As her MELROSE PLACE character finds a new love, is Kelly Rutherford as lucky?

MELROSE PLACE's Kelly Rutherford (Megan) has a secret juicy enough to be a storyline on her show.
     Sort of.
     "I'm living with my honey," she's finally coerced into admitting. That news may be shocking for her friends, who know her as perennially single. But at closer inspection, it's hardly salacious.
     Her "honey" is Oliver. He's a year-old fox terrier.
     "He's my main squeeze," says Rutherford, beginning to open up about the male in her life. "He was a teeny puppy when I got him last Christmas. I used to take him to work with me."

Do Not Disturb
But that's all she'll say about her personal life - romantic or otherwise. "I prefer it that way," she says. "I don't talk about it, because it's not as exciting as MELROSE PLACE." She breaks into a hearty laugh.
     In her three eventful years on MP,Megan has escaped the life of a hooker, dodged a vengeful pimp, survived a flighty marriage to the oft-betrothed Michael Mancini and lost her most recent fiancé, Coop, to his conniving ex-wife Lexi.
     Now, Megan is enjoying a budding romance with the new guy in the apartment complex, Ryan McBride. With Coop out of the way - actor Linden Ashby (ex-Coop) was recently let go - Lexi is once again meddling in Megan's life, creating the third side of a love triangle.
     Rutherford sees a distinct difference in the three relationships her character has experienced on the show.

Comparing Lovers
With Thomas Calabro (Michael), "It was a little more comic and zany," she recalls. "He's sort of the Jack Lemmon of MELROSE PLACE. I was a little more Shirley MacLaine with him. With Linden, it was a little more like '40s banter, and a couple trying to figure things out. It had more of a romantic charm to it. Linden brought something to the show that was kind of Old World."

Rutherford's stay on MP was supposed to be short, but Megan just took off!

     And what about her newest on-screen sweetie John Haymes Newton (Ryan)? "It's interesting, because the relationship is a little more naive. Megan's gone back to a part of her life that she never had as a prostitute," says Rutherford. "She's never had a time, living the life that she did, to be naive in a relationship and to take her time. That's what the relationship is with Ryan."
     The fact that Megan has had any relationships at all is surprising to the actress, who joined the show in 1996 for what was supposed to be a limited, 13-episode run. At the time, her character was written in to come between Michael and his then-wife Kimberly. But from there, "it just evolved,"Rutherford says. 'I've enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. It' s just such a family, and such a nice group of people to work with."
     But like any family, there are shake-ups. Over the summer, MP's longtime producing team was replaced with new producers determined to revive the struggling soap. Star Heather Locklear (Amanda) was also named a producer, while many cast members were cut loose, including, interestingly enough, every brunette actress on the show.
     Coincidence? Who knows, but the light-haired Rutherford jokingly denies using her clout to make sure only blondes remained. She will say, in all seriousness, that she is grateful for being asked to return.

Change Is Good!
"It feels good to have stayed on during the changes," she says. "And it feels like a new show every season because of the changes. In some ways that's great, since it keeps the show alive."
     Rutherford compares the upheaval to a "modern family going through a divorce. Everyone sort of adjusts," she admits. "It's sort of like constantly having to maintain a sense of openness - an open heart and open mind and saying, 'Hey, it's changing, and it's going to be good.'"
     She pauses and then adds respectfully, "It already is good - just because we're all still there doing MELROSE PLACE."
* BY DAMON ROMINE

The Hardest-Working Woman On TV! *You could really call the 1990s the Rutherford Decade. Since bursting onto the scene in 1989 on NBC's highly touted but short-lived soap GENERATIONS (she played Sam), Rutherford has starred in one series after another.      She did ABC's HOMEFRONT from 1991-1993, and went a little bit country on FOX's THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR. until 1994. She was an Ally McBeal precursor on FOX's lawyer drama THE GREAT DEFENDER in 1995; and beat Buffy to vampire-slaying on FOX's 1996 series KINDRED: THE EMBRACED.