THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 12, 1996 TAG: 9602100059
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
AT A RECENT Hollywood party, which took place under a magnificent white tent, Marcia Cross of ``Melrose Place'' stood near the bar, smoking an obscenely long cigarette.
Between puffs, she talked about how grateful she is that almost nobody confuses her with the outrageous doctor she plays on the campiest nighttime soap opera since, well, ``Soap.''
``People will come up to me and say, `I love you but not your character.' That makes me very happy. When the whole baby-stealing storyline was going on, I thought everybody would hate me because they were hating Kimberly at the time.''
Who could mistake Dr. Kimberly Shaw for a real person?
Know anyone who's been dead and come back to life? Ran down her husband with a convertible? Snatched a baby? Talked her way out of a mental ward? Had a brief career as a radio shrink? Bedded just about every guy she met for a while? And was terrorized by an evil spirit who lived in her mirror?
``The people I meet never go, `Oh, you're that awful Kimberly.' They are very nice to me, actually,'' said Cross, who is model-thin and tall with a face the camera loves dearly - perfect complexion, perfect teeth, cheekbones as high as the current Dow Jones average and eyes set miles apart.
She's a Julliard grad.
And single.
And not a big spender.
``Until recently, I was living in a one-bedroom apartment and driving my old Hyundai. My frinds kept telling me, `You can do better than that.' And I can. I don't make what Heather Locklear makes on our show, but I have no complaints.''
Until lately, Cross was merely a working actor (two soap operas, one shot on Garry Shandling's first cable sitcom, the role of Viola on stage in ``Twelfth Night''). Just another pretty face.
Then came ``Melrose Place.'' Stardom. Now the scripts are piled high on her coffee table. She can have her pick when she leaves ``Melrose Place'' in a year or so.
Like Locklear, who plays the boss from hell (Amanda Woodward), Cross joined ``Melrose Place'' after the series was launched by producer Aaron Spelling. He gives Locklear credit for saving the show which was failing as a Generation X ensemble piece.
To Cross goes praise for elevating ``Melrose Place'' to high camp. She was signed for one show, then two, then four, then 13, and finally, as a cast regular in 1995.
When she tore off her wig and revealed The Horrible Scar, Kimberly made it into the Television Hall of Shame.
``I had no idea the impact of that scene would be so great,'' Cross said. ``God knows, it was a long process in makeup to get the hair, the wig and scar to look right.''
The Scar! Yipes! On the fright-o-meter, I put that scene up there with the shower bit in ``Psycho.''
Cross says the producers of ``Melrose Place'' swear the actors to secrecy. So, she won't dare tell if her on-again, off-again romance with Michael (Thomas Calabro) is on again to stay. In last week's episode, he said, as both actors tumbled off the bed, ``I love you. You love me. And we both know it.''
Said Cross, ``I truly enjoy the sex scenes. . . . I always have a good time doing them.''
The ``Melrose Place'' scripts - the show airs tonight at 8 on Fox - often call for the Cross character to get physical. If she isn't crashing through a guard rail, she's in hand-to-hand combat with a rapist or she's deliberately breaking her wrist to shed one of those you're-under-house-arrest monitoring gizmos.
You earn your money, I told her.
``That's what Heather said to me the other day. She's in so many scenes, and works so many long days on the set, I asked Heather how she does it. She asked me how I can stand to do all the physical stuff I do.''
It's the money that drives Cross. It makes you forget the aches.
Locklear reportedly earns $70,000 an episode. Even if Cross makes one-fifth of that, it ain't bad. She can do better than a Hyundai. by CNB