In the ’80s, her name was a punch line: Pia Zadora! Especially when her 1982 incest flick, “Butterfly” — produced by her older, billionaire husband, Meshulam Riklis — wasn’t even released when she won the Golden Globe for new star of the year, something the Hollywood Foreign Press took years to live down. And then the backlash: three Golden Raspberries (Razzies) for worst new star, worst actress and worst new star of the decade.
But Zadora was no ordinary ingenue. She made her Broadway debut at 6, opposite Tallulah Bankhead; at 10, she played Tevye’s youngest daughter in “The Fiddler on the Roof” (“Zero Mostel used to call me his little shiksa!”). A Penthouse spread, two divorces (from Riklis and writer/director Jonathan Kaufer) and three children later, the 60-year-old Hoboken native lives in Las Vegas, where she has her own cabaret room. Ahead of her “Pia Reloaded” gig, when she’ll sing standards at NYC’s Metropolitan Room from Aug. 5 to 10, Zadora let us in on the highs and lows of her roller-coaster life.
So how did you marry a billionaire?
I met him when I was doing “Applause” in Ohio. I was 19. He [Riklis, a then- 49-year-old Israeli mergers expert] was lecturing at the University of Ohio when my manager, a friend of his, said, “You have to come see the show.” So he [did], and that was the beginning of the end! [Giggles] He asked me to dinner and I said I couldn’t — so he ended up taking my mother home in his airplane. He gave her the royal treatment, and my mother thought he was the king of the Jews. I think she wanted to marry him!
But you did.
Yes, we went together for four years. He claimed I married him to get away from my mother — she was a Mama Rose kind of stage mother. So he was an escape hatch! A charismatic, sweet guy. He liked me because I was the only one who said no to him: “No, no, no, no — OK, let’s get married.”
People said he bought you that Golden Globe.
It was a combination of “OMG, what? Who?” Nobody had seen the picture, I had a funny name and [Riklis] was involved in producing it, so that was the scuttlebutt . . . It changed who I was. I did a few more lousy movies after, then I started singing.
You even toured with Frank Sinatra. Were you ever on the receiving end of that famous Ol’ Blue Eyes temper?
Of course! What would Frank be without his temper? Every night he’d take me by the hand and say, “OK, go in there now. Don’t screw up!” He was very sweet, but when it came to the work, he was strict.
And now you’re married to Michael Jeffries, a Las Vegas police detective. How did that happen?
I had a stalker when I was in Las Vegas and [Jeffries] handled all the cases on the Strip. My case came across his desk, and he recognized the name. He was, like, “Oh crap! Pia Zadora!” He called my attorney and asked if there was anything he could do . . . the next thing I knew, we were engaged. He’s this normal cornhusking Nebraska guy who looks like Alec Baldwin. The great part is, he’s my own age. I had no idea that was legal!
Ever regret posing for that 1983 Penthouse spread?
I honestly don’t know if it helped or hurt my career — or even if I got paid. At that point in my life I was basically listening to what people told me to do, and if they told me it was how you promoted an album or a movie, I did it. What’s great is I learned from those years and now I’m in charge of my own life and career. Trust me: It’s a lot more fun this way.