We thought he’d be a cheesy romancer who’d try to seduce us. Instead we got a totally normal guy – only hotter. He can be our hero, baby.

Tons of people are lining both sides of Broadway outside MTV’s Total Request Live in New York to snag a glimpse of Enrique Iglesias. Three girls, ignoring a policewoman’s requests to continue moving down the street, keep motioning to Enrique to bring them upstairs into the studio. Enrique just shrugs – he’s already chosen too many fans off the street to come up to watch the show. One girl in the audience even bursts into tears and starts doing the oh-my-God-it’s-really-him face-fanning when he enters the studio. I’ve been around enough teenage girls to know how to deal with that high-pitched scream that makes dogs’ ears perk up. But when Carson announces that the #2 video on TRL is Enrique Iglesias’ “Escape,” my hands fly up to protect my ears from shrieks like I’ve never heard.

Are these girls watching the same video I’ve been subjected to? It’s complete cheese. Basically, Enrique and tennis pro Anna Kournikova make out – first on a counter in the woman’s bathroom at a club until security throws them out, then in a parked car. And there are also the scenes where Enrique magically morphs from one place to another, like when he’s singing at a concert and then is suddenly riding a motorcycle. I roll my eyes at these parts, because they look like they belong in a bad sci-fi movie, not an MTV video.

But Enrique’s videos do sort of go with the Rico Suave reputation he’s had since he started releasing records in 1995. It’s easy to see how he got it. Look who his dad is: Julio, the famous singer from the ‘70s and ‘80s, who was the ultimate Casanova – think fake-looking tan, bright white teeth, gold chain. He recorded a song called “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before,” not to mention “Crazy in Love,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and “My Love.” Hello, Cheese Hall of Fame! I figured Enrique must have a bit of his dad in him. But that was before I met him…

THE REAL ENRIQUE

I’m on my way to interview the 27-year old singer at the New York City studio where he’s getting ready for his upcoming tour.

Enrique’s been crazy successful and I’m not just talking about on TRL. He’s currently the best-selling Latin artist, with more than 25 million album sales in four years. Last November, Escape debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart. He’ll make his first movie appearance in September as a drug lord’s right-hand man in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, starring Johnny Depp and Antonio Banderas. Then there are all the awards – a Grammy for best Latin performer, a Billboard Award for artist of the year, and an American Music Award for favorite Latin music artist, among others.

When I walk into the recording studio, Enrique’s fiddling with buttons on a confusing- looking soundboard. I have no idea what he’s doing – but standing behind the equipment, he looks important, not to mention hot. He comes over to say hi, and I’m surprised when he shakes my hand instead of going for the kiss-on-both-cheeks Euro greeting. I thought he’d go the flirtier route. Wearing faded jeans, a gray zip-up hooded sweatshirt, and a maroon baseball hat, he looks like an Abercrombie & Fitch model. Hmm, I’d pictured him in a Miami Vice suit or tight leather pants, but I actually like his outfit. Well, if he’s not a corny stud, why is he always seducing girls in his videos?

"I write the scripts,” he says, then smiles a few seconds later to let me know he’s only half-serious. “I know the girls are going to be there because they get paid, so I might as well make use of the video and maybe get a date out of it."

Like sexy Enrique would have problems scoring dates. Please. He’s stunningly good-looking and a celebrity. Yet he swears he has a hard time meeting girls, and even when he does, he always says something stupid and ends up getting rejected.

He’s already romanced American Pie’s Shannon Elizabeth in “Be With You,” and Jennifer Love Hewitt in “Hero.” However, he didn’t want “Escape” to be another Enrique-meets-beautiful-girl video. He agreed to do one more but wanted someone from the sports world to be his female co-star instead of a model or an actress. So he picked a gorgeous athlete instead. Yeah, huge difference.

Most people loved the video “Escape” and it reached #1 on the TRL countdown a few times. The one before that was “Hero”, a minimovie full of oh-please moments. My favorite: Jennifer Love Hewitt sobbing in the pouring rain while her way-too-exposed cleavage heaves up and down. But would you really expect a serious video when the lyrics are “I can be your hero, baby/I can kiss away the pain/I will stand by you forever/You can take my breath away”?

Based on those videos and lyrics, I’m thinking real-life Enrique will be the kind of guy who completely sweeps girls off their feet with his smooth moves, good looks, and that sexy Spanish accent.

“You mean like a Latin lover?” he asks with a somewhat annoyed smirk on his face. “That is the worst stereotype that you can give me. It’s like saying all blonds are stupid. I’m more grunge and laid-back.”

So then what is his real-life dating style like?

“When I go out with a girl, I just go to the movies,” he says. “I do the most normal things because I never get to do them, since I’m on the road a lot. Besides, what makes a good date is who you’re with, not where you go.” Good point.

Enrique says he doesn’t have any dates lined up. You can ignore the gossip that he’s seeing Anna Kournikova. And get this, he didn’t even go out on Valentine’s Day – he was too busy working. Guess he didn’t inherit any ladies’ man moves from his father after all.

HIS BEHIND THE MUSIC STORY

Enrique’s parents divorced when he was 3 years old. Until he was 8, he lived in Madrid with his brother and sister and his mom, Isabel Preysler, an ex-model (which might explain why he’s so good-looking). But in 1981, terrorists who were after Julio’s money kidnapped Enrique’s grandfather (he was eventually returned unharmed), so his mom sent Enrique and his older brother, Julio Jr., to live with their dad in Miami. Enrique’s mom and sister stayed behind.

“It was really strange,” he remembers. “Not so much the moving part, but leaving my mom behind. I was just a kid. “He had to go to a new school and his English wasn’t that great.

“I wasn’t that good in school,” he remembers. “I got into trouble a lot because I was always talking. I was the king of detention! I think I even broke the record for getting the most.”

According to his friend Andres Restrepo, Enrique was quite the prankster. “He’d tell me, ‘That girl really likes you a lot. You should ask her out on a date,’” explains Andres, who’s known Enrique for 15 years. “I was naïve, so I’d ask her and she’d be like, ‘Are you crazy? No way!’ It was extremely embarrassing.”

Enrique was really into his music and sports in high school. He used to skip school to go windsurfing with his friends and then go club-hopping at night – that is, when he could get in.

“I used to get turned away at the door,” he says, swearing to me that it was because he didn’t look cool enough. “They’d give me a stupid excuse, like ‘You can’t come In with those shoes.’”

But his windsurfing and clubbing days ended when he was 18 and took off to record a demo tape in Toronto.

“At the beginning of high school, he told me about his dream of becoming a singer,” Andres says. “He had been writing music for a while but never said anything to anybody about it.” When Enrique left Miami to pursue a career in music, things got a little tense between him and his dad. Enrique didn’t want to be handed a record contract because of his famous dad, so he shopped himself around to record labels as Enrique Martinez from Central America. Then there’s the story about how his dad told him he’d never make it, though Enrique claims that just made him want it more.

“When your parents tell you that you can’t do something, you’re like, Well, you think I can’t, so I’m going to do it,” he explains.

He showed them. He landed a deal with a small Mexican label, Fonovisa. He recorded five hit Spanish albums on that label and already had thousands of girls screaming for him when he was signed by Interscope Records for $44 million in 1999. Not bad.

So how are things between Enrique and his dad these days?

“People always ask if I have a strange relationship with my father,” he tells me and then shakes his head. “It’s not that it’s strange. We just don’t talk about work. I work every single day, so when I’m with my parents I don’t even want to talk about it.”

He doesn’t sound bitter or anything, but he gives super-short answers when I try to get info about his family. He tells me he’s tight with his mom, who still lives in Spain. When I ask if he’s close with Julio Jr., who’s also a musician (though he hasn’t had as much commercial success as his brother), Enrique just says, “Yeah.” Gee, thanks for sharing.

To avoid any more uncomfortable moments of dead silence, I change the subject. I’m thinking a safe topic is his house in Miami where we did the cover shoot.

The place isn’t flashy enough to be Cribs-worthy. He’s lived there for four years and says he likes it because of the view of the bay. From what he tells me, it sounds like his two dogs are at his house more than he is. Lucas is the hyper German shepherd that he got about a year ago, and Grammy is his golden retriever. Wait – he has a dog named Grammy? Oh, God.

“It sounds corny, but my label named it already,” Enrique says. (The dog was a gift from his record company after he won the award in 1996.)

That’s a decent explanation. Big sigh of relief. Now I can go back to seeing him as hot and not a big sap. The more I think about it, the more I realize he’s basically my dream guy. He can sing, speak Spanish (I’m obsessed with learning the language – I even bought Spanish for Dummies), and is totally gorgeous. He seems like such a regular guy instead of some lame celebrity.

“I have normal friends,” he says, trying to explain how he’s stayed so grounded. “You lose reality when you start surrounding yourself with people who are kiss-asses and are always telling you, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ In this environment you can get a lot of that.”

And Andres swears Enrique’s still the same stunt-pulling, down-to-earth guy he was in school. That’s just one more thing to like about Enrique. Did I even mention that he makes me laugh, too? I had heard he was really serious, but that’s so not true. He even likes those Saturday Night Live skits that parody him.

“There was that one when Chris Kattan was imitating me singing “Hero” to some girl,” he says, laughing. “Chris is hilarious!”

I love that Enrique thinks those skits were funny. He’s really not what I thought he’d be like at all. And who knows, maybe his next video won’t be so corny. Since he’s not into having actresses in them anymore, I ask him if I can be in the next one. “Yeah, sure,” he says. I hear I get to kiss him. . .