From the Blogspot of Luanne Rice . . .

Luanne Rice, author of the best-selling novel, Beach Girls, recently spent time on the set where Rob, and others, are filming a limited series for television based on her book. The series will premiere on Sunday, July 31, 2005 with a two-hour movie, then air on the following four Sundays at 8:00 p.m. ET on the Lifetime channel.

Ms. Rice said she would be delighted to share her experience with Rob's fans on this website, and has given me permission to post a link to her Blog, where you can read about the filming and the time she spent with Rob. She also took a few photographs.

Rob With Luanne Rice

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Luanne asked me to:

"please wish all of rob's fans a wonderful summer from me."

Some other words she had about Rob:

it was wonderful to meet and spend time with him.
as i'm sure you all know, he's really a terrific person.
he is so talented--it was great to watch him in action.
rob is a very kind-hearted person.
luanne rice

You can find Luanne's Beach Girls Blog here. There will be excerpts throughout this page from her Blog as they relate to Rob.

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Lighthouse at Hubbard's Point

CATCH A CLIP OF ROB

Lifetime's website has a lot of information, including a video clip with a preview of Beach Girls. Check it out and you can see a scruffy Rob in a few scenes from the series. What's a scruffy Rob? Wander down this page and see for yourself. You can access Lifetime's Beach Girls Site here.

Regarding scruffy Rob, Luanne Rice had this to say:

please assure rob's fans that they need not worry about a beard.
it's just the kind of shadow a man might have if he spent
a few days on vacation not shaving.
i'm sure everyone will think it's mysterious and sexy.

luanne rice

Scruffy Rob

This comment was in a letter written to Luanne that she included on her Blog. It was from a woman who had met Rob, and this is what she recalls:

I still remember how soft his hands were when we shook hands.
You can tell him that if you want to.

You can find the Beach Girls Preview here, on Lifetime's site.

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The Cast of Beach Girls

Rob Lowe as Jack Kilvert
Julia Ormond as Stevie Moore
Cloris Leachman as Aunt Aida
Chelsea Hobbs as Nell Kilvert
Chris Carmack as Cooper Morganthal
Tyler Gallagher as Marsh Nevins
Adam McDonald as Marty Alba
Hayley Tyson as Bay Macabe

Rob with Some of the Cast and Crew

rob is a real family guy.
it was so apparent on the set, the way he couldn't wait for his wife and sons to arrive,
and the way he hung out with his father on father's day.

luanne rice

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ROB LOWE AND JULIA ORMOND STAR
IN LIFETIME'S BEACH GIRLS
Variety.com
May 24, 2005

Rob Lowe and Julia Ormond are set to star in cable TV network Lifetime's Beach Girls. Based on Luanne Rice's bestselling novel, the six-hour miniseries stars Lowe as a grieving widower who retires to a New England coastal community. Ormond plays a childhood friend of Lowe's late wife -- one of the titular "beach girls" -- who gets drawn back into his life.

The Mini-series is scripted by Edith Swensen, Elle Triedman and Eric Tuchman and will be produced by Robert Greenwald Prods. in association with Fox Television Studios. Greenwald and Alys Shanti (Lifetime's Plain Truth) are serving as exec producers.

Chelsea Hobbs (Lords of Dogtown) and Chris Carmack (The OC) round out the cast as Jack's daughter and a teen heartthrob, respectively.

Lowe recently wrapped the indie Thank You for Smoking opposite Aaron Eckhart, Robert Duvall and Katie Holmes. He'll next be seen in the West End revival of A Few Good Men, by his former West Wing collaborator (and the series' creator) Aaron Sorkin, at Royal Haymarket Theater.

Ormond recently appeared in HBO telepic Iron Jawed Angels with Hilary Swank, Anjelica Huston, and Frances O'Connor. Beach Girls will mark her first appearance on an American TV series.

Mini will air over five consecutive Sundays, starting July 31.

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LIFETIME HITS SAND
FOR BEACH GIRLS PROMO
Promo Xtra
By Amy Johannes
June 30, 2005

Lifetime Television will strike the beaches next week to promote a five-week television event, Beach Girls, which celebrates the theme of summer friendships and special times at the beach.

Ambassadors will hit eight beaches in four markets — New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Chicago —- July 2-4 and July 30-31, creating personalized postcards of friends on the beach and at popular beach-area bars.

Rob with Chelsea Hobbs as Nell

By day, ambassadors will patrol beaches and take pictures of consumers with handheld iPAQ devices. Consumers will receive photos in the form of electronic postcards. As part of the promotion, beach teams will hand out Beach Girls-branded premiums, including beach chairs with clamp-on umbrellas, oversized beach towels, sand-imprinted flip-flops, beach balls and spray bottles/fans.

At night, Lifetime ambassadors will set up old fashioned photo booths in popular beach-area bars where groups of friends can have their pictures taken.

The promotion is designed to create buzz and drive viewership of Lifetime's Beach Girls, a six-hour movie based on the best-selling novel by Luanne Rice. Beach Girls is about an East Coast beach town where three young women pledge eternal friendship. As adults, the women drift apart until the death of one them draws them closer together. Beach Girls, which stars Rob Lowe and Julia Ormond, premieres at 8 p.m. ET on July 31, 2005

"It's about reaching women in a really fun manner," Ellen Stone director of consumer marketing for Lifetime Television said of the promotion. "We want to help women, their friends and family capture special moments on the beach. We're adding to their summer experience."

Radio spots, print ads and aerial ads support. New York City-based Grand Central Marketing handles.

In addition, Lifetime is offering a one-day text messaging contest on July 30 for consumers. Ambassadors in the New York and New Jersey markets will hand out cards inviting consumers to play. Consumers who send the text message BGIRLS to MYLTV will be entered to win an American Express gift cards or cell phones. Winners will be selected August 1.

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so good to see rob there on the beach, surrounded by beach girls

luanne rice

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ACADEMY AWARD AND EMMY® AWARD-WINNING
ACTRESS CLORIS LEACHMAN STARS IN
LIFETIME TELEVISION'S SUMMER
DRAMA SERIES BEACH GIRLS
Los Angeles
PRNewswire
June 21, 2005

Based on Luanne Rice's Best-Selling Novel, Six-Hour Series Celebrates the Complexities of Love, the Endurance of Family Ties and the Strength of Women's Friendship

Academy Award and Emmy® Award Winner Cloris Leachman (Spanglish, The Last Picture Show) stars along with Emmy® Award and Golden Globe® Award nominee Rob Lowe (The West Wing, Salem's Lot), Julia Ormond (Sabrina, Legends of the Fall), Chelsea Hobbs (More Sex & the Single Mom, Lords of Dogtown) and Chris Carmack (The O.C., Bring It On Again) in Beach Girls, a celebration of friendship, loss, love, and forgiveness told through the intertwining lives of a grieving widower and two generations of female friends spending an unforgettable summer in a pristine New England coastal town.

Based on the best-selling Luanne Rice novel, Beach Girls premieres Sunday, July 31, 2005 and airs on the following four consecutive Sundays throughout August at 8:00 p.m. ET on Lifetime Television.

"Cloris Leachman is a wonderfully talented and beloved actress who has conquered the worlds of television, film and the Broadway stage with portrayals of funny and endearing characters," said Trevor Walton, Senior Vice President, Original Movies. "We are delighted to have an actress with such an illustrious career star in this entertaining summer series."

Reeling from the sudden death of his wife, Emma, Jack Kilvert (Lowe) returns to the idyllic beachside community of Hubbard's Point with his teenage daughter, Nell (Hobbs). Flooded with bittersweet memories of his wife, he is forced to confront his conflicted past.

In the summer of 1985, three teenage girls swear to stay friends forever. Artistic, independent Stevie Moore (Ormond), Jack's serious wallflower sister Maddie and spoiled extrovert Emma Lincoln share everything, until Emma drifts away and marries Jack. Two decades pass and Stevie loses touch with Emma and Maddie.

Longing for a connection to her mother, Nell seeks out Stevie, who is still living in Hubbard's Point and has become a successful, though reclusive, author and artist. Unbeknownst to Nell, there are years of unfinished business between Stevie and her father.

Overshadowing everything is a proposed highway expansion that has divided Hubbard's Point and pitted townspeople against each other. At the center of the controversy is Stevie's Aunt Aida (Leachman), whose old Victorian home is located right in the middle of the proposed highway. However, Aunt Aida does not plan to go down without a fight and enlists Jack's help to declare her home a historical landmark. Yet, there is a hidden motive behind Aida's request for legal advice. She decides to play matchmaker and bring star-crossed lovers Jack and Stevie together for good.

Beach Girls is produced by Robert Greenwald Productions in association with Fox Television Studios for Lifetime Television. Robert Greenwald and Alys Shanti are the executive producers. Edith Swensen, Elle Triedman, and Eric Tuchman wrote the teleplays.

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LOWE, LEACHMAN, HAMM IT UP
Halifax Daily News
Marilyn Smulders
June 8, 2005

Think you’re depressed about the weather? Consider the plight of Mike Mahoney.

The Nova Scotia film producer is overseeing a 47-day, $12-million US shoot of a six-episode series called Beach Girls. Ex-West Wing hunk Rob Lowe leads a cast that includes English actress Julia Ormond (Sabrina, Legends of the Fall), Cloris Leachman (The Longest Yard, Spanglish), and Nigel Bennett (Reversible Errors, Shattered City). Also starring are three young Canadian actresses — Chelsea Hobbs (Lords of Dogtown), Kristen Hager, and Kristin Adams (Childstar) — who play the three teenage girls who summer together each year in the sleepy seaside town of Hubbard’s Point.

But, as you might have noticed, we haven’t exactly been enjoying sunny skies and balmy temperatures.

“We’ve been chasing the weather,” says Mahoney of the local film company Magic Rock Productions. “Luckily, last week, we ran into four days of perfect bikini weather - but if it rains, we always have covered sets to go to.”

Like they did yesterday, when Premier John Hamm popped by the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax’s south end to peek in on a town hall scene featuring Lowe and Leachman. The three chatted like old friends. Of course, Lowe — looking gorgeous with stubble on his chin — has worked in Nova Scotia before; he starred in the weeper The Christmas Shoes back in 2002.

More attractive incentives for film and TV production announced by the movie-loving premier earlier this year have already yielded results; all of the film crews are working, and other projects have been pushed back to the fall “because we can’t handle anymore right now,” says Ann MacKenzie, CEO of the Nova Scotia Film Development Corp.

Coming this summer are several high-profile film projects, including Fade Out with Billy Bob Thornton, two Stone Cold movies starring Tom Selleck as the chief of police in Paradise, Mass., and The Trailer Park Boys — The Movie with Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and the gang.

Inspired by the best-selling novel by Luanne Rice, Beach Girls is being made for the U.S. cable channel Lifetime — and is slated to debut in less than two months. The shoot of six one-hour episodes is scheduled to wrap by July 19 and hit TV screens in the U.S. starting July 31.

One of the challenges of the shoot is that it’s being made entirely on location (as opposed to in a soundstage). Locations include private homes in Halifax, Crystal Crescent Beach near Sambro, and the Town of Chester which poses as fictional Hubbard’s Point.

Mahoney was delighted to welcome Hamm to the set.

“Premier Hamm has supported us and kept our industry competitive,” he says. “He acknowledges that we can thrive.”

Rob on "Beach Girls" Set

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rob and julia discussing a scene. this was a windy morning on the beach;
the sun came out after lunch. the scenes shot this day were really wonderful, moodily atmospheric--the desire between jack and stevie was building so strongly, and there was something about the weather that added to the tempest.

Luanne Rice

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Rob and Chelsea
as Jack and Nell

Welcome to "Beach Girls"
TVtome.com

Inspired by the best-selling novel by Luanne Rice, "Beach Girls" explores the depths of the bonds of friendship. Three teenage girls, who summer together each year in the sleepy beach town of Hubbard's Point, pledge their eternal friendship while in their youth. However, as the years go by, the beach girls grow apart -- until the death of one of them brings her widower and daughter back to the Point to reconnect with the women who knew her best. The six-hour journey is filled with heartbreaks, secrets, first loves, rediscovery of love and the magic of summer romance.

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Here are some excerpts from Luanne Rice's Blog that mention Rob:

this morning when i called the production office, to ask for a little help in map-reading, i learned the name of the town where the set is located. i won't post it here, for fear of zillions of rob lowe fans descending upon nova scotia to seek him out.

there was rob lowe. having watched him in so many movies for so many years, it was a little amazing to see him in person. he was playing a scene with chelsea hobbs, his daughter in the movie. they have outrageously wonderful father-daughter chemistry, with rob playing reserve and sadness in such a cool, subtle way, and chelsea meeting him right there on the edge, challenging him just the way a teenage girl would.

after lunch, rob told me about a writing project. he's funny. i won't go into details, but he really made me laugh, made me want to see it. he told me it is wicked, and indeed i believe it is. wicked is good.

rob had an interesting thing happen. it involves a letter, a boat, a story, and a promise. i'm going to tell you all about it in a day or so, after it unfolds just a little more.

just wait till i tell you the rest of rob's story.

again i was riveted by the father-daughter moments between jack and nell. but i was mostly taken by the great scene between rob and julia--he's run all the way to her house, and they have a short but electric conversation. sparks fly between them--in their dialogue, but probably even more in what's left unsaid.

nell says she's sorry she wrecked the car, and jack says "the tree wrecked the car," and nell says "score one for seatbelts," and that's when the reality shows in both rob's and chelsea's faces. "we got lucky," jack says. nell replies, "maybe luck has nothing to do with it...maybe mom was watching over me." the moment is so emotional--and it's all in their eyes, and in the way they turn when stevie walks into the room.

rob was great today, as always. his family was in town, and it was really interesting to watch him filming a scene as chelsea's dad with his own two boys looking on. his wife, sheryl, and his father, chuck, were also there, everyone together for father's day.

i had already said goodbye to rob

i miss my friends on "beach girls." although a call sheet wasn't slid under my door last night, i have an image of where they're shooting...i can just see everyone in their places, feel the anticipation as heather calls "rolling!"...the moment building until sandy calls "action." i can see rob and julia and chelsea in the scene. i can hear sandy call "checking the gate," and stand back for the burst of energy as the crew breaks down one scene and everyone get ready for the next one. sitting at my desk today, i'm writing something.

"Beach Girls" ~~ A Novel
Reviewed By Tracy Farnsworth

Hubbard’s Point, Connecticut served as the summer spot for three girls as they grew from girls to women. Stevie, Maddie, and Emma, aka the “Beach Girls” vowed their friendship would never fade away.

Twenty-five years later, Stevie still lives at Hubbard’s Point, but she hasn’t seen her friends in years. When a surprise visitor catches her off guard, she finds herself torn from her self-imposed life as a hermit. Emma’s nine-year-old daughter, Nell, appears on her doorstep wanting to know more about her mother’s life. As Emma died in a car accident one year earlier, her memories are all that Nell has left.

In order to share Emma’s past, Stevie must face her future – remaining locked up and alone cannot be an option. First on Stevie’s agenda is to patch up the broken bonds of brother and sister. Emma’s husband, Jack, is Maddie’s older brother. Since the day Emma died, he has not spoken to Maddie. Not only is Nell missing her mother, but she also needs her aunt more than ever. What Stevie doesn’t know is that in helping Nell, she may also be healing her own broken spirit.

As usual, I couldn’t put Ms. Rice’s deeply moving book down. You do need Kleenex for "Beach Girls". There are multiple layers of hurt and mistrust that the key characters work through. As is true in real life, the path to healing is scattered with painful memories. Ms. Rice always excels in her portrayal of real life issues and vibrant, honest characters.

The seaside setting adds to the already wonderful story. At times I swore I could smell the salty ocean air, hear the crows cawing, and feel the sand under my feet. Her books have a way of transporting you to another place and time. "Beach Girls" is a wonderful addition to her collection.

Rob and Luanne

Following are comments about the mini-series taken from Luanne's "Beach Girls" site. As you can see, Rob is as popular as ever!

~~I have been a fan of Rob Lowe's for a long time, and agree with someone that posted earlier, that he has been great in everything that he has done, and just getting better all the time. I can't wait to see how this father/daughter relationship turns out in the end.

~~And on Rob Lowe, I do love everything about him and have since he first hit the movie scene. He's still hot!!!!

~~I don't know what anyone else thinks, but I truely believe that Rob Lowe has never been sexier than as the father of a teenager! He has matured into a great actor (West Wing) and just seems to get more handsome every year. Great choice for this part...I look forward to every Sunday now!

~~The only reason I was going to watch it in the first place, Im a huge fan of Rob Lowe, but boy did i get sucked in, it was great.

~~And Rob, Rob, Rob...how can I count the ways that I love Rob Lowe? He's great as Jack--really fine. He holds so much back--those eyes are full of mystery and secrets. He says more with one sidelong glance than anyone I know. (I got to spend time with him on the set and see that glance up-close; but it comes through in the movie, as I'm sure you'll see.)

~~Rob Lowe and Julia Ormond get better as they get older!

~~I think that Rob Lowe is a nice looking guy.

~~Of course, Rob Lowe goes without saying. Yum!

~~I liked Jack a lot, liked watching Rob play a single dad and Rob Lowe is talented and gorgeous.

~~Who did everyone like?? Besides hottie Rob Lowe, of course!

~~Rob makes a great Jack.

~~I give acting props to Rob Lowe, Julia Ormond and Cloris Leachman for great performances.

~~Rob and Julie are two of my favorite actors. so thats a plus for me.

~~Rob Lowe looks sooo sexy he is a hunk.

~~I like Rob Lowe, and I like Julia Ormond, and all along I was thinking they'd make a great pairing.

~~It's great to see him on lifetime!

~~Rob Lowe is such a hunk.

~~Rob Loqw is great. i loved him as sam on the west wing and then in another short-lived series on nbc. I haven't read the book so i guess i'll have to now. i can't wait to see him again though!

~~I'm sure Rob Lowe will make a good Jack. Those eyes--

~~Rob Lowe.Love that guy. The Outsiders + The Breakfeast Club = love.

~~Read the book, after learning that Rob had been cast.

~~Rob Lowe is outstanding. Some of the scenes with him and Julia Ormond are taken straight from Luanne's book.

LUANNE RICE, AUTHOR OF BEACH GIRLS
HAS A MESSAGE FOR ROB'S FANS

We all loved Rob when he starred in Lifetime Channel's limited series, Beach Girls. The book's author, Luanne Rice, has remained a friend of Rob's and mine. When she told me about the changes on her new website and how Rob's fans can directly participate, we knew we just had to post the details here. Read on!

hi everyone,

i'm so excited! we just went live with a new website today, and there's a feature i'm really thrilled about.

if you go to http://www.randomhouse.com/features/luannerice/index.html and click the "what matters most" square off to the right, you'll be routed to a place where you can post your own thoughts about what matters most in your own life.

you can express yourself either by text or video (your chance to become a filmmaker)!

for each person who posts, my publisher and i will make a donation to "women build" -- a program of habitat for humanity that encourages women and girls to have fun and build homes and communities. on a women build site, women are encouraged by other women to tackle all aspects of construction, and quickly become skilled and engaged volunteers . . .

i'm very grateful to you for everything, and i hope you will all come to my new site, express yourselves, and join in something that feels really powerful and positive to me. come post as often as you like. i can't wait to see what you write -- or film . . .

love,

luanne

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