Jamie Lee Curtis’s clothes came off as well. She played Helen, the unfulfilled wife of Arnie’s superspy Harry Tasker, who is blissfully unaware of her hubby’s governmental derring-do. In one scene, she’s lured to a hotel where she’s persuaded to teasingly remove her clobber for Harry, who hides his face in shadow and only reveals himself when she’s fully disrobed. It’s not a marital strategy that Relate would endorse.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-true-lies-1-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - true lies 1"},{"captionHeading":"ROSE MCGOWAN AS CHERRY IN PLANET TERROR","caption":"
When you hear that a stripper’s got an appendage it’s normal to assume it’s actually someone else’s. A punter’s maybe. And you fear the sordid worst. In Planet Terror, Rose McGowan’s a stripper and she’s got one. But, titter ye not, it’s not what you might think. It’s a modified stockless M4 Carbine with an underslung M203 grenade launcher. And it replaces what was once her leg. Quentin Tarantino’s gindhouse project may have gone tits up (unlike McGowan) but it provided one of the few instances of a stripper actually going out with a bang.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-planet-terror-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - planet terror"},{"captionHeading":"VALERIE PERRINE AS \"HOT\" HONEY HARLOW IN LENNY","caption":"
Not, as you might, think an all-singing, all-dancing and all-disrobing tribute to the Dudley funnyman Lennie Henry. No, this told the story of taboo-busting 1960s stand-up Lenny Bruce. Valerie Perrine, who would go on to star in Little Mel's What Women Want, was Oscar-nominated for her role as Honey Bruce nee Harlow, the feisty wife of the comedian as played by Dustin Hoffman. The real Honey spent almost a year in jail after she was nicked for trying to break into a sweet vending machine,<\/p>","url":"2008/9/8/Strippers-Gallery-lenny-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Strippers Gallery - lenny"},{"captionHeading":"LINDSAY LOHAN AS AUBREY FLEMING/DAKOTA MOSS IN I KNOW WHO KILLED ME","caption":"
Lohan’s straight-to-video I Know Who Killed Me won eight Golden Raspberry Awards, a new record (beating Showgirls and Battlefield Earth), including Worst Film, Worst Actress and the first ever award in a new category, Worst Excuse For A Horror Movie. But a whole nation of moist-palmed adolescent boys won’t be worried about that. No sirree. They’ll be settling down for the sight of Lohan as a talented pianist and aspiring writer who just may have a twin who happens to be a stripper. But don’t get too worked up lads, she keeps her top on. Just to add to the noble aura surrounding this, Lohan was unable to promote it as she’d just been nicked for driving while under the influence. Class.<\/p>