• January 24, 2000
• Vol. 53
• No. 3

Hot Hot Hot

Where There's Smoke, There's Studly Third Watch Firefighter Eddie Cibrian

Eddie Cibrian enjoys performing stunts, but when producers of his NBC action drama Third Watch wanted the actor to dive into New York City's East River, the slimy prospect gave him pause. "I go, 'I know about the rivers out here! Is it clean?' " Cibrian recalls. "They say, 'Well, it's cleaner than it's ever been.' I didn't know what that meant, but it was okay." Jump he did.

Cibrian, 26, would have preferred a baptism by fire. To prepare for his role as firehouse hunk Jimmy Doherty, he hung out with New York's bravest. "Any normal being would want to get out of a burning building, and these guys are itching to get in," says the actor. "I would love to do that." His girlfriend Brandi Glanville, 27, a model with whom he shares a Manhattan apartment, would love to pour cold water on that idea. "He's so gung ho," she says. "I'm always telling him, 'That's what the stuntmen are for!' "

Born in Burbank, Cibrian was 12 when his parents—Carl, a banker, and Hortensia, now her son's office manager—nudged him into acting. In 1993 he began building a heart-throb-for-hire résumé on The Young and the Restless and Sunset Beach.

But his mousse-and-Speedos days are over. "There's no hair and makeup for firemen," says Cibrian, who goes barefaced on the set. "We just put on our uniforms, get a little dirty and go out there and play. It would be any kid's dream."