Jenny McCarthy:

With an upcoming movie and more TV offers, the beauty queen of kitsch isn't upset her sitcom bombed. "The lower people's expectations, the higher you can go."

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In this story:
Jenny's advice for women AND men
Ask Jenny for advice

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enny McCarthy, 25, describes her career last year in three words: "Hot, hot, hot!" After the former Playboy Playmate's rowdy stint hosting the MTV game show Singled Out, she became the feisty fantasy girl for armies of frat boys and a cover girl for countless magazines. Four television networks begged her to star in a series.

"These are your 15 minutes of fame," people said to her. "Enjoy 'em."

"I hated when people told me that," she now says. "I'd say, 'Just wait! It'll never be just 15 minutes for me.' "

Then NBC canceled her sitcom, Jenny, after only 10 episodes, and critics gloated that McCarthy's big-mouthed-beauty shtick had lost its appeal. "I bawled," she says, but picked herself up, signed up for acting lessons and began planning her second 15 minutes. "The lower people's expectations," she says, "the higher you can go."

Later this month she's in BASEketball, a new film comedy starring the creators of cable TV's controversial South Park cartoon, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. "They have the heat now that I had last year. It's interesting to watch."

McCarthy seems more vulnerable than her audacious TV image. She talks openly of the humiliation she felt as a bed-wetter until age 10. An outcast in Catholic school in Chicago, she had her breasts enlarged at 18 because she wrongly thought it would lift her self-esteem.

Maybe because she's a former nursing student, McCarthy is empathetic even toward those who dislike her. She goes online to visit "I Hate Jenny" chat rooms. Who hates her? "Often it'll be 13-year-old girls whose boyfriends have pictures of me on the wall. I can relate. My high school boyfriend had Heather Locklear on his wall. I cried so hard and made him tear it into a billion pieces."

Her advice for those 13-year-old girls: "Rip it, rip it, rip it!" Even if all her posters end up in shreds, she vows, we haven't heard the last from her. She's been offered dramatic roles. She says she's about to sign up for a new sitcom.

"I'm going to work until I'm 90."

JENNY'S ADVICE

If other women don't like you: "Read tons of self-help books. ... And don't watch too much TV. TV shows have a lot of characters who are women hating other women."

Men: "If you have no idea how to be sensitive, watch Mister Rogers. He's not wimpy; he's sensitive."

Women: "Turn up the volume. Be louder than the boys."

How to survive Catholic school: "Pray. Pray hard."

Perfect pickup line?
"You don't need a pickup line. Just glance at a woman from across the room. Glance -- don't stare."

ASK MCCARTHY FOR ADVICE

Jenny McCarthy will write or call a reader who seeks advice. By July 26, write to "Straight Talk," P.O. Box 3455, Chicago, Ill. 60654 (fax: 312-661-0375; e-mail: talk@usaweekend.com ).

Photo Credit: WAYNE STAMBLER FOR USA WEEKEND

Zaslow is an advice columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.