It's the bumps that get to Rob Lowe. Relax, we're not talking about some unsightly skin eruption. Lowe, 39, remains so handsome, unblemished and preternaturally young looking that you wonder why some savvy producer hasn't tapped him for a remake of "The Picture of Dorian Gray."
No, "bumps are what Lowe calls those nagging incidents in his career that just won't go away. Sitting in his cozy, country-style office on the set of his new series, The Lyon's Den, Lowe tenses up when his past is mentioned, then quickly relaxes with a shrug of resignation, as if to say, "I'd hoped you wouldn't ask me about that stuff, but I knew you would." There is a smoothness to lowe, a boyish intensity and charm tempered by a wary maturity that comes, no doubt, from his roiling years in movies and TV.
If you're familiar at all with the life and times of Rob Lowe, you likely remember the bumps, starting with the home video that went public of the actor having sex with two women- one underage- in an Atlanta hotel room during the 1988 Democratic National Convention. "It's old," he says, describing the event as occurring during an alcohol-induced "blackout," then declining to elaborate. (no criminal charges were filed, and Lowe settled a civil suit.) The following year came a disastrous appearance on the Oscars, singing opposite Snow White. "Lucille Ball loved it," he recalls. "She sat next to me and held my hand." Lucy may have loved it, but critics were merciless.
Then there was a drinking problem. Twelve years ago, Lowe married makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff (they have two sons). With her help, Lowe sobered up. "I realized I would never accomplish the goals I had for myself if I didn't make a change," he says.
Throughout all this turmoil- really since he first made a splash in 1983's "The Outsiders"- Lowe has had enough ups (the Brat Pack, The West Wing) and downs (straight-to-video flicks, The West Wing) to rival some comeback specialists as Cher and John Travolta.
"Rob is a survivor," says Lyon's Den creator Remi Aubuchon. "He was pegged a pretty boy, but there is so much more underneath. He needed to break out of that mold. Through the hard times in his life, he did."
Not only is Lowe starring in The Lyon's Den (playing an idealistic attorney thrust into a snake pit of a D.C. law firm), but he is also an executive producer. "Here I'm [an] owner. Nine months ago, I never would have believed this could happen."
That's because nine months ago, Lowe was an actor looking for his next gig. By rights, he still should have been playing Sam Seaborn on The West Wing, a part seemingly tailor-made for Lowe by Wing's creator, Aaron Sorkin. Seaborn was smart, witty, successful and flawed. But as the show progressed and Martin Sheen's President Josiah Bartlet rose in popularity, Lowe's role was cut back. he told his manager Bernie Brillstein, the he "felt like an extra."
Money issues surfaced, too. Sheen, now clearly the star, was bumped to $300,000 an episode. Lowe continured to make $70,000 a show- not a bad paycheck, except when you work in Hollywood and you know a coworker is taking home nearly a quarter million more. Lowe was hurt by what he perceived as Sorkin's rejection. "Why didn't he know how much I loved him, how much I loved that show?" Lowe asks. "Why didn't he love me like I loved him? It's weird, considering it's another man, but that's as close as I can put it."
Lowe says another major problem for him was Sorkin's habit of waiting until the last minute to finish scripts. "We would wait sometimes eight hours for pages," Lowe says. "If you asked for time off for something like you son's Christmas pageant, they would not accommodate it."
On the other side of the set, there were reports that sme cast members found Lowe aloof. Lowe points out that he lives near Santa Barbara, about 90 minutes north of Burbank, where The West Wing is shot. As much as he liked his coworkers, he says, he wanted to spend as much time with his family as possible.
Lowe says he complained about work conditions, and that his outspoken ways made him a target. Sources say Lowe was called to the West Win's Warner Bros. lot offices and shown a report on his attendance record. Producers accused him of being late to work for a total of 17 hours. "There were entries like 'Three minutes late coming out of his trailer. Four minutes late pulling onto the lot,'" a source says.
Adds Lowe: "I was spied on. No other cast member ever had a meeting like that." West Wing executive producer John Wells declined comment.
In July 2002, Lowe announced he was bailing from The West Wing. At the time, it seemed like career suicide- or at least at step back to the world of cable movies. "When I quit, thre were only three people who thought it was a good idea: me, my wife and Bernie Brillstein."
After the announcement, Sorkin showed up at Lowe's trailer. Sorkin was upset that Lowe's planned departure had begun to generate bad press. Says a source: "Aaron kept screaming, 'None of this started until you quit!;'" Sorkin, who left the show last spring, "always acted like a gentleman" with Lowe, according to Sorkin's representatives.
Over the past 15 months, Lowe's decision proved prescient. Wing's ratings dropped 21 percent last season. Despite critical bashing, the series won best drama at this year's Emmys. Lowe, who appeared throughout that award winning season, chose not to join the cast to accept the award. "I wanted to go up... but I feel like an athlete that's now playing for another team," he told Access Hollywood. "I was very proud of everybody, and it's a great, great coda to my four years there."