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When Robert Buckley was offered the role of a surfing instructor who falls in love with Heather Locklear in the TV movie "Flirting With 40," he told a bit of a white lie.

"I actually did not know how to surf," the "Lipstick Jungle" star confessed to me recently. "I grew up skateboarding and snowboarding and thought that was a good enough background. The producers asked me and asked me. I'm not a pro but not bad at it.' Somebody leaked to them I was lying or they could tell, They ended up getting me a surfing coach. I did learn for the movie."

The movie premieres on the Lifetime network Saturday night and tells the story of a divorced mom, on the verge of 40, who meets and falls for a much-younger man while on vacation. It is Locklear's first project to air since her recent arrest for DUI.

Buckley has only good things to say about the actress who he got along with terrifically during the film's shoot in Hawaii.

"We had such a good time doing it," he said. "It makes a difference when you connect with the person. To say, 'That's my job,' qualifies me as one of the luckiest guys alive. I had never been in Hawaii before the film and it was every bit as beautiful and amazing as I thought it'd be. You'd catch yourself and say, 'We are working.'"

In the movie, he teaches Locklear's character how to surf. In real-life, it very well could have been the other way around.

"She said she didn't (know how) but she was like strangely good, she picked it up really fast," Buckley said. "Maybe she took some lessons before she came so she'd look that much better than me. I'm glad all the surfing scenes are focused on her, she was the better of the two."

The timing of the movie's premiere has provided a bit of a lift for the 27-year-old actor since it was recently announced that NBC would not be ordering any more episodes of "Lipstick Jungle" after two seasons. His role of photographer Kirby Atwood also has him cast as a younger man involved with an beautiful older woman played by Kim Raver.

"Both with Kim and with Heather, I really have gotten along quite well with both of them, I can't say just how invaluable that is," he said. "There you are trying to create this romance and if you don't get along, it makes it so much more of a challenge."

Another similarity in the roles is that they both require the buff actor to be shirtless a lot of the time which has propelled him to sex symbol status.

"I would love to say it's so difficult, it is so hard being me. It can be a little embarassing, I kinda blush when people in public bring it up. I didn't grow up the hunky kid. It makes me smile and makes me laugh and I don't take too seriously, it always makes me
laugh."

So where does he hope to be professionally say five years from now?
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His answer comes quickly: "Off unemployment!"

This is an amusing video I spooted on OhLaLaMag that I found amusing. Robert Buckley, the best part of most episodes of "Lipstick Jungle," does a send-up of the fact that his character of Kirby often as a very skimpy wardrobe.

Enjoy and happy Friday!

Earlier posts:
-- My chat with Robert Buckley of "Lipstick Jungle..."
-- Lipstick Jungle: Lipstick Jungle: Roy comes out, Kirby loses his shirt...

First of all, I'm not ignoring you dear readers.

There is some kind of major issue going on with the blogs on dailynews.com so I'm posting this not sure when you will see it. Could be in five minutes, could be in five hours. But know that as soon as I am able, you will have plenty of new posts.

I'm leaving in about an hour to Palm Springs for a week of fun in the sun but will be blogging from poolside most mornings. First I want to share with you a few tidbits from an interview I've just had with Robert Buckley, the studly actor who plays Kirby on NBC's "Lipstick Jungle." Our chat was mainly about his upcoming Lifetime movie "Flirting With 40" opposite Heather Locklear which airs on Dec. 6. It will be the subject of one of my newspaper columns that week.

But here are a few morsels until then. I've been reading that "Lipstick" had been cancelled then not cancelled. Asked Robert what he knows: "Your guess is as good as mine, It's touch and go. Last i heard, we will at least air the remaining episodes, all 13 will air. Any back order (additional episodes) is to be determined."

He called from NYC and had his last day of shooting on "Lipstick" yesterday. Hopefully this is not the last we'll see of the show but NBC's relegating it to Friday nights was not exactly a sign of confidence.
Since his character of Kirby usually has at least one shirtless scene in each episode, I had to ask Robert about what executive producer Oliver Goldstick had told me during the summer at the NBC TV Critics Press Tour: "If somebody had said to me, 'Are we going to see any more of Kirby?' I wanted to say to you guys, NBC censors won't allow us to see any more of Kirby because all last season, when they got to post(production), they had to do a lot of cutting of Kirby," he said, refering to having to cut scenes to meet network standards for nudity.

I asked him about Buckley and if all this shirtless stuff - which has been splashed all over the Internet and the pages of magazines, was just a fluke or what? "Look, the right pecs can get you a lot of publicity I guess," Oliver said. "He likes to take his shirt off and I'm very fortunate for it. I guess the show's lucky. He;s 26 years old, At 26, we all took off things. He would do every scene in a towel if he could. He works out at the gym a lot. The thing about him that;s wonderful, he's a ... genuine, sweet person. He's a puppy and eager to learn and he's learning very quickly. He's ... knows what his charm is and what works."

Replied Robert to me today: "I read that! I read your story," he said. "It's not like I walked into the writer's room and said, 'This script could use more man chest. In auditions, they never asked me tio take my shirt off. What if I wasn't in shape or had a giant tatoo of a unicorn of a dolphin?"

Actually, a unicorn would have been kinda cute.

Stay tuned for my entire interview with Robert in a few weeks.

Earlier posts:
-- "Lipstick Jungle" will feature more shirtless Robert Buckley and reveal a gay character...

It turns out Chris is a guy.

On last night's episode of my favorite guilty pleasure, "Lipstick Jungle," Victory's assistant, Roy, came out to her. Victory (Lindsay Price) had been talking to Roy about his recent break-up with "Chris" but he was never gender specific. But in the end, he said, "I miss him."

It was a sweet scene and I look forward to seeing more of Roy (Matt Lauria) as an out gay man. Maybe he'll actually have a few dates and a storyline and not be relegated to gay assistant land all season!

There;s no chance of Kirby (Robert Buckley) being relegated to the background. I think it's terrific that it seems to be a requirement that he is shirtless. In this episode, he and Nico (Kim Raver) went to some crazy party where each time the DJ hits this gong thing, the guests take off an item of clothing and swap with someone. Kirby was down to his underwear pretty quick. I wonder if the writers are having fun thinking of ways, within the storylines, to have a shirtless Kirby (last week he was playing basketball).

My only quibble with "Lipstick" is that after all this time, I have NO idea what the heck kind of accent Andrew McCarthy (he plays billionarie Joe Bennett) is triying to pull off. He is not succeeding.

It's Robert Buckley and Robert Buckley! These promo shots for the upcoming second season of NBC's "Lipstick Jungle" do not show off the actor's best assets but no doubt that shirt will come off in his scenes with co-star Kim Raver.

I'm sure that most of the TV critics here at the Beverly Hilton for the last day of the summer press tour could care less about what's happening with the characters on "Lipstick Jungle" in the new season. I however, am very interested. Was able to chat up the show's very nice executive producer Oliver Goldstick.

I went straight to the really important question: how much will be seeing of the super hunky Robert Buckley who plays Kirby and is often shirtless. Let's face it, he is one of the main reasons a lot of us watch the show anyway! Oliver told me that Robert is a bonafide regular cast member now (upgraded from recurring status I believe) and his relationship with Nico (Kim Raver) will continue.

"If somebody had said to me, 'Are we going to see any more of Kirby?' I wanted to say to you guys, NBC censors won't allow us to see any more of Kirby because all last season, when they got to post(production), they had to do a lot of cutting of Kirby," he said, refering to having to cut scenes to meet network standards for nudity.

"You'll be seeing a lot of Kirby," he promised. "I don't want to tell you too much but we're exploring this whole year what it means for an older woman to be with a younger man."

I asked him about Buckley and if all this shirtless stuff - which has been splashed all over the Internet and the pages of magazines, was just a fluke or what!

"Look, the right pecs can get you a lot of publicity I guess," Oliver said. "He likes to take his shirt off and I'm very fortunate for it. I guess the show's lucky. He;s 26 years old, At 26, we all took off things. He would do every scene in a towel if he could. He works out at the gym a lot. The thing about him that;s wonderful, he;s a ... genuine, sweet person. He's a puppy and eager to learn and he's learning very quickly. He's ... knows what his charm is and what works."

As for the gay character, he is Roy, the assistant to Victory (Lindsay Price). He is played by Matt Lauria who is completely adorable.

"Victory's assistant, Roy, will be coming out this season," Oliver said. "But not in a big way."

I wanted to ask what that meant, 'Not in a big way?' I guess it means he's going to remain a minor character. So far, just three episodes have been shot so maybe there is time to have Roy's part grow and have him have a hot boyfriend!

Here's what Oliver said about making the show more diverse in general:"One of my agendas coming in was to make the show resemble New York more. The New York I lived in for 10 years wasn't represented real well on the show. We needed more people who just looked like they lived in that city. You can't live ijn New York City without hearing five different languages while you're standing in line at Starbucks for a coffee in the morning. That's what New York is."
I love Mary Tyler Moore and I'm really looking forward to her guest spots as Brooke Shields' mom. But I had to laugh when Mary was announced as one of the "new faces" of the second season. We all know that Mary, now in her early 70s, has had many new faces over the years. She even wrote about her first facelift in her autobiography, "After All," published in the mid-90s. She had checked into a hotel to recover and done the whole bit to disguise herself (a hat, sunglasses, a scarf and a a big package to hold in front of her) but the minute she walked into the hotel (or maybe got into a taxi) someone said, 'Hello Miss Moore!"

Ouch.

Here's what Brooke said Monday about working with Mary, a seven-time Emmy winner and star of two of the most classic sitcoms in the history of television: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

"She;s such an icon," she said. "There's such a level of respect for her talent and her ;longevity and just her humor. She was one of the first... to represent women in the workplace..She kind of walks into the set with all of that and commands respect. It's such a joy to be able to work opposite someone who you know has been through it all and has seen television through so many stages and eras."

Other tidbits: Carlos Ponce will play a new love interest - a contractor working on the flagship store Victory is opening this season. Andrew McCarthy will be back as well.
"I love the idea of a triangle."

Goldstick told me that the wonderfulLorraine Bracco, who guested on several episodes last season, will reprise her role as a scheming book editor in year two. Also guesting for several episodes will be Rosie Perez!

"Lipstick Jungle" hearthrob Robert Buckley is giving Matthew McConaughey a real run for his money as the actor who owns the fewest shirts! JustJared.com has posted dozens of new shots of Buckley that ya just gotta see! Here is the LINK...In them, he is filming new scenes for the second season of "Lipstick."

Please. As if I didn't already love "Lipstick Jungle" enough already. Now comes word that the great Mary Tyler Moore will join the series when it returns this fall in a recurring role as Brooke Shields' mother.

Sounds delish!

Mary may be best known for her sunny good girl roles on the TV classics "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show," but she is also expert as a dramatic actress and can pkay a terrific bitch. After all, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as the cold and distant mother in "Ordinary People" and one of her seven Emmys was for her portrayal as an evil woman arranging black market adoptions in "Stealing Babies."

On "Lipstick," Mary will play a retired high-power executive, who fought the good fight for working women in the '70s and '80s and doesn't shy away from giving her daughter her opinion on "how to have it all."

"I'm fortunate to have had a front row seat to the evolution of working women on television," Mary said in a statement. "It's been great fun to watch the strong female characters of 'Lipstick Jungle' go at it week after week. I absolutely adore Brooke and I'm delighted to be a part of a show which is so well written."
Mary's first appearance will be on September 24 on NBC, when the series returns for its second season premiere. She will be coming full circle in a way because "Lipstick" follows the lives and careers of three career women in New York City. In the 70s on her self-titled landmark sitcom, Mary was an assistant producer of a TV newscast and best pal Rhoda (Valerie Harper) was a window dresser. Their eccentirc neighbor Phyllis (Cloris Leachman) wasn't really career-oriented but she did once do a short stint in Mary's newsroom but proved so annoying that she had to be fired!

For the first 11 minutes of last night's season finale of "Lipstick Jungle," the character of Kirby (Robert Buckley) didn't have a shirt on. No wonder I love this show! Well, that's one of the reasons. The truth is, I love the three leads - Brooke Shields, Kim Raver and Lindsay Price - and their glamorous lives as a movie studio head, magazine editor and fashion designer, respectively.

Sadly, Nico's (Raver) steamy affair with Kirby hit a snag when her boring hubby had a heart attack and now she's freaked. I loved tonight's subplot which had Wendy (Shields) trying to get a reclusive old-school screenwriter to finish her script so they can begin a tight production schedule. The awesome thing about this was having the screenwriter played by the glorious Marsha Mason who I haven't seen much of since she did a buncha episodes of "Frasier" several years back as Martin's (John Mahoney) boisterous fiance who Frasier and Niles did not much like.

Marsha was a major movie star in the 70s and 80s - nominated for four Academy Awards - starring in such films as "The Goodbye Girl," "Only When I Laugh," "Cinderella Liberty," "Chapter Two" and "Max Dugan Returns."

It was great to see her again...

What I get from watching this interview is that if you are as goodlooking and buff as Robert Buckley, good things happen for you.

Duh.

This is a visit he had on an LA entertainment show when he was doing all those MyTV soap operas like "Fashion House." The season finale of "Lipstick Jungle" is tomorrow night b ut I reserve the right to post one more picture of Robert (shirtless, of course) just to remind you!
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A long day at the office trying to finish a series of newspaper columns meant I missed the screening of "Never Back Down" last night. But I got home just in time to catch "Lipstick Jungle" which will have its first season finale next week.

The previews look great as Nico's boring hubby has a heart attack while she is in bed with young stud Kirby! Kim Raver is a beautiful woman and terrific in this role but whenever there's a scene that calls for Kirby (Robert Buckley) to have his shirt off, I sorta forget about everyone else in the frame! What an absolute hottie and how smart of the show to have a shirtless scene almost every episode. They did get out of the bedroom last night though to go to Ireland on a business trip. Brooke Shields comes too - unexpectedly - and finds out about boytoy. The fight between she and Raver was so terrific because the harsh words were said - real bitchy stuff - but like the "Sex and the City" girls, you could see the deep hurt and pain they cause on both sides.

If I have one quibble it's the romance between Lindsey Price and Andrew McCarthy. It was fun at first, him flying her to Paris for dinner and all these grand gestures, but now he's coming off as too clueless and creepy. She moves in and he has waiting for her basically every pair of shoes, dress, nightgown etc. that a woman could want there waiting for her. It's a bit much. I like both actors a lot and hope they can be put on a more realstic path when the show returns. I know at least seven more episodes have been ordered and I hope they will be aired in the fall and not held for mid-season. Keep the buzz going NBC!

It's official: "Lipstick Jungle" has surpassed "Gossip Girl" as my favorite guilty pleasure.

I don't care what critics say, I love this show and I love Andrew McCarthy's character even more now that he's given up trying to do some kind of weird accent. Brooke Shields is good and Lindsay Price is lotsa fun but my real fave is Kim Raver and her sizzling hot storyline with hunky Robert Buckley. I mean, it is on!

Last night, things really got fun with Kirby not wearing a shirt in about 80 percent of his scenes.
Spectacular. I am hooked, pure and simple. Next week is another original episode - Thursday at 10 p.m. This is so much more fun than watching "ER."

Caught "Lipstick Jungle" last night and each week, I get more and more hooked. Brooke Shields' character is getting more hard-assed which I like. She's showing a bitchy and controlling side. Other thoughts: Andrew McCarthy's character has some kind of accent that I can't really figure out. What is he going for there?

The Kim Raver character is the most interesting with the young lover and her boring hubby who, I think, is sleeping with one of his students! But we know the best part of her storyline involves the young dude played by Robert Buckley (left). I think it's insane that he is suing her for sexual harassment one minute - which threatens her marriage and career - and by episode's end, she's getting ready to hook up with him again. I mean, he's mega-hot, but there are some things that are tough to overlook!

Well, he did drop the lawsuit!

Here's the deal: I don't have any use for ABC's "Cashmere Mafia" but I am getting pretty addicted to NBC's "Lipstick Jungle." As far as "Sex and the City" wannabes go, neither show comes close but "Lipstick" is the more entertaining of the two. And, who am I kidding? The hunky Robert Buckley having a shirtless scene in just about every episode so far. The good news is that NBC has ordered six more episodes of the show which brings its first season total to 13. Let's hope ratings are good enough toi warrant a second season. I love the leading ladies Brooke Shields, Kim Raver and Lyndsey Price and I love, love, love Andrew McCarthy's quirky billionaire character. He's still awfully cute after all these years...

Reader Brian informed me that my "Lipstick Jungle" crush Robert Buckley was previously on the My Network TV show "Fashion House" that starred Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild. Robert played a photographer on the show.

Brian writes: "Trust me, the writers were smart to have Mr. Buckley without his shirt at least every week and sometimes every episode."

Let's hope the writers of NBC's "Lipstick Jungle" will feature Robert similarly each week!

I happened to catch the series premiere of "Lipstick Jungle" after taking a late afternoon nap and waking up too late to see a preview of the new Ryan Reynolds film "Definitely, Maybe." As disappointed as I was about Ryan, I found a new crush: Robert Buckley, the young stud who seduces the magazine editor played by Kim Raver.

IIt was steamy! He is not only good looking in that Scott Speedman sort of way, but he exudes charisma and has a killer body. And oh yeah, even though the reviews were unkind, I actually like the show and think it has potential to get better. Great to have Brooke Shields back on TV and next weekend, Lorraine Bracco will guest star - the first of several.

Queerty posted about Robert and additional photos as well!