THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 18, 1996 TAG: 9603160089
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
AFTER VISITING her chiropractor, actress Kristin Davis of Columbia, S.C. - she played the spoiled rich girl who married Billy on ``Melrose Place'' - is doing much better, thank you.
She hurt her head, neck and shoulders while filming the scene that all but ended poor Brooke's role on the campy Fox drama. Brooke drowned in the pool at 4616 Melrose Place, returned as ghost Brooke to haunt Billy and nearly drive him mad.
Then she faded away.
Now, Davis is back on TV on Monday night, but not as bad girl Brooke of ``Melrose Place.'' Davis tonight at 9 on NBC stars in ``The Ultimate Lie.''
The plot of this movie in a nutshell: She's a high-class hooker from a good home, scheduled to see her next client. When she knocks on the hotel door, she is greeted by her father, a law school dean who uses the services of high-priced call girls!
Davis looks and acts as petulant as did Brooke on ``Melrose Place.'' Davis said, ``It wasn't much of a stretch.''
Except for the age. In ``The Ultimate Lie,'' Davis plays 19. She's 31. It isn't likely that we will see the ghost of Brooke on ``Melrose Place'' again, but you never know, said Davis. Billy has turned into a workaholic after being possessed by Brooke's spirit. He will do anything, including having sex with strangers, to get ahead in the advertising game.
Should Billy go too far, the ``Melrose Place'' producers may call in ghost Brooke to exorcize the demons from him. If not, that's fine with Davis, who was seen in 34 episodes after originally signing for 10.
She was a terror at D&D Advertising, playing the intern who first spied on Alison for Amanda while Amanda was ill, and then had Alison shipped off to Hong Kong. That's when she roped in Billy.
Nice girl. I miss her.
``It was a wonderful experience and it meant a big paycheck, but I have no regrets about leaving `Melrose Place,' '' she said on the phone the other day.
The trouble with ``Melrose Place,'' she said, is that there are too many characters on the series. The writers eventually run out of ideas and then take the easy way out. They kill you off, said Davis.
It happened to her recently, and to the actor Perry King who played her father, Hayley Armstrong. It didn't take long for Dan Cortese as Jake's brother Jess to outlive his usefulness.
Him I don't miss.
Now the buzz is that Daphne Zuniga, who as Jo the photographer never had much to do, will be the next to go.
In Davis' finale, they had her collapse into the Melrose Place pool and drown. Davis did not use a double because the scene was shot four times from different angles. Each time, she hit her head on the side of the pool, which was padded.
But not padded enough.
Action! Splash! Bump! ``Ouch!''
``That scene was no piece of cake,'' she said.
``I did it a little too well. My neck was killing me.''
It took weeks for her chiropractor to work out the hurt. Davis is fine now. She has kicked back to watch the offers come in.
``Doing a sitcom is a possibility,'' said Davis, who still has a lot of South Carolina in her. Off-camera, the accent wrapped in cotton creeps in.
In leaving behind ``Melrose Place,'' Davis will not miss the tabloid headlines that come with starring in an Aaron Spelling primetime soap opera.
``They print so much dirt about us,'' she said. ``When we're getting along just fine, they say we're not. It's just gossip. It's all made up.''
Does this mean there is nothing whatsoever to the stories that Tori Spelling of ``Beverly Hills 90210'' is dating that Richard designer guy (Patrick Muldoon) from ``Melrose Place''? by CNB