RED
ALERT
BY JOHN STARK

FIERY JAMIE LUNER'S GOT HER LIFE IN MOTION

Lukewarm, says Jamie Luner, is the healthiest way to drink liquids. "So don't worry if the latte isn't piping hot," she says to the woman who's preparing her order at the Java Jive coffeehouse in Studio City, Calif. Whether or not Luner's temperature theory is sound, one thing is an indisputable law of science: Lukewarm is a not a word that you would ever associate with the red-headed star of NBC's Profiler.
     Especially if you know her from her bad-girl days on those Aaron Spelling grope operas, Savannah and Melrose Place. A conversation with Luner is kind of like taking a ride down a dirt road in a rusty Ford pickup. With her at the wheel, you never know where you're headed, just hang on. "Life," she says, "It rocks!"
     Just a shy little thing who grew up in Beverly Hills? "No, I've never been shy," she says, laughing. "I'm definitely an extrovert."
     Spying her press kit in my bag, Luner takes it out and begins thumbing through her clips, stopping to reflect upon a provocative magazine photo of herself - one in which she's scantily clad and growling. "Isn't it fun? This is one of my favorite pictures," she says. "To me, it's like a dream come true. As a little girl I'd look at stuff like this and think, wouldn't it be cool if it were me? And all of a sudden, it is me."
     Luner's thrill at seeing her sexy image isn't about narcissism, but about what she's accomplished through a change of lifestyle that began in 1990, when she was a teenager. Following the cancellation of the sitcom Just the Ten of Us, in which she played boy-crazy Cindy Lubbock, Luner went on a health and fitness kick, which led to her earning her vixen wings.
     "The biggest part about my transformation is that it was not overnight. It took five or six years," she says. "I don't do diets. They don't work. Being fit is about a whole way of life. If you move your body it will process what you put in it, even if it's cake. 'Everything in moderation' is a cliche, but some cliches really mean something. Only you know what goes in your mouth and how much you move your body when no one's watching. If you've got time to sit in front of the television, to go out to dinner with your friends, or to read a book, you've got time to work out and take care of yourself.
     "What it's about is transforming your cravings and desires. In the beginning, it's like, 'I don't want to work out. I want to eat that.' Acknowledge that, and think, I'm going to move past it. Because after two or three weeks, that little voice in your head will slowly dissipate."
     Whereas the single, blue-eyed 28-year-old used to spend two hours a day at the gym, she's moved past that, too. "I don't like isolating my time to work out. I want exercise to be about my whole life. I want to have fun with it," she says. To that end, she is big into the outdoors: walking, hiking, running, inline skating, and camping. (Only don't send her fishing. Last time she went, she had a PETA moment, freeing all the crickets she had purchased as bait.)

     At home, Luner starts her day off by doing cardio on a treadmill, which she follows with a routine involving isometric exercises, small weights, and dance moves. When I ask here about her arms, which I've heard she's very proud of, she jumps up from the bench where we're seated, takes off her jacket, and flexes her biceps. "Feel these," she says boastfully.
     Despite Luner's active lifestyle, even she has days when she can't find the time to exercise, or lacks the drive. "I've let two to four days go by, but I don't beat myself up about it. Rather than feeling guilty about not exercising, what happens is I lose my clarity. I'm not as energized, not as clear, not as sharp. It reminds me why I do all this. I'm feeling like crap, remembering how good I felt last Thursday when I did my regimen."
     As for healthful eating, "It's Asian all the way," says Luner, who knows a thing or two about food.
     Following the cancellation of Just the Ten of Us, she took classes in French cooking at the Epicurean Cooking School in Los Angeles, and apprenticed in the kitchen of an L.A. restaurant. "I didn't miss acting, because at the time I was very bitter about the business," she says. "I needed to do something that I could feel passionate about, that would satisfy all my senses: my sight, my smell, my taste, my touch, my need to nurture, my love of colors. Of course, once I started doing that, and getting more and more passionate about it, I lost my desperation, and people in the business were more attracted to me."
     Last year Luner broke type by landing the plum role of FBI agent Rachel Burke in Saturday night's Profiler. Although she plays a serious-minded tracker of serial killers, that doesn't mean her vixen days are over. "You know what's sad," she says. "Here I am on a show that's about violence and serial killers, things that are truly destructive. But that much more widely accepted than sex, which is so important. Sexuality is right up there with eating, breathing, and sleeping. Yet it's such a taboo. I don't understand it."
     As for what quality Luner finds the sexiest in a person, she says without hesitation, "Confidence." And if you don't have it, she says, "Stand up straight and fake it. After a while it will become second nature."
     With her next career move, Luner's certainly following that advice. "I'm taking singing lessons," she says, "and plan to put on a one-woman show to be the new Shirley MacLaine or Liza Minnelli. Singing. Dancing. I love it. Okay I'm not the best singer, and I'm not the best dancer, but I can still put on a show, right? I'm so scared, and I can't wait to do it."