Mackenzie Phillips, who starred in the classic TV sitcom One Day At a Time, was finally getting her life back on track after years of drug and alcohol abuse. She was starring in a new TV show called So Weird (which was being described as a kiddie version of The X Files) and had other TV and movie deals in the works. Her sister, Bijou Phillips, had her own acting, modeling and singing career going. (Their father was the late John Phillips of the sixties rock group The Mamas & The Papas.) Though they were only half-sisters since they both had different mothers, Mackenzie and Bijou--or "Mack" and "Beej" as they nicknamed themselves--still felt about as close to one another as sisters could feel.
However, they were both about to discover they could feel a whole lot closer!
It all began when Mackenzie was at the local grocery store in her neighborhood picking up a few items. As Mackenzie was standing in line waiting to get checked out, she saw her sister Bijou's smiling, sexy face on the cover of Playboy magazine that was displayed with the other adult publications behind the check-out stand. Bijou had told Mackenzie that she was going to be appearing--nude, naturally!--in an upcoming issue of Playboy, but she didn't tell her which issue she was going to appear in. As if on impulse, while the cashier was ringing up her purchases, Mackenzie told the cashier that she also wanted to purchase a copy of Playboy. The cashier, a younger boy who looked like he couldn't have been much more than 20 years old, gave her a funny look before turning around and grabbing a copy of the girlie magazine. As he was checking the cover for the price, he happened to recognize both the girl smiling on the cover and the woman standing before him. He put the two together as he glazed over at Mackenzie and exclaimed, "Hey, you're that Mackenzie Phillips!" He held the magazine up to her face. "And this is your sister!"
The other people waiting in line behind Mackenzie began to look at her funny as well. Mackenzie just looked annoyed at the cashier's over-enthusiasm as she glared at him and told him, "Just tell me how much, okay?"
The cashier finished ringing up the price of the magazine along with the rest of her purchases as he grinned goofily while shaking his head and said, "Mackenzie Phillips buying a magazine with nude pictures of her sister. Wait till I tell the guys about this!" Still grinning like the jackass he obviously was, the cashier told Mackenzie how much she owed him. Mackenzie quickly handed him the money, took her bags from him and said rather dryly to the annoying young cashier, "Thank you." She walked out of the store past the gawks and the onlookers who were also, like the cashier, probably wondering why TV star Mackenzie Phillips was buying a girlie magazine containing nude pictures of her sister. In truth, Mackenzie couldn't really figure out why she did it herself, but she just chalked it up to her being a supportive sister.