SANDY'S THE ONE THAT I WANTED TO BE
EXCLUSIVE SINITTA: MY GREASE DREAM..
SHE was down to the last two... so close to her dream role she could see herself squeezing into skin-tight black leathers and popping chewing gum in the leading man's face.
But then the men who mattered played it safe and went for blonde white pop star Debbie Gibson to play Sandy from Grease - and not Sinitta, the black girl with the big voice and plenty of attitude.
Their decision just before Grease was revived as a huge stage hit in the West End in 1993 broke Sinitta's heart and she cried herself to sleep for a week.
Yet now, in an amazing twist of fate, she is sitting down as a judge in the hit reality TV show Grease Is The Word with one of the men who ruined her dreams.
"Yes, David Ian was one of the guys who turned me down at that final audition 14 years ago," says Sinitta. "When we met up for the current show, I said to him, 'Remember me? I auditioned for you back in 1993'.
"He said, 'Did you? Was that you?' And I believe him because I don't think he is that good an actor. Then his whole manner to me changed. I think he thought I was just a pal of Simon Cowell who had never done anything in the business."
Last week the Sunday Mirror made Sinitta's dream come true and gave her the chance to be Sandy - if only for a day.
She finally got to wear the figure-hugging black outfit and those huge 1950s prom dresses just like Olivia Newton-John in the 1978 movie with John Travolta.
"I have been dying to wear the Grease outfits," she says. "I love the 1950s look. The full skirts and snatched-in waists are so feminine and pretty."
But the producers' decision to play safe back in 1993 and opt for US singer Debbie as Sandy still rankles with Sinitta.
And if it's up to her we'll see a black Sandy and even a blond Danny when the judges decide who will play the roles in the new West End production of Grease.
"That would be my dream situation," sighs Sinitta. "I suppose I'm living what I could have enjoyed through the people in the show. A black Sandy would be like saying I nearly made it and now you have. I would love it.
"In 1993 they went with the other girl with the more traditional Sandy look. She was white and blonde and very pretty.
"After that final audition I went home and cried for a week. I really thought I could have been the first black Sandy. I wanted the role for me and for every other black person. It was a huge disappointment."
Sinitta, 40, in Sandy's tight trousers could not have caused as much fuss as some of her outfits now. She turned up for one judging panel wearing a red bikini.
Sinitta says: "I have been criticised horribly. People don't seem to appreciate the way I dress. I had this Vivienne Westwood designer bikini that I bought back in the 1980s but never got to wear.
"When I asked how they wanted me to dress, they said wear something crazy. Well, that's the wrong thing to say to me. Anyway, I am sitting on a TV panel with David Ian, who is Mr Serious West End Impresario Extraordinaire, and David Gest, who is barmy, so really they can't say anything about how I dress. Let's face it, this show is entertainment, not medical science."
And, if there's one thing Sinitta can do, it's entertain. She followed up the bikini with a pink flowery dress and huge pink hat as a Pink Lady tribute - only to be greeted with more stares of amazement.
She says: "David Ian is so precious - the show is his baby and he is so petrified it has to be right. He has not begun to trust the rest of us yet."
She admits to a crush on fellow judge Brian Friedman, a US choreographer. "He's goodlooking and I fancy him but he's a bit underwhelmed by the show's talent."
And she is totally fascinated by I'm A Celebrity Star David Gest. "He's really sweet, not a Mr Macho spider-catching, mud-eating bloke like we saw in the jungle. He is quite sweet and gentle really. He asks me to fix his glasses if they are slipping down his nose. I'm happy to help him.
"But he's a diva too. I love him but he is insane. I call him Sir David because he is so regal. He thinks he is a headmaster and we are the underlings."
Sinitta is delighted Gest is dating his I'm A Celebrity chum and former Emmerdale star Malandra Burrows, but was hugely embarrassed to catch them in bed early one Sunday morning when she rang to chat about the show. She says: "She was there in the hotel room having breakfast. I couldn't stop thinking, 'He's in bed with Malandra, he's in bed with Malandra!' "
Of show host Zoe Ball, Sinitta says: "She's like the mummy, looking after the contestants. She's keeping an eye out for any romances that are developing."
Seattle-born Sinitta's own love life is the stuff of many women's dreams. She dated David Essex, Brad Pitt and Grease Is The Word boss Simon Cowell.
"Simon fancied me when we first met, but when he found out I was 14 at the time he was like, 'Oh' and from then on he treated me like a precocious child." They went on to have an on-off relationship over 20 years and today Sinitta is his right-hand woman, advising him on fashion and diet. She claims credit for getting him to ditch his trademark high-waisted trousers for a more trendy look.
"I was the one who said, 'Why don't you go to Armani and get some jeans?'" she says. "Every little kid in the country was pulling their trousers up and saying they were Simon Cowell. He did find it funny and laugh at himself, but he stopped wearing them, didn't he?"
And she's brave enough to tell him when he's looking "chubby" and empties out family packs of Twix from his fridge to save him from himself.
Sinitta dated singer Essex for two years after they met in a stage production of Mutiny On The Bounty in the 80s.
"I had posters of him on my bedroom wall even while I was dating him," she recalls. "I had to run to rip them down every time he came round.
"I was 16 and he was 38. At the end of those two years my whole life had changed - I had had a hit record and travelled all over the world. We went in two different directions."
Another one who got away was Hollywood hunk Brad, who she went out with for two years in the late 1980s.
"Brad was lovely - he still is," she says. "He's loving, nurturing and romantic. We talked about wanting kids one day and what our children would look like." Brad was in Los Angeles and Sinitta was touring the world and eventually geography ended the relationship.
"Now I am married and trying to adopt like he has I might give him a call," she says.
Despite all her famous dates, Sinitta reckons her husband Andy Willner is the sexiest of the lot.
"I'm not just saying that because I am married to him," she says. They met at the Harbour Club sports centre in Chelsea, West London. Andy, 45, was running a head-hunting firm and after trying to introduce him to various girls she ended up marrying him herself. He has two children from a previous marriage.
Sinitta can't have children of her own, and an attempt at using a surrogate mother sadly ended with a miscarriage.
Now she and Andy are trying to adopt a brother and sister who are toddlers. "Andy is the kindest man in the world. We have been through surrogacy, IVF and miscarriages," she says.
"He never makes me feel this is my fault because I can't have babies."
And she's looking forward to the challenge of juggling motherhood and showbiz - but admits she might yet decide to give it all up to concentrate on being a mum.
Grease Is The Word is on Saturday at 7.25pm on ITV1.
Sundaymirror
