Life after Melrose Place is turning out to be pretty good for Heather Locklear. The 38-year-old actress, who said she was looking forward to staying home with 2-year-old daughter Ava after the super-popular Fox nighttime soap came to a close last season, had to eat her words when ABC's Spin City made her an offer she couldn't refuse.
"Well, I did take time off, and I'm ready to go back to work again," says Heather. Then she adds, jokingly: "I have no idea how to be a mother, so I've got to get back to work."
Back to work means a one-year contract to play campaign manager, Caitlin Moore, on the hit sitcom. Caitlin will be managing Mayor Randall Winston's (Barry Bostwick} U.S. Senate run - and butting heads with deputy mayor, Michael Flaherty (Michael J. Fox), in the process.
"At first, there will be a lot of hostility," says Spin City executive producer David Rosenthal. "But who knows where that will lead?"
Meanwhile, Heather and her husband of five years, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, are adjusting to life in the Big Apple. They have signed a one-year lease on a three-bedroom penthouse on Park Avenue that boasts 4.5 bathrooms, a library, and several fireplaces. If that sounds nice, it should be - monthly rent is a whooping $35,000 a month!
Heather's only home-hunting stipulation was that the apartment couldn't be too high up - she's afraid of heights.
The Texas native, who has spent most of her adulthood in Los Angeles, admits she's a lost soul in New York. "I don't have a clue," she says. "I have uptown, downtown, east, south, I just don't know. Oh, God! If you see me lost, help me out."
She and 39-year-old Richie, who hails from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, already had a "freaky experience" in their new luxury pad. "Suddenly a red laser light came in through the window and started following us down a hallway," says Heather. Curtains immediately went to the top of her shopping list - especially after she noticed the things she can see from her windows. "I know this kind of thing goes on in New York," says Heather. "I was looking out the window and I thought I saw a naked man in a shower." A friend pooh-poohed the notion, and convinced her it was just a poster of a naked man.
"But then the man moved! And he wasn't in the shower. He was in the kitchen." Heather confides her secret fear: "I hope I'm not going to be one of those people who looks."
The down-to-earth actress is also a bit nervous about performing comedy before a live studio audience. "It's pretty intimidating," she says. Luckily, her new boss isn't worried. "I have total confidence this actress will really flourish in this format and in this genre," says Spin City star Michael J. Fox. "She brings a tremendous attention and excitement to the show and a real energy. And most importantly, she's a nice person. I've been doing this for a long time and life is just too short not to have good people and fun people and nice people with us."
Fox likes Heather's hubby, too. In fact, he likes to tell the story of how Richie visited the set this summer on a 100° day and remained to cheer on his wife even after the studio air-conditioning conked out.
Fox says he was astounded at how Richie continued smiling and applauding his wife even though he had sweat dripping down his face. Rumor has it that Heather is trying to get Richie a guest appearance gig on Spin City.
"I Rebelled Through Tommy Lee"
Love is indeed lovelier the second time around for Heather, who shocked friends and family when she wed Motley Crue drummer, Tommy Lee, when she was just 24. They divorced seven years later. Looking back, she believes that her marriage to the notorious bad boy was "a way of living through someone. I rebelled through Tommy. I couldn't do it, so I watched him do it. Let's not forget that my dad was a colonel in the Marines."
Though Richie is clearly the love of her life, she admits he has competition for both her and Ava's affections. "Now the man in my life is Barney," says the former Dynasty diva, who admits she occasionally fights with Ava, who turned 2 in October, over the remote control ("Honey, Mommy wants to watch grown-up TV"). Then her maternal instincts arise and she shuts off the TV entirely. "I can't believe the mother in me kicks in and tells Ava, 'We must switch this TV off because you're not learning anything.'"
Perhaps little Ava will be allowed to watch Mommy on Spin City: The show's producer says that Caitlin will be a lot different from Amanda. "Much less evil," says Executive Producer David Rosenthal. "She's playing a comedic character now. You'll see Heather smiling a lot more than she did on Melrose Place. She'll be goofy and silly, and she can let her hair down."
Believe it or not, Heather doesn't see her new role as such a stretch. She says that playing on the over-the-top nighttime soap for six years "was really good training" for doing comedy. And she's excited about joining such a well-established show.
"It's always better to join a successful show, I think, than a show that's not even on," says Heather. "It takes a long time to develop a new show, to get the right writers and all of that. That is a lot of work, and why wait?"
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