In 1983 Stevens began a long-term relationship with rock guitarist Bob Kulick; they share Stevens' Beverly Hills home
The couple first met in 1983 at the Power Station, a New York City recording studio where Kulick was cutting the sound track for an eventually shelved B movie called Rock and Roll Hotel. Stella, one of the film's stars, had come to sing
People Magazine
October 22, 1990 Vol. 34 No. 16
'Ear Ye, 'Ear Ye: Ribald Sex Bomb Stella Stevens, 52, and Wry, Bald Rocker Bob Kulick, 37, Find True Love
By Cynthia Sanz
After six months of dating, actress Stella Stevens and rock guitarist Bob Kulick decided to put their romance to the test. Over dinner one night at an Indian restaurant, the two scribbled down a few words on the back of a napkin and turned their lives over to the establishment's resident handwriting analyst. The woman peered at the writing, looked at the couple, then said she couldn't imagine them living with anyone other than each other.
"That clinched it for us," says Kulick. "When you have your handwriting analyzed in an Indian restaurant, you know you're meant for each other."
Seven years later, Stevens and Kulick are still proving the soothsayer right. Nestled in the comfy, four-bedroom Beverly Hills home that Stevens bought 25 years ago, the two scoff at suggestions that a 52-year-old onetime Playboy centerfold might have little in common with a 37-year-old bald rock guitarist.
"We have an enormous amount in common," says Kulick.
"Definitely, tons of things," says Stevens. "I like to cook, and he likes to eat. He likes to play music, I like to listen...."
There are other interests too—one of which is reflected in the large mirror on the ceiling above their bed. "The first woman I knew of who had a mirror over her bed was Mae West, and she was an idol of mine," says Stella. "I wanted a mirror that would outdo Mae West. By golly, I got it."
Kulick admits that the overhead reflector caused some distraction at first, not to mention fear of what an earthquake might do. "But what can I say?" he grins. "You get used to seeing yourself."
Happily for Stevens, Kulick isn't the only one seeing her these days. For the past year the former movie sexpot has been a TV regular as Phyllis Blake, the meddlesome mother on the NBC soap Santa Barbara. She also has five completed films awaiting release—although they may say more about her enduring image than her present star power. (The quintet includes Mom, a vampire comedy in which she plays a hooker named Beverly Hills, and Sanctuary, which presents her as a mom with more-than-motherly feelings for her son.) Kulick, a veteran studio musician and tour sideman, recently formed a new group called Skull—its name chosen for obvious reasons—and has recorded an album, No Bones About It, scheduled for release in January.
The couple first met in 1983 at the Power Station, a New York City recording studio where Kulick was cutting the sound track for an eventually shelved B movie called Rock and Roll Hotel. Stella, one of the film's stars, had come to sing, and "we got to talking," says Kulick. "I must have chattered away for a good hour or so. In my mind I was thinking maybe we could have dinner...or more."
Indeed. Says Stella: "I walked into the Power Station, and Bob got an immediate erection. I guess he held that thought for 14 months."
That's how long it took before the two finally went out. Busy schedules at first limited their contact to phone calls, letters and gifts (among them a book from Stella titled How to Regain Your Virginity). Finally she invited him to L.A. one Thanksgiving. Notes Stevens: "He must have liked my turkey a lot, 'cause he stayed for nearly seven years.... "And their age difference? No problem. "He seemed to be old enough to know what he was doing," says Stella, "and that was good enough for me."
Although the couple soon started talking about a future together, marriage was never an issue—thanks mostly to Stevens's first brush with matrimony more than 30 years earlier. Born Estelle Eggleston, she grew up in Memphis, the only child of a factory foreman and a nurse. Pregnant at 15, she married her 18-year-old boyfriend, then divorced him a year later, citing mental cruelty. After her son Andrew's birth, she enrolled in Memphis State University and took part-time modeling jobs at a local department store, where she was discovered by a visiting press agent.
Brought to Hollywood by Twentieth Century-Fox to work as a dancer, Stevens was dropped six months after her arrival over a time-card dispute with the studio. In need of money, she made what she now says was the worst decision of her life: posing nude for Playboy.
Stevens says she collected only $500 for the January 1960 photo spread and that "it caused me more grief for the rest of my life than you can imagine." Much of the unhappiness involved the photos' effect on her son, who was only 6 at the time. Andrew, now 35, would eventually achieve TV stardom of his own in Code Red and later in the miniseries Beggarman, Thief. But he still recalls "fighting on a daily basi