Grand Slam.(Gwen Stefani)(Interview)

Grand

Slam

Gwen Stefani has a platinum album, a red-hot clothing line, and a solo tour. Never has world domination seemed so darned cute. By Deanna Kizis

G

wen Stefaniis home sits ?atop a steep driveway in Los Angeles, like a butter ?creamnfrosted castle complete with a turret, bougainvillea vines, bathing pools, and fountains. When I ring the bell to announce my presence, her Minnie Mouse voice drifts down from a balcony above: Hold on! Iim not ready yet!I A moment later Stefaniopop superstar, body beautiful, famous wife of Gavin Rossdaleobounds down her wrought iron staircase, her bare feet slapping the terra-cotta tile. Her bottle-blonde hair is pinned on one side like a Vargas pinup girl. Her famous abs, just visible between her white tank top and jeans, are tan and taut. Stefaniis fully made-upobrow pencil, foundation, blushoand in her pocket are not one but two golden-hued lip glosses, which she sweeps across her lips as frequently as some hipsters light cigarettes.

After wiggling her way into the ?vaulted-ceiling living room and apologizing profusely for the mess (a glance around the black-and-white-tiled kitchen and the dining room with its Moorish chairs and dripping candles reveals no disarray to speak of), Stefani fills a tumbler of pink Vitaminwater for each of us and plops on a white overstuffed couch, then jumps off again to see if she can find a missing pearl earring on the floor. Iim such a dick when it comes to keeping track of stuff,I she says, her butt in the air and her head somewhere underneath the side table. She lost the engagement ring Rossdale gave her four years ago after putting it on a nightstand before bed, hearing it drop to the floor, and never seeing it again. As Stefani wriggles under the furniture, itis impossible not ?to notice that at home she doesnit glide the way she does on the red carpet, ?nor does she stomp the way she does onstage. Here she wiggles. She plops.

Stefani, who has been having her moment …