LA Times July 29, 1994

She Acts, She Sings, She Models, She's 18

Note: This is not the entire article

Milla's getting praise for her latest career venture, "The Divine Comedy," an album of acoustic oriented, airy folk-pop tunes that she wrote when she was 16.

"On this morning, the usually effusive Milla is back in her wired-up, cocksure, chain-smoking mode, sitting cross-legged on the couch at her mother's Hollywood Hills House."

Her acoustic-oriented, airy, folk-pop tunes ("For me it epitomizes that time of my life where I was listening to a lot of Kate Bush, a lot of Enya") aren't tremendously radio-ready. Even so, the wistfull first single, "Gentleman Who Fell," did well with stations of the "adult alternative" ilk, as well as garnering play on alternative rockers such as L.A.'s KROQ.

Milla (pronounced MEE-la; she recently stopped using her last name, Jovovich) emigrated to America from Russia with her parents at age 5, and her modeling career took off just a few years later. ...

ALthough she was signed by SBK Records on the basis of an original demo she cut at age 12, she was soon shuffled off to sing along with tracks laid down by producerw who saw her as a potential looker out of whom they might be able to squeeze a couple quick European hits. She initially complied, then balked, defiantly insisting on recording her own material.

The impasse was resolved in her favor; SBK eventually allowed its headstrong teen creative control, and those embarrassing early sessions never saw the light of day.

"They signed me for the package they got, and they just got a lot more of the package than they expected," she says, breaking into the loud, pronounced snicker that is one of her more endearing personal trademarks.

In person, the Ayn Rand-quoting Milla is fast-talking, high-spirited, exceptionally sharp for 18 and just slightly coarse - not the ethereal figure her album, or a sultry model's protfolio, might suggest.

Impulsively, she yells out ot the patio, "Mom! Can I have a cigarette?" In a moment, her mother's clicking heels approach, vice dutifully in hand.

"I love doing that! She hates it!" chortles MIlla, out of earshot of Mom. "I mean, god, she started smoking again because of me. I've been the bad influence." She snickers, not letting the onset of the age of legality shove her entirely into the slow lane just yet.