Hamlin, Rinna take on sex addiction story

     Wow, did Harry Hamlin and wife Lisa Rinna grab a monster by the tail when they elected to make the movie, "Sex, Lies & Obsession."
     The drawn-from-life story has Hamlin playing a sex addict who nearly ruins his life, with Lisa as the wife who struggles to keep their family together.
     As is the case of many sex addicts, she says, after years of hiding his addiction, the character's "world begins to unravel. He starts having to go to prostitutes, to places that are shameful, dirty and dark. ... When Harry plays a part, he really goes there emotionally, and this guy gets involved with hookers, pornography, Internet pornography," she adds. "He was doing love scenes with this one and that one. ... It was very intense."
     Was Lisa present when Harry was shooting those sexual scenes for the May 7 Lifetime telefilm? "No, they got me off the set. I wouldn't have stayed anyway, but they planned all those scenes so that I was never around when Harry shot them. Yes, it's acting, and that's what we do for a living, but I don't want to see it. It still preys on you."
     She also says, "From time to time we brought the arguments home. It brought up issues in our own relationship."
     The one-time "Melrose Place" actress says that she and Harry "would never have envisioned doing a movie about sex addiction, but then we read the script, and we liked it, and said, 'Why not?' Face the fear, and go for it. It's a real issue, a real problem."
     "Luckily we have good communication," adds Lisa, who's expecting the couple's second child this summer, "and if we need outside help, we get it. I think we grew from this experience, and hopefully we made a good movie."