When the Melrose Place cast got word of the show's demise, they didn't overreact. "We're not going to kill ourselves over this," promises Jack Wagner, who has played the scheming-but-sexy Dr. Peter Burns for five of Melrose's seven sudsy seasons. Cancellation "is the way of this business. We've all been through this before."
�����And after all that bedhopping, blackmailing and backstabbing, Wagner, 39, could use the rest. "The whole show is kind of crazy," he laughs. "When I was chief of staff at the hospital, I was 34. I was like, shouldn't I be 64? And didn't I just try to kill Heather [Locklear], and now she's my wife?"
�����Wagner, who first started making soap-opera fans swoon back in 1983 as General Hospital hunk Frisco, calls Melrose's end, "in a way, a sigh of relief. In soap operas, you're constantly struggling to find new spins on the same theme. The last year has been difficult."
�����After Melrose's May 24 series finale, the avid golfer is looking forward to the links (he has a zero handicap) and spending time at home in L.A. with wife Kristina and their two sons. As for acting post-Melrose, Wagner, who has no work lined up, jokes, "I'm going to let my career go down the drain!"
- Ulrica Wihlborg