SamboraBlog

'Perfect' pals: Locklear and Duff

By William Keck, USA TODAY
BEVERLY HILLS — Heather Locklear and Hilary Duff became so tight on the set of their new movie, The Perfect Man, that they developed a secret clenched-lip language that allowed them to gossip freely without anyone being the wiser.

"I had good stories for her of things not to do," Locklear says, lounging with Duff on a sofa at the Four Seasons Hotel.

"All confidential," Duff says with a nod.

In the film, which opens Friday, Duff's character gets herself into a heap of trouble when she concocts an imaginary suitor for her single mom (Locklear). It was Duff, whose mother, Susan, is a producer on the film, who suggested Locklear for the part.

For more than two decades, Locklear has jumped from one TV hit to the next (T.J. Hooker, Melrose Place, Spin City) since her debut in 1981 at age 19 as Dynasty spitfire Sammy Jo Carrington. Duff, whose first role was a 9-year-old witch in 1998's Casper Meets Wendy, also has worked non-stop since making the transition from her long-running Disney Channel TV series, Lizzie McGuire, to a string of successful feature films (Agent Cody Banks, Cheaper by the Dozen, A Cinderella Story). Last year, the actress/singer also found time to go on tour with her sister, Haylie, 20, and sell 11 million records.

Finally crossing paths, Locklear, 43, and Duff, 17, discovered that they share much in common: chiefly their love for rocker boys and clean living.

On the appeal of bad-boy rockers

Locklear, who was married to Motley Crue's Tommy Lee from 1986 to 1993 before he moved on to future ex-wife Pamela Anderson, has been happily married to Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora since 1994. And Duff, who for months has remained cagey about the nature of her relationship with Good Charlotte lead singer Joel Madden, acknowledges that the two are in fact an item. Plans are being discussed for Duff, 17, and Madden, 26, to "come out" as a couple as co-presenters at the MTV Video Music Awards in Miami on Aug. 28, one month before she turns 18.

"What happens when you're 18?" Locklear asks.

"Nothing," Duff answers. "I don't feel like there's anything that I can do when I'm 18 that I can't do now. Nothing's going to change."

Duff says Madden is her perfect man because he shares her values. "Compared to any young Hollywood-actor dude, Joel is so normal. He's not a partier. He's not a crazy rock star. He doesn't trash his room. And I like the way he looks, obviously."

As a "good and honest girl," Locklear says her attraction to bad boys allows her to explore "the flip side of myself, the darker side."

"You see them on stage," Locklear says, "and it's pretty hot."

On 'dating' Tom Cruise

Locklear's string of celeb beaus, which include '80s heartthrob Scott Baio, began in 1982 with a handsome young Hollywood newcomer named Tom Cruise. But not really, she clarifies all these years later, acknowledging: "I don't think we kissed. It was more friends."

That admission sort of confuses Duff, who expresses her suspicions when she is shown a photo of the two out on the town.

"Oh God," Locklear sighs, telling Duff, "It's a long story. I'll tell you the secret part of it later. The real story."

"I think I know," Duff says.

"No, no. It's not bad," Locklear says, laughing. "He was new in town, and he was 18 or 19. He didn't know anyone, and so I said I would go to wherever with him. He called me 'Ma'am.' "

On maintaining squeaky-clean images

Maybe there's something to that never-changing blond hair. Locklear and Duff don't attract the kind of tabloid attention awarded such sometimes-blondes as Lindsay Lohan, Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears.

Duff says the reason such stars constantly land in the tabloids is they crave that attention. "They choose to be seen like that," Duff says. "Which is fine. I just don't. It's not how I live."

The only negative stories Duff has read about herself paint her as a "drama queen" at odds with Lohan. That ongoing soap opera is part of the reason Duff is on her fourth publicist in one year. "I felt we needed someone who was going to get some positive stuff out there," she says.

Duff seems to be doing a pretty good job of that on her own, just by being careful. On the rare occasions she does go clubbing, she enters through a back door. "And I don't get drunk and dance on tables."

"I do!" Locklear interjects, calling Duff "much more sophisticated and mature" than she was at Duff's age. "I was like this dork."

As parent to daughter Ava, 7, Locklear says: "I have to wonder how all this could have happened to Hilary and yet she's still so grounded and has a good heart. How do you get that in a daughter?"