Real Dolls

See more photos of the Pussycat Dolls

On Doll Domination, each Pussycat gets her own song. But as recent experience reveals, it’s not easy to pull a Gwen and cut loose from the pack. Last year, Nicole Scherzinger was supposed to launch her own solo career with Her Name Is Nicole—after two singles flopped, the project was shelved. “I decided to hold off,” Nicole says, although that decision was obviously made for her. An elemental rule of showbiz is, if you trip, keep smiling. As she recalls her solo stumble, she’s positively beaming: “I didn’t want to lose the momentum of the PCD. That train’s been moving so fast.”

“It’s not that she didn’t have good songs,” says will.i.am, the Black Eyed Peas mastermind who produced the song “Beep” on PCD’s first album. “The reason that Nicole didn’t take off was bad planning. No one knew Nicole was going to put out a record, because they didn’t develop her as an individual when the Pussycat Dolls were at their height, the way we did with Fergie.” In other words: no humps, no glory.

“We want the world to get to know them separately, but the bottom line is that the fans see what they want to see,” says Antin, 47, who used to dance with the Dolls but gave up the spotlight when they started recording. Recently, Antin has been offering her charges a new kind of advice: spiritual.

“We’ve all gotten into this book, Many Lives, Many Masters. It’s about reincarnation, finding your soul mate, and people who are in your lives for a reason,” Antin says. The Doll world is a closed one—12-hour workdays leave little time for civilian friends, and the group celebrates birthdays and
holidays together—meaning they take all this “for a reason” stuff very seriously. “I think we all knew each other in a different life,” Melody says. Evidence for this includes: She and Ashley each play with their hair the exact same way, and a psychic once confirmed their eternal bond to Jessica.

The Dolls share a guru the same way they share a trainer: Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, a 54-year-old humanitarian and spiritualist from Southern India known as Amma the Hugging Saint. Amma holds what must be a world record for hugging more than 50,000 people in one 20-hour stretch. In addition to hugs, she spreads a message of self-sacrifice, community service and the egoless contentment that “comes from devotion, love and utter surrender to the Supreme Lord.” 

The Dolls haven’t quite gotten there yet; they’ve started with jewelry blessed by Amma. Nicole—who’s the most traditionally religious, going to church almost every Sunday—wears it alongside a bracelet dotted with antique Catholic charms. Ashley has an Amma necklace. “It feels so pure and honest, so female. I think she’s the divine mother,” she says, widening her puppy-dog brown eyes. “I had no religion growing up, but I think it’s important to believe in a faith that is bigger than you. It helps you stay grounded with your work.”

Kimberly has gone a step further. She had a Sanskrit mantra inked on the back of her neck: Lokah Samasthah Sukhino Bhavantu (“May all beings in the world be peaceful and happy”). It’s a popular prayer often used at the end of yoga classes. She got it from a T-shirt she ordered from TheAmmaShop.org. A few years ago, Kimberly—known for throwing her leg up over her head in practically every PCD video and photo shoot—almost converted to Judaism, but lately she’s been studying Buddhism. “I know everything is meant to be,” she says.

All of this metaphysicality might seem more George Harrison than Pussycat Doll, but it’s a good indication of the place the girls hold in the L.A. celebrity firmament, where Kabbalah prayer centers and Scientology churches need their own VIP sections. And as is the L.A. way, it’s religion as self-actualization. Ashley mixes her Amma necklace with a bracelet that says LIVE YOUR DREAMS she got at Kitson, a trendy L.A. boutique. She bought one for Kimberly too, that says, BELIEVE IN YOU.

(Continue)