'Baywatch,' Playboy and Crüe News

By Stephen M. Silverman

09/28/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Playboy's April 2000 Playmate Brande Roderick, making the leap from the page to the tube, will take over "Baywatch" as the beach show's new female lead, reports Variety. Her lifeguard character will be named Leigh Dyer and is part of the producers' hope to bring more emotionally complex storylines to the 11-year-old program. In other news of "Baywatch," it's been reported that former star Donna D'Errico (herself a former Playboy centerfold) and her husband, Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx, expect their first child in December. And in still more news -- of both a Mötley Crüe member and a Playmate-turned-"Baywatch"-babe, Entertainment Weekly reports that Tommy Lee, 38, disclosed in a VH1 interview that he and Pamela Anderson Lee, 32, are splitting, again. Wed in '95 and divorced in '98, the Lees resumed their relationship one year ago, following his release from prison for having assaulted her. They have two sons, Brandon, 3, and Dylan, 2.