Inspired by the Hasbro action figure, Paramount’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is off to a fantastic box office curve with a $56.2 million domestic opening week-end domestically, and a worldwide total of $100.5 million. As a result, 29-year-old Channing Tatum is now officially an action movie star, and will now have to endure maximum media scrutiny. Starting with this latest US Magazine report about his long-past (1999) career as a Chippendales-style dancer in a Florida joint.

Back then, the 18-year-old went by the name of Chan Crawford. “He was shy at first, but he really knew how to work the stage,” the nightclub manager told the magazine. Tatum made US$50 a night — plus tips! — and worked there for about a year. More importantly, that’s also where he caught the eye of a female casting agent who put him in Ricky Martin’s She Bangs music video. That’s what the actor calls getting crazy lucky, and rightly so.

US Magazine