Melrose Star Nip/Tucked!

• Jul 20, 2004 04:00 AM ET
• by Daniel R. Coleridge

Melrose Place alum Doug Savant — who played Matt, the saintly gay guy — just turned 40 last month. Isn't he still a little young for plastic surgery? Tonight on Nip/Tuck (10 pm/ET on FX), he has no choice.

"I play a guy who climbed Mount Everest and has disfiguring frostbite on my face," he tells TV Guide Online. "I sort of look like Ron Perlman at the beach. And I'm the catalyst for Dylan Walsh's character, Sean, to make some changes in his life. Can't it just be about me? I wanted the whole show to be about me, but they passed on that idea!"

But seriously, folks. "I was so honored to be there," Savant says. "It's so smart and funny. They have a brilliant cast of actors and great guest stars like Vanessa Redgrave and Jill Clayburgh."

In other news, keep an eye out for Savant in this fall's Desperate Housewives. The ABC nighttime soap boasts an all-diva cast, including his old Melrose foe, Marcia Cross! "I play Felicity Huffman's husband, who's away at work all the time while his wife is strapped with four kids."

Any chance the oft-absent husband will come out of the closet? It'd be funny to see Savant (who's married to fellow Melrose co-star Laura Leighton in real life) play gay for pay on a soap yet again. "No, it would be a bad cliché if I was to do that!" he chuckles. "To show I can stretch as an actor, I think I'll remain a heterosexual on this show."