Free Kiss and Tell by Shannon Tweed Page A

he was so cute. There was my wandering eye again…could be a sign of things to come.
    I had signed for 10 episodes of Falcon Crest and wound up doing 20. In those 20 episodes I probably spoke 20 words—total. E.G. Marshall played my boss. My character was a secretary who was also an insider sent in to sabotage and spy on everyone. It was just a soap, but a pretty popular one at the time. I really had no idea what I was doing, but David was very patient.

THE CAST OF FALCON CREST.
    After they finished getting all the exteriors in Napa, the rest of the show was shot on the Warner Bros. lot in L.A. You see it all the time on movies and television—”the lot.” It was very exciting to go through the main gate and be greeted by the guard: “Good morning, Miss Tweed!” It was a thrill for me, but I felt a bit of regret, because while I was working, there were some humdingers of parties at my house that I couldn’t go to. I knew there were girls circling Hef, thinking, She’s gone, this is my chance to move in. The tension in the air was palpable. I could feel other girls nipping at my heels.
    Hef could have said, “Come on home, and we’ll go on like we were. You don’t have to work.” I sensed that he wanted to say that, and I was very conflicted. In a way I was done with that life, and wanted to do everything on my own…but not really. What I really wanted was to be with him, my way, and that wasn’t going to happen.
    I found an agent, John Larocca, who once represented Michelle Pfeiffer when she was starting out. He sent me around on some auditions, but it was a tough sell. I was six feet tall and known only as a Playmate. There just weren’t that many roles that were right for me, even though by now I was growing into and developing “my look” and actually starting to believe in myself. I realized that while I may not have had outstanding talent, I wasn’t a bad actress.
    I was offered a movie role after my work on the series ended, for a picture starring Peter Weller that was shooting in Canada. I must admit that the Canadian content laws really helped me get that role. Many Canadian actors were coming to L.A. in the eighties to further their acting careers, only to be booked on gigs back home, because Canada offered rebates and tax incentives to use local talent.
    Back at the Mansion there was great dissension in the ranks. I was on my way to Canada, hearing all this gossip about girls going in and out of Hef’s room, and I was pissed. It wasn’t the jealous, “I love him, how can he do this to me” kind of pissed. It was more the “Why can’t I have everything?” kind of pissed. But you just can’t have everything. I decided to get back at him by having an affair with Peter Weller, whom I met on the airplane flying to location to Montreal. We made out in the first class section for most of the trip. It was my first real “cheat” on Hef, since technically he and I were still living together. Peter was also my first taste of leading-man syndrome: falling in love with your leading man for a nanosecond. On the set, romances last for as long as the movie. When it’s over, you wind up asking yourself, What did I see in him anyway? He was pretty good-looking on the set, because he was the big cheese. Then once the picture wraps, you’re kind of done with him.
    When we got back in town after the movie wrapped, Peter wanted to see the Mansion, so I invited him to one of the parties. I was still Hef’s official girlfriend, but since I had heard from the butlers that Hef had not been wasting his time either, I was a little mad at him. It wasn’t that I wanted him to ask my permission—we weren’t monogamous in the traditional sense—but I felt a little cheated on. I had heard from several people that a girlfriend of mine had been hitting on Hef from the moment I left. Payback’s a bitch! My friend, who would later become quite a famous TV personality, wanted to be in Playboy in the worst way; she