laps of patrons until they are sex-
ually aroused. It is a job, as Nomi
sees it, but certainly not a career.
Through blind ambition, Nomi
makes her way to a casino stage and
eventually into the lead role in a ma-
jor topless dance revue before her
dark past is brought to light.
"This woman is not a victim and
that is something that women will
like," Ms. Berkley said. "Even
though she has had a tough life and
has not had the easiest road, she
doesn't let it destroy her. Instead it
drives her."
This role followed a three-year
stint in Saved By The Bell, a popu-
lar Saturday morning situation
comedy. As Jesse, Ms. Berkley
played a girl-next-door character, a
popular and smart teen who dates
the muscle-bound stud, Slater.
The real Elizabeth is a mix of the
two major roles she has played, one
that has made her known to a world
of teen-agers and the other that is
about to make her popular with
their fathers.
One side of her personality is far
from the blond bombshell in the sec-
ond Premiere photo. True, she was
an Elite model before becoming an
actress. In fact, she is a plastic sur-
geon's nightmare, perfectly
To prepare for straight little nose, a 1,000-
watt smile and eyes that
her role, Ms captivate even the casual ob-
Berkley went server. Slim but curvy, her
to strip clubs. five-foot-ten-inch frame is
40
highlighted by seemingly endless
limbs and topped with a cascade of
golden locks.
But there is also a brain beneath
that coveted hair. An English liter-
ature major at a top university, she
can quote Rainer Maria Rilke, one
of her favorite poets, as if she is
reading from Letters to a Young
Poet. She continues to earn top
grades as a part-time student.
And she is totally devoted to her
work. Although she had a steady Berkley's first acting coach shortly
boyfriend a few years back, Ms. after they met in kindergarten.
Berkley is now married to the craft
"Jerod would make up stories and
she labors to refine. Ambition has direct Elizabeth, who would act,"
lead her to commit most of her time Mrs. Gunsberg said.
to becoming the kind of actress peo-
Later, when Ms. Berkley was
ple say is on the way to being an scheduled for an audition and need-
Academy Award contender.
ed music transposed to her key, she
It is that dedication and ambition and her mother would go to the
that has delivered her to the Gunsbergs' house where Gene, Mrs.
doorstep of success. Just one month Gunsberg's husband, played the pi-
shy of her motion-picture debut, Ms. ano.
Berkley already is being pursued by
"Elizabeth would come over in
top directors and producers
who seek to give her starring
roles in multimillion dollar
productions.
But was she always like
this?
Yes, said her brother Ja-
son, a medical student at the
University of Health Sci-
ences-College of Osteopathic
Medicine in Kansas City, Mo.
"She really liked to dance
and sing," he recalls. "When
we were little, we had this
fireplace in the living room
with a platform in front of it.
It was like a stage."
On that stage, Elizabeth
would perform almost non-
stop, belting out songs from
Annie and other Broadway
show tunes. After so many
renditions of "Tomorrow," Ja-
son felt it necessary to occa-
sionally tell her to cut it out.
"I had to. It was my obli-
gation as a brother," he said. "It was
never mean. I was always joking.
She was good even then."
Sherry Gunsberg, a close of friend
of the Berkleys who moved three
years ago from Farmington Hills to
Chicago, remembers her family's
early involvement in Ms. Berkley's
career.
Ms. Gunsberg's son, Jerod, a
fledgling screenwriter with a degree
from New York University, was Ms.
her bathrobe and her bun-
ny slippers and there we
would be in the living room
until 11 p.m. on a school
night singing, The sun will
come out tomorrow,' " Mrs.
Gunsberg recalled.
Even Ms. Berkley can-
not remember ever wanti-
ng to do anything else,
saying she has wanted to
be a performer since she
was "literally out of the
womb."
"When I was 4 or 5, I re-
member I wanted to take
dancing. I kept pushing my
parents to let me take more
and more," she said.
"Every little kid says,
`Mommy, I want to be a
star.' But they wanted to
make sure that this was
something I was very in-
terested in rather than a
dream or a fantasy. Grad-
ually, they let me take
more and more classes.
"It was very gradual, but once it
got going there was no stopping it,"
she said.
More dancing classes, mostly at
Miss Barbara's Dance Centre in
West Bloomfield, followed. Then
there were acting classes at Actors
Alliance in Southfield. And still
more voice lessons when time per-
mitted. On top of all of that,
Ms. Berkley held down modeling
jobs for Hudson's and Sears.
Despite being pulled from school
to attend modeling assignments or
to fly to auditions in California and
New York, Ms. Berkley pushed her-
self to do well in school.
Fran Copp, a retired Barbara Fink recalls
Farmington Hills kin- that Elizabeth "was
dergarten teacher, re-
members Ms. Berkley's dedicated to what
dedication to acade- she did." Elizabeth
mics even when she is third from left,
was 5 years old. She re- front row.
calls that Elizabeth was a "highly
verbal child with good communica-
tion skills and a lot of self-motiva-
tion."
"She had a lot of self-discipline.
That was evident in her ability to
go in there and do the hours of mod-
eling she did as a young child," Ms.
Copp said. "When she came back
into class, she was always calm, cool
and collected."
Ms. Berkley recalls busy days
that began with a full day of school,
which was followed by other activ-
ities.
"After dance class, I would go
home and do my homework," she
said. "It was important. I knew I
had to keep top grades in order to
be able to do this."
When fellow students, mostly
girls, learned about her career they
occasionally became envious of her
success. The envy at times was
mean-spirited.
"She was very talented. I would
show her a step and she could do it,"
said Barbara Fink, owner of Miss
Barbara's Dance Centre. "She
would never show off, but the chil-
dren were so mean to her. She did
nothing to provoke it. I would put
recital photos on the wall and the
kids would poke her eyes out."
Ms. Berkley said she was not al-
ways the target of nastiness.
"In junior high, no matter what,
whether you do what I did or played
softball at school, just in general,