Not too many actors get to appear on two shows at the same time. It's tough enough for an actor just to land a role on a national commercial let alone two primetime series. That's the fortunate position David Alan Basche has found himself in, as he appears on NBC's Lipstick Jungle and USA Network's new Starter Wife series, as Debra Messing's movie mogul ex-husband, Kenny.

This past week we caught up with the moonlighting David Alan Basche to learn more about his approach to not only his role on The Starter Wife but Lipstick Jungle and life in general.

THE DEADBOLT: I like the fact that Kenny drops the divorce bomb on Molly just shy of their 10th anniversary, and just before the prenup expires. As far as you know, is this par for the course in Hollywood?

DAVID ALAN BASCHE: It’s really fascinating that Kenny drops this bomb right before the prenup expires. He’s not a stupid man. I frequently make fun of the character of Kenny and really like to but he’s by no means unintelligent. He’s a very, very successful billion-dollar box office Hollywood producer. So think what we may of those people, they usually don’t get where they are without having fairly strong intelligence.

So Kenny knows most of the time exactly what he’s doing unless he’s distracted by food or sex. This, unfortunately in my experience, is a little bit on the nose when it comes to Hollywood. Unfortunately, it’s been my experience having grown up in the east coast and come out the L.A. to work - which I’m very grateful for and I actually kind of like L.A. - but sometimes you run into people in the business that are certainly much more interested in the perks of the business and the money and the fame and the allure, and much less interested in decency and honesty and loyalty and good karma and saving the world and changing the world and making it a better place. So I think certainly The Starter Wife has a little bit of both. But in terms of Kenny, I’m there to represent the bad side of Hollywood.

THE DEADBOLT: What type of research did you do? Is there a little bit of Mike Harness in there as well?

BASCHE: Well, in terms of research, I just had lunch at the Ivy and listened to all the conversations around me that I could, and that pretty much did it. There is a little Mike Harness in Kenny and there’s a little Kenny in Mike Harness. I was talking to someone a few weeks ago, I think it was - And I hadn’t even realized that there sort of was an inspiration for me for Kenny, and I didn’t really recognize it. Maybe because I don’t want to give the guy credit. He was an old agent of mine many, many years ago. He used to wink at me and he used to say things like, 'I’m your biggest fan,' and then he’d wink and point at me. He said that to me right before dropping me and never speaking to me again, dropping me as a client. So I think there’s a little bit of him in there. Hopefully he’s going to read all these blogs and know that it’s him and be pissed off that I haven’t given him credit by name.

THE DEADBOLT: Is his daughter the only thing that keeps Kenny around?

BASCHE: I don’t think so. I don’t think that Jaden or the interaction between Molly and Kenny, based on having Jaden, I don’t think that’s the only thing that keeps Kenny around, no. Perhaps, where we left off in the miniseries, obviously Kenny cheated with a much younger woman and seemed to be kind of off and running on his own. I think people will see that his love life and his career are a little bit more in turmoil than we might have expected from where we left off.

I think Kenny comes around not just because he loves his daughter and obviously has to deal with joint custody, but I think also because he needs attention. He’s most of the time just sort of like a puppy and you just sort of have to scratch him and give him some attention and feed him and he’s pretty happy. Sometimes, yes, he comes around because he wants a little love.

That’s a strange thing to say about a narcissist, to say about a cheerful sociopath. But I think, I hope, that that’s part of, again, what’s going to make people want to know what he’s going to say next and what he’s going to do next. In particular when it comes to Molly, his ex-wife, and is there any love left there. As you asked, why does he come around? Is it just because of the daughter or is it not? I think it will be very interesting for people to answer that question.

Other Conference Call Highlights:

David Alan Basche on landing two roles on prominent series that target women, and what’s it like working with so many great actresses:

"I think luck has a lot to do with it. I couldn’t be happier being a working actor. Just that would be enough. To be able to make a living in this business is tough, and to be able to thrive is even harder. To get a shot at doing some network TV is almost like the icing on the cake. I have to tell you, I’m feeling very grateful. I try to remind myself if I get a little too big for my britches and I start asking people to bring me coffee when the coffee machine is 10 feet away, I try to remember that I waited tables long enough in New York to know that I’m lucky to be on two shows at once. I’m lucky to be on one show.

"How did it come to be? I had come from a few other series and, actually, when I auditioned for Lipstick Jungle I knew the two show runners at the time. They had created a show called Three Sisters that I did with Vicki Lewis and Dyan Cannon on NBC. So that was exciting to be back on NBC with Lipstick, which was great. Then plot twists and turns in Lipstick sort of left me a little bit available. And USA being part of the NBC universal family, I guess, had their eyes on me and that worked out very well that I was able to do Starter Wife, too.

"It’s been quite a year. I couldn’t be happier. My wife is eight months pregnant and due on December 3rd. So that’s going to take the cake. I’ll tell you, that’s better than all of this. That’s kind of the long-winded answer about how did it happen and isn’t it great and hey, lucky me.

"The other question about the great actresses and what’s it like, I’ve been very fortunate to work in film with some great directors, some male icons of directing, and similarly, I’ve worked with some great actors. But somehow I keep getting cast in situations that are surrounded by strong, powerful, beautiful women. And, you know, that just doesn’t suck.

"It’s fantastic, and Debra Messing fits right into that category, of course. She is smart, she’s witty, she’s a comic genius-I don’t think I’m overstating that-and she’s just fantastic. So I couldn’t be happier. As a guy, when you work around all these smart, powerful women you realize that they’re a lot smarter than you are. If you’re smart, you keep your mouth shut and do what they tell you, and things go really, really well."

Basche on how he personally finds a way to relate to the character:

"That’s a good question. I ask myself that sometimes, because I really like to think I’m a nice guy. I hope that most of my friends would tell you that I am actually in real life a nice guy. So how do you relate to a guy who’s not? I think there are two layers to that answer. One is as an actor, it’s fun to just make stuff up, and it’s fun to say if I were this big of a jerk how would I behave? If I didn’t care about this person, then what would I say? What’s the most outrageous thing that I could add to this situation to make it even more misogynistic? So asking yourself those questions just opens everything up and you just go with the flow.

"The other half of it is, honestly, I just turned 40 and I’m still working on trying not to be self-centered. I’m still working on trying to listen and pay attention to people and not get caught up in my own little world. That happens a lot, particularly in Hollywood. We all get caught up in our own little worlds here and take ourselves too seriously. So sometimes, I’m sorry to say, I just sort of look back into my past and I go back to my twenties, and there’s that self-centered guy who wants what he wants and doesn’t really take anybody’s feelings into consideration.

"Growing up, thank God, I had a strong family unit. Even though I’m from a single parent family - my dad died when I was a kid - but thank God my older brother, Steven, and my older sister, Fran, kept me in line. They would tell me, 'You’re just not listening. You’re just not thinking before you speak.' I remember once my older sister sat me down - I think I was a teenager - and she said, 'We’re all not just characters in the movie of your life, David.' I thought, 'Oh, okay, I have to work on this.' So obviously that stuck with me. I think I’ve come a long way since then, but sometimes I think actors just have to admit that they have a part of everyone in them. If they go back and dig around a little bit, they’ll find it."

David Alan Basche on why people continue to tune into The Starter Wife:

"So, many reasons. First of all, Debra is a huge reason. She’s just spectacular. She’s gorgeous and funny and smart and silly. She’s fun to watch, and she has a huge following from Will & Grace that she deserves. But also, the miniseries had a big impact on people, I think. Debra told me that she was struck by how many women came up to her after the miniseries aired and said, 'Thank you for doing that, there’s just so few single, divorced women trying to make their way on television. That’s me, that’s who I am, and I really like watching it. Thank you.' So I think that’s another part. Women can relate.

"Also, I think men probably tune in. And maybe it’s at first because their wife or their girlfriend makes them sit on the couch and watch and turns off the football game. I think interestingly enough, USA Network has such great shows and a lot of them have such, I think - I’m guessing-a strong male viewership like Burn Notice and Monk and Psych, and certainly we know wrestling is a huge draw for the guys.

"So I think we’re going to see men tuning in in greater numbers on USA to check this out. Hopefully my character is interesting, and they’ll dig this guy. We have Chris Diamantopoulos and Hart Bochner and some other great, great male actors on the show that I think are going to make it really fun for men, too. I hope if you ask me that question in a year from now and say, 'Why did so many people tune in? What do you think the success of the show is about?' that my answer will make even more sense then."