The heat was on for David Hasselhoff this summer. First, his pending divorce from wife of 16 years Pamela Bach turned sometimes nasty, with both the Baywatch star, 54, and the actress, 43, trading barbs in the press. Hasselhoff also faced tabloid reports of public drunkenness in a London airport. And thanks to an extreme shaving accident in June, he was also in an arm brace for seven weeks. All the while, he was being watched by millions as a judge on the summer's biggest show, America's Got Talent.

Sitting for an interview on the patio of a beachfront Malibu hotel, Hasselhoff is friendly and frank. He's also easily distracted. He constantly fiddles with his eyewear. His Motorola Razr (which plays the Knight Rider theme) is forever ringing. And, of course, this being Malibu, there's the problem of all those beautiful girls strolling by. Still, despite going off-topic here and there, Hasselhoff happily discusses the recent events of his life.

How shaving put his arm in a brace
In London to shoot a commercial, the 6′4″ actor was shaving at the Sanderson Hotel gym when he bumped his head on an overhead glass light fixture, which broke and fell on him, slicing his arm. "I yelled to the girl at the front desk, 'Help! Help!' and she comes running over," he says. "Then she starts to faint because the blood's spurting out like a Monty Python movie. I picked her up and said, 'Do me a favor—sit on this,' and I had her sit on my arm [to stop the blood]. Then I called my agent. Of course he didn't answer like they never do, so I called my attorney, and of course he didn't answer either, so I called my assistant." Hasselhoff underwent emergency surgery to repair the damage. "I just got the brace off this morning," he says.

That incident at the airport
Scheduled on a 10:05 a.m. flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles on July 26, Hasselhoff was reported by Britain's Sun to have been so inebriated that he was asked to take a later flight. Not true, says Hasselhoff. "My hand was infected so I took a new painkiller and a new antibiotic. I was feeling sick and threw up. I went to the airline people and said, 'I don't feel well,' and they said, 'You don't look well,' and advised me to take the later plane. It had absolutely nothing to do with alcohol." In fact, Hasselhoff, who spent time at the Betty Ford clinic in 2001 and was arrested for DUI in 2004, says he's currently attending AA meetings. And although he says he did have "one bad session for a day or two" when he filed for divorce in January, he's been otherwise sober for over two years. "I was p— off at myself for [drinking], but I don't feel like I fell off the wagon—I feel like I was pushed," he says, referring to his marital troubles. "How do you leave a family after 16 years? I was really distraught over it." As for his club sightings, "I go and I drink Red Bull," he says. Hasselhoff, who denies he's had plastic surgery but admits to getting Botox shots ("Everyone has," he says), also likes how he looks when he's not drinking. "When I drank I looked bloated, bigger," he says. "One thing that's helped me stay sober is vanity."

His divorce proceedings
Though an agreement between him and Bach prohibits him from discussing details, he has denied that the cause of their split was either abuse (in court papers, Bach accused him of breaking her nose) or infidelity. "I was very much in love with my wife," he says. "I don't need to [mess] around. I sang on the Berlin Wall. I dive with sharks. I could fly to the Eiffel Tower for lunch, have a croissant and come back and not worry about the price. I met Princess Diana! I know and Pamela knows what the issues were. But it got to the point where it just wasn't working." (Bach responds: "Obviously he's still in denial, but I loved him with everything I had and always will, as he's the father of our children.") The next step: Hasselhoff has agreed to turn over his financial records on Sept. 18. "Yes, we had a prenup," he says. "I made a lot of money off Knight Rider. I wanted to make sure I was covered."

Being a dad
One thing Hasselhoff and Bach do concur on is doing what's best for their daughters Taylor-Ann, 16, and Hayley, 14. In May they agreed to joint custody. "We were good parents. We never had a nanny live with us, ever. I took my kids to school, she took the kids to school," says the actor, currently renting a home in Malibu. "I just want to make it easy for them. I'm trying to implement a plan where the kids stay in the house and we switch. One week I'm at the house, the next week I'm at a hotel. We're trying to work it out."

His career luck
"Every two years, you're either corny or cool," he says. "I'm cool right now." (Well, one look at the video of his campy-but-catchy summer release "Jump in my Car," which features Hasselhoff and his Knight Rider costar KITT, and one could argue that he's both.) Still, "amidst the divorce and all this stupid tabloid publicity, I've thought, 'Oh my career's over,' then all of a sudden: Bam! Adam Sandler calls [he has a cameo in Click]. Bam! The book [Making Waves]. Bam! America's Got Talent is number one!" He's also planning David Hasselhoff: the Musical, and a "Don't Hassle the Hoff" clothing line is in the works.

His beef with Brandy
Judging America's Got Talent alongside pop star Brandy proved to be a tough adjustment for Hasselhoff. "It was getting kind of heated between Brandy and me for a while. I was like, 'I'm David, and I'm gonna be me, and if I wanna put my boots up on the table, I will,'" he says. "So I had some opinions she didn't like and she'd jump on me. I'd say, 'Excuse me, you know, I get enough of this at home!' We finally had a powwow. She got the message and apologized. And I realized I was being oversensitive. At the end we were fighting like crazy on camera, but after it was over I'd say, 'Hey, nice show' and give her a kiss."

His romantic future
"I have a lot of cute little waitresses that flirt with me," says Hasselhoff. "My daughters will say, 'Dad, she's 20!' and I'll say, 'What's wrong with that?' They have these age limits. They started at 40. I have them down to 35 now. Can't we go to 28? 28 is cool. I do want someone intelligent, who can work a computer. But I have to find a person not seduced by fame or not in this business—or someone more famous than me." His goal: to find the "love of my life," he says. "I want someone who will love me for me and trust me. I have a big heart. The 16 years I was married, there were amazing, fantastic moments. I want those moments to come again. I know they will."