Article 65

Torrid Love Of A Sexy Priest

Richard Chamberlain and British beauty Rachel Ward share torrid love scenes in "The Thorn Birds." But they weren’t easy.

Chamberlain who plays handsome Irish priest Ralph de Bricassart, torn apart by passion for a childhood sweetheart, says: "For our scenes there was a microphone hidden in my armpit."

"My arm was giving out because I’d been above Rachel for three hours on the same elbow and I was trying not to smear her lipstick or make slurpy sounds while we were kissing."

But the final result was a huge success. The scene was so sexy that when the £15 million mini-series was shown in America, the TV network was deluged with angry calls from viewers who were outraged at the portrayal of the priest’s forbidden love affair.

The nine-hour series was fraught with stormy problems.

A fire ion the set, an injury to Barbara Stanwyck and complaints by the Screen Actors Guild about the lack of safety precautions all provided huge headaches for producer David Wolper.

At one stage Chamberlain smashed a chair in frustration -and broke his hand.