Union takes this casually intended compliment as a challenge.  After all, she's a competitor, an athlete who played high school basketball in Northern California and soccer at the University of Nebraska (before transferring to UCLA and earning a sociology degree in 1996) and who just married another athlete, Oakland Raider running back Chris Howard.  The gauntlet thrown, Union aims to win the never-coveted-till-now Darryl Howerton No. 1 interview title.

Suddenly Union's direct ascent up the Hollywood food chain makes sense.  Sure she's gorgeous and talented, but there's a lot of that going around Hollywood.  From bit parts in the hits "She's All That" "10 Things I Hate About You" and "Love & Basketball" to featured roles in "Bring It On" and "The Brothers" to her guest spot on "Friends" where she became the first African-American actor in a significant role on the sitcom (she played a hottie Joey and Ross were fighting over), she's shined with intelligence and determination.  She's as fundamentally ambitious as she is undeniably attractive.  Her rocket ride continues with a co-starring role beside Vivica A. Fox and Morris Chestnut in this spring's "How to Make Your Man Behave in 10 Days...Or Less" and opposite George Clooney in the upcoming "Welcome to Collinwood."

The schedule is tossed aside and we're into two-hour overtime with Gabrielle.  Right now, at this table, she's become pure competitor, refusing to lose to Tim Duncan.  Regardless of the matter's insignificance in the scheme of things, Union can't help herself.  She must prevail.

Union: Tim Duncan?  You'd seriously put him ahead of me?

Real Edge: Some people say he's boring, but if you get on his level, he's the funniest, most eclectic interview around.

Union: I don't think he's boring.  But I'm gonna be No.1 before we're done.

RE: OK.  If you're such a competitive athlete, why didn't they give you the lead in "Love & Basketball"?  Sanaa Lathan is a good actress, but she didn't know how to ball.

Union: That one kind of hurt a little bit, because I was just a ho in that film.  I was just a groupie.  They're like, "You're good, but we have another girl that would be perfect for it."  And I'm like, "That sucks!  I've got a crossover dribble!  Why am I playing the ho?" Yeah, it hurt.  She couldn't even dribble.  She had to learn how to play.

RE: They covered it up well, though, and she did a great job as an actress.  

Union: Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.  That's the only solace, that she did do a good job and she did capture the emotion of what it feels like to be a female athlete and to be involved with someone else who's another athlete.

RE: It's rare that an actress has that athletic side to her.  Most female celebs can name-drop Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, but earlier in the interview, you were throwing Turner Gill's name around.  A lot of guys don't even know Turner Gill.

Union: You've got to understand, I grew up in Omaha before I moved to California, and Turner Gill was it, the first black quarterback at Nebraska.  That means something.  Nothing compares to that moment I was walking around campus one day, and I was like, "THAT'S TURRRRRNGOWWW!!"

RE: What??  

Union: I said, "That's Turner Gill!" I get excited about real random people.  Jennifer Capriati moves me to tears.

RE: Do you get that type of reaction from random people when you're out and about, since "Bring It On" was such a hit last summer and your "Friends" appearance generated a lot of publicity?

Union: I don't get it like some celebrities do, but it does happen in the weirdest places. Like I'll be eating in an outdoor restaurant and a busload of girls will  look out the window, screaming "It's Isis!" [her character in "Bring It On"]. I expected to get that from 10-year-old girls, but I wasn't expecting to get that type of reaction from guys in college or people in their 60s.  And I never expected 40-year-old men to get alone with me on elevators and tell me they loved me in "Bring It On" and saw it about five times.  That's kinda scary.

RE: I guess it's just that universal appeal that makes you the coolest celebrity around.

Union: Thank you. 'Cept for maybe Tim Duncan.

RE: Co-coolest celebrity.  You may actually be tied for first now for best interview.

Union: I don't usually get to talk about men and stuff in interviews.  Mostly it'll be like, "So, Gabrielle, what was your most embarrassing moment?"  How about Jason Kidd dumping me in front of my father.  Write that.

RE: That really happened?

Union: I never saw it coming.  It was after a game, and he was standing with his family and this girl.  My dad is sitting way up in the Himalayas and he could see it coming a mile away.  He's saying to me the whole time, "Let's go.  Let's go."  And I'm like, "No, Dad, I'm gonna stay."  And everyone in the gym is looking at me.  Then I hear someone say, "Jason, why don't you just do it?"  Then it dawns on me what's happening.  So Jason comes over, and he starts doing that Magic Johnson blinking thing, so I ask, "Is it positive or negative."  He says, "It's bad."  Then I just started crying, because I was gonna be Mrs. Jason Kidd.  Of course, it's only high school.  He's 16, I'm 17, but I'm thinking we're gonna be together forever.  After that, I was like, "This will never happen to me again."  I developed a shell.

RE:So you started dumping guys after that?

Union: Basically.  No, but seriously, you develop that mindset.  "Oh, I'm not gonna be the okeydoke again.  I will not be dumped in front of my dad."    

RE:So how did Chris Howard break that shell?  

Union: When I first met Chris and we started talking, I was like, "Oh you went to Michigan? Oh you're a running back? Oh, you weren't recruited by Nebraska?  You weren't good enough for Nebraska?"  He was like, "No, Tom Osborne [Nebraska's legendary head football coach] came to my home, but I fell asleep on his boring ass," and I was like, "Blasphemy!" It was like someone using the Lord's name in vain.  "What are you saying? Fall asleep on Tom Osborne? Are you sick? We talked some more, and he starts talking about how they won a national championship.  But I remind him it was a co-national championship after the '96 season that they shared with Nebraska.  He claims that it was Scott Frost's speech about Tom Osborne retiring that gave us the sentimental vote in the poll.  Whatever.    

RE: So you fell in love by talkin' trash?  

Union: That and talking honestly.  I'm 28 and too old to play games anymore.  Either you know it or you don't.  Chris, he's honest.  Right away, he was like, "This is what I do as a football player.  This is what's gonna happen."  I was like, "Cool. Sign me up."  From the very beginning, the second or third night a year-and-a half ago, I was thinking, "This is the guy I'm gonna marry.  I didn't know why.  It's not like we're each other's types.  It was just one of those things.  We both knew the same thing at the same time.    

RE: So now that you and Chris are married is that Nebraska-Michigan tension still there?  

Union: If I get a hold of that ring-that championship ring he has-he will regret it.  Because I will have a "co-" put on that.    

RE: Well, I can now take the "co-coolest" off your title.  You now are officially the best interview.

Union: Yes! I can't wait to see that in print.  Make sure you show Tim Duncan.

by Darryl Howerton from the May/June 2001 issue of Real Edge magazine

Once again thanks to Shannon for typing this up and sending it to us!