Locklear Testifies in TV Firing Case

It was one of those quintessential L.A. moments: A hush fell over the crowded courtroom as the famous blond witness testified about having a baby while playing a babe on a prime time television soap opera.

Heather Locklear, wearing skin-tight black pants, four-inch heels and a cropped black T-shirt that revealed just a glimpse of taut, post-pregnancy midriff, was asked Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court to describe how she played the role of a scheming super-vixen, even as a mother-to-be.

“I acted,” said the slender star of “Melrose Place,” a popular Monday night show about a group of hormonal twentysomethings who inhabit a Los Angeles apartment building. “I’d bat my eyes, I suppose, and expose myself.”

“But you couldn’t expose yourself when you were pregnant?” asked attorney Nathan Goldberg, who represents actress Hunter Tylo, the would-be temptress who is suing the show’s producers for firing her last year when she became pregnant.

“I would, but no one would probably want to see it,” Locklear replied.

Locklear, who gave birth to a daughter five weeks ago, shot many of the scenes now playing on this season’s “Melrose Place” while pregnant.

Tylo’s lawyers called the show’s star of nearly six years to the stand in an effort to show a double standard.

Tylo is charging that Aaron Spelling’s production company wrongfully fired her because she became pregnant a month after agreeing to a four-year contract to play the bed-hopping, husband-stealing Taylor McBride.

That role went to Lisa Rinna, who now is expecting. She testified earlier in the trial, which began Nov. 10.

Attorneys for Spelling Television contend that a clause in Tylo’s contract barred any “material change” in her appearance. They objected to Locklear’s testimony, saying that although she is “a talented actress,” she was not involved in any of the producers’ decisions to fire Tylo or shoot around the other actresses’ pregnancies.

According to testimony, the shooting schedule was moved up several weeks to accommodate Locklear’s pregnancy. She testified that she did not request the schedule change.

As far as the producers are concerned, Spelling attorney William Waldo contends, the case is about appearances, not pregnancy.

Waldo has taken pains to chart Tylo’s weight gain of more than 40 pounds during her pregnancy a year ago. Tylo, who is now nearly eight months pregnant with another child, said she could have played the part using concealing clothing and camera angles.

Locklear’s hour and 15 minutes on the witness stand seemed more like a talk show appearance than a scene from a courtroom drama. She smiled at jurors, shook back her blond tresses and gave quick, snappy answers.

At one point, her voice dropped to a whisper as she revealed that her character, Amanda Woodward, had slept with “um, about nine or 10” men on the show.

Asked if the character is sexy in this year’s episodes, even though the shows were shot while she was pregnant, Locklear said, “I hope she’s always sexy.”

Scene after scene of Locklear, wrapped in leopard print sheets or filmed from the chest up, played on the television monitor; “all three of me” was the way she described one busty shot. In other scenes, the actress testified, her expanding midsection was camouflaged by “a picnic basket, table tops and a waiter.” Body doubles were used in about 10 shots, she said.