Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.comMove over, Chris Noth! There’s a new Mr. Big in town.
Meet Gilles Marini, who plays Samantha Jones’ neighbor Dante in Sex and the City. He's the one causing the collective gasp in movie theaters everywhere.
Why?
Well, not only does he appear naked and having sex with one or more women for most of his screen time, but there’s a jaw-dropping side shot of his rather impressive manhood when Samantha catches Dante taking an outdoor shower.
“There was no body double,” Marini assured me yesterday from his L.A.-area home. “It was me!”
Marini, who relocated to the U.S. about a decade ago from his native France to pursue a modeling career (duh!), nabbed the five-day Los Angeles gig after just one callback audition.
“After the first towel drop, I was very comfortable,” the 32-year-old Marini said with a laugh. “As soon as it was ‘Action!’ everything sort of blacks out. I didn’t really realize anyone was there...There’s even more frontal, because we did different takes.”
Director Michael Patrick King said he knew as soon as Marini walked in the door, he had found his guy. “He is that rare combination of hot sex with Bambi eyes—irresistible," King said in an email. “Just ask any of the women who melted in the hallway at his audition. And if I had more time I could think of 10 more inches—I mean reasons—why I cast him.”
Marini’s wife of 10 years, Carole, went to see the movie on opening night with a couple of friends. “She came home and was like, ‘Gilles, I saw your penis in front of all those crazy women screaming in the movie theater,' ” said Marini, who will be in New York tomorrow to receive the Best Rear Award at Bravo’s new A-List Awards. “It was shocking, but she understands my job.”
The attention has just begun. He woke up yesterday to 800 new emails. “The entire world saw the movie,” Marini said. “This morning, I could not work out. I went to my gym, and everybody came up to talk to me, and they just talked and talked. That is not going to help with my abs.”