I discovered Nip/Tuck a fortnight or so ago, and I'm making up for lost time. For me, the series' selling point is Julian McMahon's rock-hard, chiselled butt, which is obligingly flashed at the audience at regular intervals. Okay, that's shallow of me. However, the scripts are incredibly strong. For those who haven't seen it in all its glory yet, it's about two Miami-based cosmetic surgeons, Sean MacNamara (Dylan Walsh) and the aforementioned Christian Troy (Mr McMahon). Troy is a heterosexual satyromaniac, but there is a reason for his addiction to polygyny- he's also a survivor of paedophilia, which stuffed up his emotional development and led him to blur ethical boundaries and assert his heterosexual male sexual prowess with female patients. It's significant that Christian hasn't engaged in any homophobic outbursts, which is refreshing. I'd love him to encounter a gay male character who is also a paedophilia survivor as one of his clients. I assume something like that must have happened in the character's backstory, and it would be interesting to learn how Christian learnt to tell the difference between gay men and paedophiles. Anyway. Christian behaves rather like a seventies gay man in heat, although much better dressed, and heterosexual. He has emotion-free straight sex, which annoys his female partners if they want anything more than a one-night stand, because the poor bugger isn't capable of that much emotional commitment. Full marks to N/T for confronting the issue of male child sexual abuse and its consequences full-on. As someone who's had lovers who were gay male incest survivors, I applaud its courage, although I wonder what happens when Christian does come to terms with his past pain. It'll be interesting to watch. As for Julian McMahon, he's the son of an Aussie federal Prime Minister and has been briefly married to Kylie's sister, Danii Minogue. He has a single daughter from that relationship. He's been in Home and Away (a boring Oz soap), Charmed (a wiccan fantasy drama) and now this. Sadly, he's never played a gay character, although one lives in hope. Along with Six Feet Under, it has become a compulsive entry in my personal telly viewing. And not only for Christian/Julian's endearing anatomical attribute... Recommended Reading: http://www.julianmcmahon.org Fan website for the aforementioned Aussie. Sadly, no shots of him in role, or his undraped form... Craig Young - 24th February 2005