By Germaine Lim

WHEN your ex-girlfriends are as famous as US daredevil illusionist Criss Angel's are, tongues will probably start wagging.

From reportedly dating pop princess Britney Spears to Playboy Bunny-turned-reality starlet Holly Madison most recently, the emo-looking 43-year-old's love life is as illustrious as it gets.

So we asked him to enlighten us on these rumours when we spoke to him in Las Vegas on the phone, where he's based.

We should have known better.

He was, after all, named the International Magicians Society's inaugural Magician Of The Decade last year.

Getting a secret out of a magician turned out to be more difficult than traversing a live land mine field unscathed - like Angel will on his new TV series, The Five Lives Of Criss Angel Mindfreak.

It will premiere over AXN Beyond (StarHub Ch 100) on 4 Feb at 11pm.

He told The New Paper: "A lot of people will speculate on a lot of things. You can't believe anything of what you hear and half of what you see."

But what about photos of Angel and a mysterious yellow bikini-clad girl canoodling in Mexico that have been found online?

"I don't know what photos and girl you're referring to. A lot of people will take a photo with me. Some have even accused me of being their husband. Some have claimed to have kids by me. I don't know which photo you're referring to."

He then hissed: "I'd like to keep my private life private and I hope you can respect that."

No privacy

Someone had better tell Angel there's no such thing as privacy when you've also been linked to Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz.

In 2006, Angel proposed to English actress Minnie Driver while holidaying in Mexico, only to dump her for Diaz eight months later, reported The Insider.

Angel's wife of five years, JoAnn Sarantakos, whom he divorced in 2007, even accused Diaz of coming between them.

Not long after, he was seen flirting with US singer-actress Mandy Moore "as if no one else was in the room", reported The Insider.

They met on the set of his TV series Mindfreak in 2007 when a blindfolded Angel drove Moore through the streets of Los Angeles in her Mercedes convertible, ending up at a restaurant safely later.

Angel was also said to be dating Spears in August that same year, but he squashed those rumours and said their relationship was professional.

One girlfriend whom he has not been secretive about is Madison, who split with Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner in October 2008.

A month later, Madison went public with their romance, and OK! magazine reported that she had moved in with Angel in Las Vegas.

But the relationship ended almost as quickly as one of Angel's escape feats. They called it quits after just four months.

So what tricks does he have up his sleeves to snag such beautiful girlfriends?

Again, the mysterious one offered no answers.

"You'd have to come to Las Vegas to find out for yourself.

"I look for somebody with a beautiful heart, one who is very attractive and compatible, and has integrity and respect."

Being as charismatic as Angel does pose potential trouble, however.

Known for his charm as he is for his craft, legendary US illusionist David Copperfield was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2007.

He was acquitted early this month after a two-year investigation.

Angel says he would "never allow (himself) to be put in such a position".

But Angel has had an uneasy relationship with the media.

In 2008, he threatened to poke the eye out of Las Vegas Review-Journal's columnist Norm Clarke, when the latter wrote how Angel tried to influence a Miss USA judge's vote in favour of his then-girlfriend, Miss Nevada Veronica Grabowski.

His ongoing nightly Las Vegas live performance, Criss Angel Believe, was also panned by reviewers when it debuted in October 2008.

Last April, US celebrity blogger Perez Hilton tweeted that the show was "unbelievably bad" and that he would "rather be getting a root canal" than watch Angel.

According to Las Vegas Review Journal, the illusionist hurled obscene insults at Hilton at the end of the performance when he learnt about the comments.

Angel evidently did not want to be reminded of that incident, brushing it off when we brought it up.

"That's old news. Let's talk about something important."

Okay, maybe he can tell us more about himself. Surely that's important.

What's the real Criss Angel like behind his guyliner and goth-rock get-up?

"That's your perspective of me. But everybody in the world who's exposed to my art, what and who I am... has a different impression of me. It's hard to label me or anybody as any one thing.

"I just have to be true to myself... and let people interpret me how they will. I don't ever allow myself to be boxed into a label because we're humans, not products."

gerlim@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The New Paper.