Lipstick Jungle: December 2008 Archives

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!"