Christopher cooks.

With a hot restaurant, plus his art and film projects, Madonna's younger brother Christopher Ciccone has a lot on his plate

Prolific partygoer and general man-about-town Christopher Ciccone is a hard man to pigeonhole. For one thing, he co-owns the eatery Atlantic in Los Angeles, still a happening Hollywood-crowd hot spot after four years. Until recently he also co-owned a restaurant in New York City called Oriont. Unfortunately, he lost the place the day before Thanksgiving, when an art gallery above it caught fire and the whole building was burned to a crisp.

But restaurants are not Ciccone's main business. "Of all the things I do, that is probably the closest to becoming a hobby," he says, describing the Atlantic as a place where he can feel comfortable and smoke--yes, even in Los Angeles. "What most people know me as is the last thing they read about me doing," he says, "so right now they think I'm a restaurateur."

So is he a dancer? After all, he was one of his sister Madonna's backup dancers when she first started performing New York club dates in the late '70s. "I stopped dancing when she started touring," he says.

In the broadest sense Ciccone is an artist. As an interior designer he has decorated Madonna's houses ever since fashioning the New York apartment she shared with Sean Penn in 1985 as well as both his restaurants and many other interiors. As an artist he has had his paintings exhibited in New York and Paris. He has directed music videos for Tony Bennett and Dolly Parton, among others. Oh, and he has collaborated with his sister on her mammoth worldwide tours, designing and directing "Girlie Show" and art-directing "Blond Ambition."

At 39 the versatile Ciccone is about to add two more items to his resume. He's just launched a line of furniture for the chi-chi firm Bernhardt "meant to be simple and classic," and he's touting his first screenplay around Hollywood. For the epic saga about a female bullfighter, he envisages Penelope Cruz and Sigourney Weaver in the lead roles.

"My one direction in life is to remain being an artist and getting paid for being one," he says, adding that he doesn't resist seeking contacts through Madonna, but "there's a propriety" involved.

Still, of the eight Ciccone children, Madonna and Christopher are clearly the closest. The two have overlapping social circles, and he spent the Christmas holidays in Miami with his sister and niece Lourdes (or "Lola," as they call her).

Things were not so rosy, however, when Madonna outed him in an interview with The Advocate in 1991 without asking his permission first. "It was not her business," he says indignantly. "I was not happy about that--not because I have a problem with it, and it certainly wasn't anything I ever hid, but because I don't talk about the people I know, and I expect the same from them. We're still friends, though. That happened a while ago."

Although currently single, Ciccone has had some satisfying relationships in the past ("I've had the good fortune of being in love twice") and some not-so-great ones--a hazard of being sibling to one of the world's most famous stars. "Believe me, I've gone out with some nuts," he says. "When I first met them, they seemed decent and regular and said they weren't big fans, but then they turn out to be crazy--mad, insane Madonna fans. Looking back, it's pretty funny. Nobody's ever caused any harm. Let's just say it was bad judgment on my part."

He breaks into a sardonic grin. "It happens," he adds, "but I can't assume everybody's a freak, or else I wouldn't see anybody--and I'm not getting any younger."

Goodridge also writes for Screen International magazine.