It became Playgirl's biggest selling issue of all time: "Brad Pitt Nude!" It didn't hurt that Brad decided to sue the magazine on the very day the magazine shipped to bookstores and magazine stands, getting incredible coverage on TV.

Magazine sellers reported they had more orders than they had magazines, and they weren't about to return any! The photos were the ones taken back in 1995 by the snoop who, using a telephoto lens, was able to spy on Brad and galpal Gweneth Paltrow on vacation. A couple of months before, Celebrity Sleuth magazine had featured most of the same photos, plus dozens of other celebrities in the buff, and nobody noticed.

Even more shocking to some than the sight of Brad in the buff (which was quite lovely actually--) was the word Pitt and his once-beloved Paltrow had split: "The couple seemed blissful whether in high society (they went to the White House for a screening of Emma) or low (she danced for him on the bar at Hogs & Heifers), " People said. "They finally became engaged—after months of speculation—when she visited him in Argentina, where he was shooting a historical story Seven Years in Tibet.

Then, at Christmas he took her home to meet his father, Bill Pitt, who used to own a trucking company, and his mother, Jane, a school counselor. (In celebration of their anticipated union, the family dined at the local Red Lobster.)"

Pitt rhapsodized to Rolling Stone as he envisioned their wedding day: "I can't wait, man," he said, "…walk down the aisle, wear the ring, kiss the bride. Oh, it's going to be great."

Gossip Walter Scott laid the heaviest blame for the breakup on the shoulders of Paltrow: "Our source says that, despite her public reputation for sweet reasonableness, the actress has a hidden mean streak. It was Paltrow's petty and selfish ways, we're told that finally killed the relationship."

Curiously, at the end of summer, the New York Post's Page Six was reporting that Paltrow had moved in with pal Winona Ryder. They said the two roomies were seen hand in hand at the premiere of Cop Land. The column, however, made no Sapphic love connection.

Whatever derailed the momentum toward that all-important walk down the aisle, everyone knows the couple interviewed by People magazine agreed on one point: "There is virtually no possibility that Pitt was putting his charms to work on another. ""Brad is not a womanizer," says one friend, "and he doesn't cheat. He always has one girlfriend." At worst he has a tendency to fall in love—one at a time—with his leading ladies.

Paltrow seemed to be happy with Pitt, even if hers is a more genteel sensibility than Pitt's, with his love for country music and beer. But for all the well-documented nights out in Manhattan with Pitt, Paltrow has usually emphasized the snugly domestic in their relationship. During a typical day, she told E! Online, "we hang out alone, read papers, have coffee, watch Unsolved Mysteries or have friends over for dinner and laugh and play Pictionary." And she has been quite vocal about having children, even if that might mean putting her career on hold.

"I love acting," she told New York magazine. "But it's not the most important thing to me." To understand what is important to Pitt, it is important to look back a few years.

"I'd always dream about being an actor but I never thought of it realistically 'cause it's just not something you think of back home is Missouri," Pitt said in 1989, as reported in the book Before They Were Famous.

"You're going to be an accountant, or an engineer or you're going to open up a lawn service. That's what there is. And I used to be bummed because I figured I wasn't getting an opportunity, growing up in Missouri. But now that I live here and see how messed up things are here, I'm thankful I'm from there. Everything works perfectly, you know. Like the big guy takes care of things, right? So I'm out here at my right time.

"I dreamed of opportunity because I knew things could happen. There's more, I'll be honest. When I was sitting there in my little back yard, playing with my puppy or whatever, eating Twinkies and drinking Kool-aid, I'd dream of fame. It sounds so frickin' cheesy, but there were flicks that moved me, that kind of shaped me as a kid…I'd dream of fame and fortune. The lifestyle of the rich and famous is very attractive to someone out there. I'm being perfectly honest, that was part of the attraction at home, to be the number one guy.

"Then you get out here and you just want to be good. You start to get into it. I didn't know anything. I didn't study acting at home. I got out here and I had so much frickin' stuff to learn.

"My philosophy was, all I need to see is forward. I'm heading west and that's all I need to see. I was such a dork. I just remember driving out and each time I passed a state line, I'd be like, Yeah! I was so excited.

"And then I pulled into town (L.A.) and had my first meal at McDonald's and it was like Now what do I do? I met these eight guys who had this crummy apartment and I crashed there for about half a year. I did all sorts of odd jobs, like dressing up as chickens, being a delivery boy and driving strippers around. I did anything that was flexible…

"You grow up with heroes and you come out here and meet them. I've been kind of disappointed. So now my philosophy is, Keep your heroes, they're important to have, just don't get to know them. It's very sad. Yeah, they're just people. They're just frickin' people.

"My first job was a recurring role on Dallas. Then they started to throw me in those Teen Beat magazines. Man, it was a nightmare. That's such a huge trap, you know. You burn out so hard. I was in there like a month. I just didn't know these things. Then I yanked myself. I said, Yank me, keep me away from them. Yeah, I think it can hurt you.

"You've got to stay low, do quality work and cruise and do your own thing…The key is to rely on that and not to worry about things. You do not worry. Everyone worries out here. Worrying is the biggest waste of time because things will work if you have faith. That's the word, that's the only word. If you start thinking you're too cool, you're gonna lose it. That's why it's good just to hang out with your buddies and your family and stay low. STAY LOW."

Of course, it is rather hard to STAY LOW when you are Brad Pitt. As The Lady Chablis put it in his/her memoir Hiding My Candy, "That boy gets me all fluttery inside."

Excerpted from The Best of the Superstars 1998 The Year in Sex, Edited by John Patrick, STARbooks Press, P.O. Box 2737, Sarasota Florida 34230-2737 (941) 957-1281 (Fax) (941) 955-3829

The STARbooks Press catalog contains some of the best erotic fiction published, including, most recently, Mad About the Boys, Smooth'n'Sassy and Come Again.