Setting Sail on a New Steamer

As she waits to be seated at the trendy L.A. restaurant The Ivy, Heather Locklear reaches out to tap the maitre d' on the shoulder when, whoa, she realizes in the nick of time that the woman is no host but Michelle Pfeiffer. A few minutes later, with both actresses turning heads from their separate tables, Locklear laughs. ''That would have been a pretty big faux pas,'' she says. '''Ooops.' Can you imagine how embarrassing that would have been?''

And you thought nothing could embarrass this woman after she spent eight years playing Dynasty's Sammy Jo, one of TV's trampiest vamps. ''I think I had the tightest jeans in TV history,'' Locklear says, admitting she can't even remember whom exactly the promiscuous Sammy Jo bedded. ''I lost track. Was I ever married to Jeff (John James)?'' (No.) Now Locklear, 31, graduates on screen from young vixen to older other woman in a six-episode sweeps story line on Fox's Melrose Place. As advertising exec Amanda Woodward, boss of Alison (Courtney Thorne-Smith), Locklear romances Alison's usually shirtless and not-completely-platonic roommate, Billy (Andrew Shue). ''I do always like being the one in the middle,'' Locklear says naughtily.

Married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee since 1986, Locklear, who also stars in the USA Network thriller Fade to Black on Feb. 10, says, only half jokingly, that the secret to domestic bliss ''is never being together. We're never in a rut.'' And Lee doesn't watch her love scenes. ''All the wives of the band members were making a big deal about Andrew Shue. And one of the guys told him, 'Look out, Tommy, the guy is pretty buff. You may have to start working out.' Hey, I figure this will keep him on his toes.''

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