The September issue of Esquire -- due on stands shortly with, I believe, that flashing "E Ink" cover -- profiles a "Woman We Love" with distinctly local ties: Euless-born, SMU-educated Sarah Shahi. And from the sound of the piece, which isn't yet online, Joel Stein's very, very much smitten with the star of NBC's Life, who does nothing to dissuade him from writing the ex-Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader a soft-core mash note:
She's really close with her mom, who -- even for child-beauty-pageant-obsessed Texas (yes, she entered Shahi in those, too) -- seemed to have unorthodox child-rearing principles. "When I was in seventh grade, I was already a C cup," Shahi says. (By tenth grade, by the way, she was a double D, though she's in much better shape now and back to a C. My journalistic skills were particularly sharp during this part of the interview.) When Shahi was in junior high, her mom, insisting she take pride in her body, would make her wear half shirts. "She wouldn't even buy me a bra, because she thought it would hinder my growth. I was like walking blue balls, because I had to dress sexy, but I couldn't date." This is how you wind up as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader during your first year at SMU.In case you were wondering. --Robert Wilonsky
