Note to Rob Lowe: Stop looking so damn healthy. Signed: The powers that be at ABC.

Seriously, Brothers & Sisters' star Rob Lowe has been ordered to stop tanning. Apparently, the actor just looks too good -- bronze and healthy and full of that Kennedy-style of vigor for the role he's playing. ABC brass, the president of the network no less, has told him to stay out of the sun. According to Lowe, he was warned that he is getting too dark and has to mend his ways now.


Rob claims that he is just an outdoorsy kind of guy, "I'm active, I surf and I kayak." He also said that he covers up and looks like a dork with sunscreen and hats covering his porcelain skin.

Hmm...is it possible that they really don't want him to look tanned and healthy? I say, "Yes!" The character of Senator Robert McCallister, Republican legislator from California, just had a heart attack. For the next 8-12 weeks in character time, he should look pale and white as he recovers from triple bypass surgery. Maybe the "stop tanning" edict came down because of the storyline?

Here's another thought, maybe ABC feared he was becoming a wee bit too George Hamilton for the show. Maybe all that man-tan looked mah-velous to Rob, but not so to his bosses.

Jokingly -- I think it was a joke -- Rob quipped that anyone acting opposite Calista Flockhart was bound to look like Harry Belafonte because she's just so fair and pale. To be fair, I think ABC might have wondered if Rob was looking darker than the new baby the McCallisters just adopted. (Was that inappropriate? Sorry.) Or maybe it was an economic consideration. Maybe they were spending too much to lighten him up?

Funny, this never happened when Rob was on The West Wing.