MOVIE DUDE: GILLES MARINI

 

Gilles Marini . . . hot, hot, hot model and actor currently appearing in the new SEX AND THE CITY movie as Samantha's frequently naked neighbor, Dante.  Gilles is getting lots of buzz for flashing his cock in one very memorable shower scene.  View more pics and read more about this incredibly hot dude in an article from USA TODAY after the jump.

'The naked guy' of 'Sex' is actually quite modest

By William Keck, USA TODAY

Even when she was not required to be on camera, Kim Cattrall turned up on the Sex and the City movie set to watch Gilles Marini's numerous nude scenes.

"She made the trips from her trailer — even just for her over-the-shoulder shots," says Marini, 32, speaking with his strong French accent.

"She was there all the time to give me as much support as possible for me to act well." (Um hmm.)

Marini, whose first name is pronounced "Jill," plays Dante, a Casanova who lives in the beach house next door to Cattrall's Samantha. He seduces a new woman (or women) every day, much to Samantha's voyeuristic pleasure.

"He's a woman lover," says Marini, who in real life has been married to his French wife, Carole, since 1998. They have two children, George, 9, and Juliana, who turns 2 in July.

Before landing his Sex and the City role, Marini, the son of a Greek mother and Italian father, worked in Milan as a runway model for Armani Jeans and appeared in bit parts as either "French Guy" or "Italian Guy" in several daytime and prime-time soaps.

Now a resident of Studio City, Calif., he was thrilled to win the role of Dante, even though most of his scenes are dialogue-free and in the buff. After the film's premiere in New York City last week, he says, he was greeted in the theater lobby as "the naked guy" by several excited guests. And at an early screening of the film in Los Angeles, female audience members clapped and hooted during a shower scene that reveals fleeting full-frontal nudity.

"That's cool," Marini says with a laugh. "That makes me very happy."

In all seriousness, Marini says, he is proud of himself for finding the courage to display his entire bod on screen for the first time after a lifetime of painful shyness.

"Even in my house, I'm never naked," he says.

Most surprised by his nudity were his mother and sister, who saw the film in France.

"When I was a boy, I put a stick under the door so no one would get in while I was taking a shower. My sister, my brother and mom were always teasing me."

He shot one Sex scene fully clothed, and though it was cut, director Michael Patrick King assures Marini that it probably will appear in DVD extras.

But Marini is not complaining, confident in the knowledge that he has left a large imprint in an industry that has long stigmatized male nudity.

"It's so unusual, so I'm happy and thrilled to be able to have given that to the audience," he says. "It's a very special part of the movie."