A Field Guide To Lisa Rinna

June 5, 2012
OTTIMO-MASSIMO

Remember how earlier today we said "we learned a lot of neat stuff about Lisa Rinna" while writing about her translucent dress and visible nipples? Well, we meant it; we did some research, we think she's a fascinating lady, and we're going to relay some of that information (and some of her naked pictures) to you!

Lisa Deanna Rinna was born on July 11, 1963 in Newport Beach, California, but she was raised mostly in Medford, Oregon. Her only sibling was really a half-sibling who grew up in a different home, and so Lisa says,"I was really growing up as an only child and I was set on getting all the attention. [My parents] knew early on I was going to be a performer of some kind." She acted in school plays all throughout her youth and then studied drama for a year at the University of Oregon; she perhaps would've continued her studies had she been accepted into the next level of acting classes, but she says her teachers didn't like her too much. Lisa dropped out of school, stopped acting for four years, lived with her sister, and started modeling.

After spending some time modeling in Japan and San Francisco, Rinna moved to Los Angeles and signed up for acting classes. She appeared in a music video, as someone's girlfriend on "The Hogan Family," and in a few other places before she earned national recognition for the role of Billie Reed on the ultra-popular soap opera "Days of Our Lives." Lisa later switched from daytime to primetime TV, going from "Days of Our Lives" to Aaron Spelling's "Melrose Place." Since then, she's been in countless other TV shows, reality shows, celebrity news shows, movies, and Broadway plays (sometimes acting alongside her famous husband, Harry Hamlin), but most recently, she's returned to "Days" as Billie Reed.

In 1998, when she was six months pregnant, Rinna posed naked for a cover shoot and nude pictorial in Playboy. She posed again eleven years later, sans bun in the oven, but says she felt way less confident about showing off her body the second time. Lisa says that Playboy photographer Deborah Anderson had her skip the gym because she didn't want Rinna to be sinewy and muscular, but soft. Harry Hamlin called the resulting pictures "absolutely awesome" and we can't agree with him more.

But we respect Rinna's right to feel concerned about her appearance, especially given how many people criticized her about her silicone-injected lip; she compares the experience to getting a tattoo at a young age. Lisa's feeling on the whole matter is made clear in her interview with Oregon Live:

"I was 24 years old and my friends and I had just seen the movie 'Beaches,' and do you remember Barbara Hershey back then had collagen put in her lip? And we thought, in our stupidity, that that looked really good and that would be a fun thing to do and do," Rinna recalled. "I never felt badly about my lip. I think all women growing up have a hard time with how they look. That's just what we all go through as women. I took it a step further and I went and I did something that was permanent and that was the thing that if I had to do it again, I wouldn't want to do it because then you have to live with it."

Fortunately, Lisa's new life motto seems to be something along the lines of, "Whatever, I look fucking awesome," and we're happy about that. You have to admire the swagger of a woman who can appear in a Depends commercial modeling a new line of body-hugging adult incontinence diapers, look bangin' in the process, make off with a check for $225,000, and then donate said check to charity.

And speaking of things that inspire confidence in adults, Lisa recently teamed up with sex therapist Ian Kerner and came out with what she refers to as, "the handbook to 'Fifty Shades of Grey.'" It's a sex book and therefore it is called "The Big, Fun, Sexy Sex Book." This project stemmed from a chapter in her 2008 book, "Rinnavation," about sex and the sexless period right after she had her first child and struggled with postpartum depression. Her mission to reinvigorate her love life led her to share her experiences with others, and the positive feedback from fans and loved-ones inspired her to take it a step further with the help of a professional. Rinna notes:

I certainly never set out to do any of this. I never thought I'd write a book about sex. I'm not an expert. But I have lived through something, and I have been in a marriage for 20 years that has lasted, so I think I have valuable things to say. Because of Ian's expertise it's an encyclopedia on how to get out of a sex rut, how to take risks in your sex life, how to start a conversation with your partner that you've been terrified to bring up. It's really about communication. I really believe anything two people do behind closed doors, as long as it's consensual, is OK. But you've got to talk about it and be open. I hope this book opens people up to try new things.

I don't understand why it's not OK to do something that makes us feel so good and so connected to another human being. It's a gift, a beautiful gift that our bodies were made to do, and not just for procreation but for enjoyment.

If you're curious about what the book holds in store, Lisa wrote up a list of five tips for Fox News that all pertain to getting in the mood--engaging in pre-pre-foreplay--with your partner. Maybe the book won't get you involved in suburban BDSM relationships, but it sure seems damn informative and positive!

In fact, Lisa Rinna seems damn informative and positive, and she's pretty damn cute, too.

Be sure to check out:
· Lisa Rinna's Official Website (lisarinna.com)
· Her Twitter (twitter.com)
· Her Facebook Fan Page (facebook.com)
· And her book, "The Big, Fun, Sexy Sex Book" (amazon.com)