It Pays to Advertise: Cosmo bachelor gets girl, topic for book

By Fran Henry

A sled dog nuzzled him lovingly and Michael Modzelewski's electric blue eyes smiled at the millions who saw his picture as Cosmopolitan's "Bachelor of the Month."

"There's so much magic out there, I'd love to share it with someone," said his caption in the November 1991 issue. He was looking for a "courageous and fit free spirit."

And wouldn't you know it, out of 4,000 volunteers, Modzelewski chose flight attendant Paula Grecco of Phoenix. She's 39, the mother of two grown children. They're planning a wedding in Hawaii in December. It is simply coincidence that he grew up in South Euclid and she in Cuyahoga Falls.

"This fairy tale isn't the way it's supposed to be in the '90s. We're supposed to shadowbox and spar," said Modzelewski, 39.

He and Grecco shared their story while in Ohio to visit relatives, including his father, Ed Modzelewski, a Browns football player in the late '50s. He lives in Richmond Heights during the summer.

Grecco says things like "I know he loves me, wrinkles and stretch marks and all," and "I fell in love with him over the phone."

He says things like, "I sensed a soul mate, friend and lover," and, "If we joined a 5,000-member computer dating club, I'm sure the computer would have spit her card out."

But Modzelewski is not the joiner-of-clubs type. He's an adventure-seeker and free-lance writer whose quest for stories has taken him to 25 countries in the past eight years.

He has run a 100-mile race through the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, on the Great Wall of China, through the Grand Canyon and he has climbed Mexico's Mount Orizaba, the third-highest mountain in North America.

He even spent 18 months on an island off the Alaskan coast, a sojourn he described in "Inside Passage," published last year. The Public Broadcasting Service is filming a docu-drama based on the book.

Despite his encounters with killer whales, wolves and bears, Modzelewski said the attention he has received from the Cosmo adventure is the "scariest thing" he's encountered.

"I'm shy, really, "he said. So why Cosmo?

"I was looking for a life partner," Modzelewski said. also, his publicist told him: "Michael, 4 million women read that each month. If they'll mention the title of the book, you should consider doing it."

The book sold, as did Michael, so to speak.

He heard from "bimbettes, Cosmo girls with the makeup and short leather mini, Playboy bunnies, prisoners, drivers of 18-wheelers and world travelers."

"One woman had encounters with UFO's in my apartment," he said. "I guess this sounds like National Enquirer." Uh-huh.

Lots of women sent lingerie to get his attention, but one sent a bra for him to autograph and return, "then I would get to see the rest of her." He declined.

Naturally, his friends were fascinated. "I have a friend who wanted to computerize data on numbers of blondes, brunettes, redheads, their measurements and such, but I told him I wasn't interested in body parts. But I was interested in what parts of the country the letters had come from," Modzelewski said.

The answer was the South, by a 2-1 ratio, prompting him to call a friend in Atlanta for an interpretation.

"That's easy," she told him (her voice dripping with honey, he said). "We've all grown up on 'Gone With the Wind,' so we're all looking for Rhett. We want a moan who's a tad bit reckless; very, very caring."

So, being caring and a tad bit reckless, Modzelewski corresponded with many, dated 18 and learned a lot about women in the process. "It's enough to write another book," he said, and that's what he's doing.

"Looking for Rhett," the working title of the book, will chronicle what an unassuming bachelor learns about love and romance in the 1990s when he agrees to be a Cosmo bachelor. He expects publication in about a year-and-a-half, and hopes the book will be translated into made-for -TV movie or series.

"People say, 'How can you write this book after "Inside Passage"? They're worlds apart.' I think they're worlds the same," Modzelewski said. "Men tend to treat the earth exactly like they treat their women."

He considers himself especially sensitive to women and is somewhat critical of men on several counts: Men constantly interrupt women; men problem-solve with their women instead of offering empathy; and the male ego keeps men in a prison of sorts.

"I'm relieved to have this bachelor BS over," said Modzelewski, who like his fiancee, has been married twice before.

"I've dreamed my whole life of finding a feminine feminist, and that's what I saw in Paula."