Spelling says she has recovered from the relationship, which ended in early 1995, and is growing more comfortable with her body and the questions about plastic surgery. Though the alt.tv.90210 newsgroup went into a cyberfrenzy last year when Spelling apparently jumped three cup sizes, she denies having had her breasts enlarged. She will cop only to her nose job, done, she says, at her mother's urging when she was 16. "I lost my baby fat, and people say I got work done instead," she says. "But I haven't. And these [points to chest] are real. It's Miracle Bra. Not the Wonderbra. Miracle Bra is the real secret."
Actually, the real secret is how Spelling took a career that began as the butt of a thousand jokes—including one of the few memorable skits on Saturday Night Live in the early '90s—and made it flourish. Even Lindy DeKoven, the NBC exec who oversaw Spelling's TV movies, finds it hard to account for her appeal. "She's accessible in some way," offers DeKoven, who hesitates just slightly when grilled about whether actual talent is involved, then says, "There's a relatability factor."
Which doesn't exactly define talent. But one can hypothesize that Spelling's fans—including a cult following of gay men—aren't really watching Spelling because of her dramatic range. "Tori epitomizes the plain Jane, who through sheer will and money transformed herself, if not into a swan, then at least into a duck," says Village Voice columnist Michael Musto. "Her appeal is the appeal of a rich girl who has her own wing of her [parents'] mansion but is determined to work."
There's that determination again, and Spelling would have you believe that's the sole reason for her blossoming career. "When I was little, my mom would take me to auditions and I'd get rejected and she'd get upset," she says, absentmindedly stroking her large, burgundy Gucci bag. "I never got upset. I just kept going."
She's kept going despite the rejections, the mean remarks, her own insecurities, and the ugly breakups, not only with a boyfriend but with a former best friend, 90210 costar Shannen Doherty. The end of their friendship coincided, perhaps not surprisingly, with Aaron Spelling booting Doherty off the show in 1993. "One day I just stopped hearing from her," says Spelling, who has avoided calling Doherty to ask what happened. "I'd be too afraid of what she might say. But I think if we met again it would be cool, we'd be friendly." (Attempts to reach Doherty for comment were unsuccessful.)
In contrast, Spelling is very close with her current 90210cast mates, all of whom are relieved she's no longer with Savalas. "Tori was really sad a lot of the time when she was with Nick," says costar Brian Austin Green, who has come to care for her after early reservations. He and other cast members had initially worried that they couldn't talk freely in front of Spelling because she might report them to her father. "But once we met her, that all changed," says Green. "She's had a much bigger obstacle to overcome—because of people saying she's where she is because of her dad—than any of us."
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