Demi, Burt Grin About Baring It -- In `Striptease,' Moore Will Be Nude And Reynolds Takes Off His Hairpiece

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - So what did we expect?

Demi Moore was wearing clothes.

Burt Reynolds was wearing his hairpiece.

And the entire Lobell/Bergman cast was wearing its pleased-to-be-here smiles at the obligatory news conference Tuesday evening for the new movie "Striptease," now eight days into production. But with the smiles came the immortal words of the film's silver-haired producer Mike Lobell: "Ask the questions you have to ask, and then let us go about the business of making the movie."

Will "Striptease," the story of a woman struggling to survive by working in a steamy strip club, mark Fort Lauderdale as the strip capital of the world?

It already is, the producers said. That's one of the reasons they based the movie here. That, and because Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen's novel that was the basis for the movie is set in South Florida.

The film just wouldn't be the same if it were set in New York or Los Angeles, writer and director Andrew Bergman said. And not even Miami would work. This he learned touring strip joints with Hiaasen, he said. "The ones up here (in Broward County) are cheerier, a little more musical comedy," he said.

But hey, you want to know about Demi being naked, don't you?

Actually she looked positively demure Tuesday night in spaghetti-strapped overalls and simple ribbed T-shirt. Reynolds seemed to have more make-up on than she did.

By every response she gave to both polite and impolite questions, we got the feeling that, hey, she was really looking forward to playing the part of the struggling stripper Erin.

The world is too uptight, too puritanical, she said. Still, she admitted, stripping for the camera could take some getting used to.

"It's a combination of being anxious and excited," she said. "This is something that helps get you in touch with yourself. It's not really about being naked.

"The body is really beautiful, and I like this whole idea."

So rehearsed is she, Demi says, "It's hard not to just continue to grind all over the house."

She refused to be drawn into the debate about political correctness: She is getting $12 million to portray a woman whose profession might be considered demeaning to many women, one reporter noted.

"I don't feel I have an obligation to be politically correct," she said. "You wouldn't limit a man that way, and I'm not going to let you limit me."

Reynolds acknowledged that he really wanted the role of Congressman David Dilbeck.

"I've met a lot of Dilbecks in my time," he said. "They're just not in the South, they're in Hyannisport."

No one actually dared say the word "balding," but still managed to ask Reynolds why he agreed to play the part without his hairpiece, a first for him.

"No one ever asked me before," he said.

"As Dolly Parton once said, you can throw her hair and my hair in the middle of the room, and you still have a couple good things left," Reynolds joked.