{alltv} Stories behind MTV's most popular videos

 

Clumsy pigeons, angry transvestites and inept lovers all figure in Sharon Oreck's career as a video music producer for Madonna, Prince, Chris Isaak and other pop icons.

In her new book, "Video Slut," due from Faber & Faber on May 25, she dishes the behind-the-scenes secrets of MTV's most popular videos, including:

* Madonna was almost attacked by a 1,600-pound lion on the set of "Like a Virgin" because she was menstruating. The beast sniffed around her midsection for 10 minutes until he was "enticed away with a choice hunk of unrefrigerated horse meat."

* A gang of transvestites stormed the set of Janet Jackson's "Nasty" video in Los Angeles, demanding $50 or, "we are going to flash you."

After a SWAT team was summoned, Oreck agreed to pay off the trannies with "200 American dollars, some really cheap fried chicken and 10 complimentary six-packs of Joe Cola" -- a beverage branded by Janet's father, Joe Jackson.

* Chris Isaak had no idea how to be sexy with Helena Christensen on the set of "Wicked Game." Oreck translated photographer Herb Ritts' instructions to Isaak on how to seduce Christensen on camera: "Herb says you should attempt to sensually feel the Danish-Peruvian supermodel's breast and you, the Danish-Peruvian supermodel, must rebuff him in a way that says you both mean it and yet do not mean it."

* Pigeons spray-painted to look like doves were injured on the set of Sheila E's "The Glamorous Life" because they don't know how to fly at night.

Oreck will give a reading Tuesday at Barnes & Noble in TriBeCa.

 

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