BushLeague wrote:
Although I don't know if she ever admitted it in public, but I am sure Kristine DeBell regretted the XXX stuff she did in "Alice in Wonderland". Was it a coincidence that her career fizzled when the producers released the home video?
Not so sure about the latter. Kristine's "use by" date had already expired by the time the Alice video came out in any case. It was the only lead role she ever had. Her role was more typically "heroine's friend," as in "TAG: The Assassination Game" (a film I'm almost alone in kinda liking, but I probably watched it a zillion times on HBO in the early 80s). She was on "Y&R" but never in a central storyline. Without looking it up, it seems to me she played 2 different characters (one a teen prostitute) on that at different times, but always a supporting character.
She was in one mainstream film that made money ("Meatballs"), but in a minor role, but I think she did little or no filmi nudity after "Alice," aside from her Playboy-connected photo work. (Well, she had sort of a lead I'm forgetting in "Cheerleaders Wild Weekend," though it sat on the shelf for years before finally going to video in the 80s. Looks like it was probably made in 1978. And she left the skin to the supporting actresses.)
Her appeal was young/cute/blonde, and as she got older, there were younger, cuter, blonder girls around, going after the same roles. deBell knocked around the biz for 8 or 10 years, I suppose, and was past 30 at the time she stopped getting work. That probably has as much to do with it as anything else. Hard to say her career "fizzled," since I don't see much sign it ever caught fire in the first place. She was pretty, and an OK enough actress, but never got a real break. There have been thousands of those.