The Story Behind Cindy Crawford’s Look at Sex in the U.S.

Does “Sex With Cindy Crawford” sound like something you’d be interested in?

Gets your attention, doesn’t it?

Give ABC credit for the title of the one-hour special (scheduled for Sept. 22), not to mention supermodel host Crawford for having a sense of humor.

“Obviously, we want ratings,” she said, referring to the program’s come-hither hook. It’s all part of a three-year development deal with ABC, Crawford told writers in Pasadena recently, and she hopes it will blossom into something bigger.

“Because it’s a new relationship, the sex is still good,” Crawford quipped, catching more than a few detractors-in-waiting with an honest-to-goodness approach to self.

Fifty years after the landmark Kinsey Report, this prime-time look at America’s sex life has a study attached to it as well. (From the not-for-profit Kaiser Family Foundation.)

But it’s Crawford, not the research, that’s bound to draw viewers.

“This is an entertainment program,” she said, “but it does have substance.”

Included in the broadcast:

* Sex on the block in Madison, Wis.: Crawford goes to the college town of 200,000 and throws a block party where invitees of many colors and orientations talk about their sexual appetites and philosophies.

* Sex in the media: How much more can America possibly be exposed to? Bill Maher of “Politically Incorrect” sounds off, as does the talk-show genre’s most dangerous man, Jerry Springer.

* Teens and sex: It’s a brave new world and every parent’s nightmare. The segment zeros in on the risks, the facts, where kids are getting their information and what, if anything, they’re doing with it.

* “Hot Monogamy”: The show’s research finds the citizenry still holding on to their romantic ideals and examines the challenges.

* Science and the turn-on: Feelings count for something but hormones rule. So can love at first sight be for real?

* Celebrity sex: French Stewart (“3rd Rock From the Sun”), Brooke Shields (“Suddenly Susan”), yakker Howie Mandel and Andrea Thompson (“NYPD Blue”) are among the stars who toss in their two cents.

*

Crawford, who was born and raised in DeKalb, Ill., before becoming an internationally famous sexual icon, was disarmingly unpretentious in her back-and-forth with reporters--about the show, her image and her objectives.

“I don’t have second thoughts in terms of ‘Would I do it differently?’ ” she said of her career and contribution to America’s obsession with the topic. “Would I not get the big hair and push the boobs up for the Cosmo cover? I mean, that’s why I’m given opportunities to do other things.”

Crawford--who has appeared on more than 400 magazine covers, was the host of MTV’s “House of Style” for more than six years and has her own exercise videos--says she has her own ideas about sex.

“One of my theories, which we don’t really get to explore in depth with this special, [concerns] the bombardment of sexual images,” she said. “I think that people, in fact, have less sex because . . . you know, you read books that take place 100 years ago and the glimpse of an ankle or the back of someone’s neck was a real turn-on. But now you’re driving in your car and you see Antonio Sabato Jr., like, laying there in underwear with, like, this incredible body, and you go home and your husband maybe doesn’t look quite that good.”

While acknowledging that she has been one of the top images in that same, unattainable landscape, Crawford drew a distinction between her real and public lives.

“I’m Cindy, a woman who works for this machine called Cindy Crawford. I always say it’s a thing, it’s a creation, it’s hair, it’s makeup, it’s photography, it’s whatever--it’s an image. So I am not her. She’s part of me, but there’s a separation.”

And though Crawford and ABC bounced around a lot of other ideas for her debut special, the conversations kept coming back to sex.

Turns out most people didn’t have any problems talking openly to Crawford about it, either. Still, she said, “I certainly was blushing myself at some of the stuff that transpired.”

Not that everyone always seemed to be telling the truth.

When Crawford asked a group of men how many of them had had a one-night stand, every one said he had.

“I asked the women--same number of women--not one said yes. Now I don’t believe that,” she said, claiming “none of them would cop to it.”

Even worse? “I was the only one with my hand raised, which was pretty embarrassing.”