BABY, I'M OUTTA HERE!

Fed-up Heather Locklear
quitting Melrose Place - insider

     MELROSE Place vixen Heather Locklear is so fed up with the grueling hours of working motherhood that she's quitting her starring role on the prime-time soap, say insiders.
     Her status on the show has already changed from leading lady to guest star, the sources say, and the writers are preparing scripts that phase out her role.
     "When the show begins airing new episodes in July, Amanda will have backed off from her love triangles with Peter and Lexie(sic) (Jack Wagner and Jamie Lunar(sic)) and Kyle and Taylor (Rob Estes and Lisa Rinna)," says a source close to the show.
     "Nobody is revealing how the plot will play out, but the writers are pulling Heather out of it to a big extent.
     "She's still involved, because both Peter and Kyle are pining over her. But the writers are leaving it open to phase her out after next season."
     Pals say the blond bombshell never dreamed that the birth of her first child, Ava, nine months ago would change her life so dramatically.
     But now that the harrowing first few months of Ava's infancy are behind her, Heather can't wait to get pregnant again and become a full-time mom.
     "I want another one," says the 36-year-old TV bad-girl.
     "As my girlfriend told me, God has a way of making you forget about the beginning months of raising children because people wouldn't have a second or a third or a fourth."
     Heather fell head-over-heels in love with her daughter the moment she was born last October by Caesarean section after a punishing, 36-hour labor. But after a four-month leave from Melrose Place, she dived right back into her exhausting TV schedule.
     She usually rises at 4 a.m., rushes to the set and works 10- to 12-hour days. By the time she gets home to Ava and rock-star hubby Richie Sambora, she's worn out.
     A full-time nanny helps out at home, but Heather admits: "I want to be with my baby. I don't know how much longer I'll do the show."
     Says a source on the set: "Heather's priorities changed after she had Ava."
     Insiders predict Heather will end her six-year run as Melrose Place's conniving Amanda after the upcoming season.
     "She can't wait to get home to Ava," says a setside pal. "She dreads coming back to work after weekends off because she misses her so much."
     "And she wants to give Ava a baby brother or sister as soon as possible. Heather isn't getting any younger."

-LAURIE CAMPBELL