The Cat's Meow: Give the Dolls Their Due

When Stefani brought her Interscope bosses Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair to see the show at the Roxy, Antin realized it might be time to expand the concept and find some singers. Before auditions she told Rolling Stone: "We're looking for really, really hot girls -- insanely beautiful girls with beautiful voices. We're looking for a triple threat, or at least a double. They have to really, really sing and really, really dance."

Meet the Pussycat Dolls:

· Carmit Bachar, 31, the only burlesque-era Doll to make the transition.

· Jessica Sutta, 23, a former Miami Heat dancer.

· Kimberly Wyatt, 23, a dancer spotted by Antin at a Nick Lachey video shoot.

· Ashley Roberts, 23, daughter of a Pilates instructor and a former drummer for The Mamas & The Papas.

· Melody Thornton, 20, whose grandmother sang in Mariachi bands and whose mother was a folkloric dancer.

Finally, there's Scherzinger, whose mother was a hula dancer and grandmother a singer in Polynesian shows in Honolulu. (The family moved to Louisville, Ky., when she was 6.) Scherzinger has been on a star track for some time: She graduated from a performing arts high school, majored in theater and minored in dance at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and was a backing vocalist for the rock band Days of the New. She even had a first whiff of stardom five years ago with Eden's Crush, a female quintet put together on the WB reality series "Popstars." Eden's Crush disbanded after a year, and as she was pursuing a solo career and taking small parts in films and television shows, Scherzinger heard that the Pussycat Dolls were looking for a real singer to front the group.

"That's what they brought me in for," she says. "When Jimmy Iovine chose me, he said, ' That's your lead girl right there.' "

And, just like that, the most important piece was in place, the Pussycat Dolls reduced from the dozen in the burlesque version to six for the pop group, five of them essentially dancing eye candy. (Scherzinger also did all the backing vocals on the album.)

"I knew by the people who were involved, the machine behind it, that this was going to be something," Scherzinger says. "Where we are today, it's kind of unbelievable to think about, that in a year we'd have two No. 1 hits, been No. 1 in 11 countries. But that's why I signed on to the project, because I felt it was going to be big; I just didn't know how big."

Or exactly what the Pussycat Dolls -- motto: sassy and classy -- would sound like. Executive-produced by Fair (Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne), with contributions from such producers as Cee-Lo Green, Timbaland, will. I. am. of the Black Eyed Peas and others, their debut album was two years in the making.