Mac the Knife
A charming sex addict with the morals of a snake -- and he wields a mean scalpel, too. Julian McMahon loves playing a cosmetic surgeon in the smash-hit TV series Nip/Tuck even though, he tells Lorraine Thurlow, the operations give him the creeps. And as for all that sex...

When Julian McMahon started working on the new TV series Nip/Tuck, he walked up to an actress with whom he was about to film a sex scene and said: "I'm Julian. I'd like to apologise if I get aroused. And I'd like to apologise if I don't. Now, do you mind if I turn you over and slap you on the ass?"
Julian recalls this and laughs. "Sex scenes are such an integral part of my character that this is the kind of conversation I have to have with people now. It's weird." Sydney-born Julian is best known here for playing demon boy Cole Turner in Charmed and Carly's husband Ben in the early years of Home and Away. Now he is the star of Nip/Tuck, a stylish drama series that explores the dark side of cosmetic surgery through the works of doctors Christian Troy (Julian) and Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh). Showing here on Sky One, the show has been a huge hit in the States, where it has picked up two Golden Globe nominations, including Best TV Drama. It has also won Julian a legion of fans who dub themselves McMahoniacs.
Julian, 35, dazzles as Christian, a charming but manipulative sex addict with the morals of a snake. He lives a playboy life and doesn't think twice about sleeping with his emotionally-troubled patients. In fact, one of the ways he gets work is to bed a beautiful woman and then point out all her "faults."
Sean, meanwhile, is a married father-of-two who has more than enough morals for them both. But he has been so immersed in building up their Miami practice that he is unaware that his wife Julia (played by British actress Joley Richardson) is deeply unhappy and there staid marriage is on the verge of breaking up.
The two doctors' very different lifestyles are best illustrated by their bedroom antics in the first episode. While Christian is having hot, energetic sex with a gorgeous model he just picked up in a bar, Sean's quiet fumblings are causing his wife to yawn with boredom.
Julian was initially self-conscious about doing his many sex scenes, during with he protected his modesty with a sock, he confesses.* But, having spent most of last year filming them, he now doesn't think twice about getting down to business. And he is no longer worried about getting caught up in the moment, as it were. "I don't get aroused because -- pardon the pun -- it's hard to," he laughs. "There are 60 people standing right in front of you saying 'Cut! Move the camera!' It's really not sexy."
But the results are very effective, not least because Julian is the archetypal heart-throb -- tall, dark, and very, very handsome. In the flesh, he is perfectly groomed, with not a single hair out of place. His skin is flawless and his suit crease-free. It's as if he has been sealed in plastic and brought out just for this interview.
Julian was in fact a model before he became an actor. But neither job was his intended career. The son of a former Australian Prime Minister -- the late Sir William McMahon -- he was studying law at the University of Sydney when he was spotted by a modeling scout. Within a week he had landed a Pepsi commercial in America and so promptly ditched his studies and future law career to spend the next two years in Europe and America.
In 1988, after returning to Australia for his father's funeral, he was offered a role on the country's first daytime soap, The Power, The Passion. Then, in 1990 he joined the cast of Home and Away, where he stayed for two years. It was on the set that he met his first wife, Dannii Minogue. They were wed in 1994 but their marriage lasted just 18 months. Julian admits it "wasn't pretty" when they went their separate ways and he was not in contact with her for a long time.
"But," he says, "what's funny is I was doing an interview at a radio station in Dallas about a month ago and they said they had a message from a friend of mine. It was Dannii -- she'd been there two days before, promoting her album. It was kind of sweet because I hadn't heard her voice for a long time.
"But all that was a long time ago," he adds, "and when a marriage is breaking up, it's not like you're going [adopts happy, excited voice] 'Hey, let's split up!' It's difficult, you know. I've done it twice and, trust me, it's tough."
Julian's second marriage was to former Baywatch babe Brooke Burns, who is now dating Bruce Willis. Julian met her in 1998 when it was suggested to her that she accompany him to an awards ceremony. They wed in December the following year, when she was pregnant with their daughter Madison. But by the end of 2001 the marriage was over and Julian was enjoying a short-lived relationship with his former Charmed co-star Shannen Doherty.
But he and Brooke have remained friends and he admits they get on better now than when they were married. "Yeah," he says. "I'm..." He pauses. "I'm not really good at marriage." Asked why not, he says: "It's not something I delve into," and deftly draws a line under the subject.
Despite his track record, Julian has not ruled out getting hitched again, although he says the only girl in his life at the moment is his daughter Madison. He and Brooke share custody of the youngster and Julian's eyes positively sparkle when he talks about her. "She's a beautiful, warm-hearted, sweet, active girl -- I just love her," he says. "There's not a moment that I exist now without having her in my thoughts.
"She's changed my life so much. You always hear people say, 'Oh, when you have your own, you'll understand' and it's true. We spend a lot of time together and if I have to go away for work it's hard."
Julian, who, because of his father's job, knows what it's like to grow up in the public eye, does his best to shield Madison from press intrusion but doesn't feel he has to forgo normal activities such as taking her to the park.
"Don't forget, I live in LA. And LA has everybody -- all the big rock stars, all the big movie stars and all the big producers. So if you go to a park, everybody is more famous than you. You don't get hassle."
Julian moved to the world's showbiz capital in 1992 after a spell touring the UK with a musical version of Home and Away. He now lives in the Hollywood hills, just below the famous Hollywood sign. His first job in America was a supporting role in NBC's daytime drama Another World. He spent two years with the show before playing a cop on Profiler. Then, in 2000, he joined the Buffy the Vampire Slayer-style series Charmed.
His character, Cole -- a demon who falls in love with a witch -- was so popular that when bosses decided to axe him later that year, fans bombarded the network with e-mails pleading with executives to change their minds. And so Cole stayed. But after three years, Julian felt the character had run its course and quit, which of course upset those very same fans, who then picketed the Warner Brothers studios.
A week after filming his last scene on Charmed, Julian was auditioning for Nip/Tuck. It is his biggest job to date. "I always enjoy my work -- that's the point of it, as far as I'm concerned. But this has been the most fun because it's the first character I've ever played where I feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience. He's so different to me. He's such an asshole."
Julian, who is friendly and down-to-earth, doesn't seem to share many traits with Christian, apart from a love of clothes. And he certainly doesn't have Christian's stomach for gore, finding the surgery scenes tough. "They're very realistic and I get a big queasy. The first one I did was a butt implant and the prosthetic butt felt like real skin, although a little bit colder. It had all the tendon and veins and they put different types of meat in there for the different levels of skin. It was really gross."
What happens to the prosthetics after filming? "I use them in many different circumstances," Julian jokes, "and all quite kinky."