He’s a love machine
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 11, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 Paramount Pictures Tim Meadows stars as
radio talk show host Leon in the new movie "The Ladies Man."
By Emilia Hwang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Dr. Drew and his radio talk show “Loveline” have
gone from the local airways of KROQ to national MTV glory. Now love
doctor Leon Phelps (Tim Meadows) takes dispensing love advice from
the small screen to the big screen, in the new Saturday Night Live
feature film “The Ladies Man.”
In a recent interview, Meadows said that there’s nothing
about meeting and seducing women that his character could teach
him, and he would most likely not want to take love advice from the
outrageous playboy.
“Really, it would result in me being in prison
probably,” he said.
In the movie, Leon is fired from his Chicago-based radio talk
show for the overly frank nature of his on-air comments. His
options look bleak until he receives a mysterious proposal that
would enable him to buy his own radio station, in a letter signed
“Sweet Thing.” The only problem is he can’t
remember which of his many “sweet things” is the one
who wants him back.
With a black book larger than the Yellow Pages, Leon is
inexplicably attractive to women, despite the fact that he is so
obviously crude and laughably undesirable.
 Paramount Pictures (Left to right) Karyn
Parsons, Tim Meadows, and Will
Ferrell star in the SNL Studios production of "The Ladies
Man." “It’s just a fact you have to accept as a viewer
of the movie,” Meadows said. “James Bond is attractive
to women because his character is written that way.”
Far from the debonair agent 007, Leon attracts women despite his
insensitivity and over-the-top ’70s fashion.
“If Leon is a real dude, then he wouldn’t make
sense, he wouldn’t score like that, he wouldn’t have
the lifestyle that he has,” Meadows said. “He’d
be a drunk, have some liver disease. He’d be dead.”
According to Meadows, his character tries so hard to win over
the ladies that his game inevitably follows the law of
averages.
“He’s going to score somewhere down the line,”
Meadows said.
Though Leon may seem like a man who is only concerned with
increasing his index of sexual conquests, Meadows explained that,
deep down, his character is on a larger mission. Leon wants to help
the world with his expert advice concerning matters of the
heart.
“We had in our head that he really loves women and
it’s not a deprecation thing,” Meadows said about
Leon’s unseen sincerity and innocence. “When he makes
love to a woman, it’s an awakening for him, like that’s
his joy.”
In SNL tradition, Leon’s outrageous nature may shock and
even offend certain audiences.
“I would hope that people who see the movie see it as a
comedy and not a documentary,” Meadows said. “Along the
way, the guy learns a lesson and you can’t teach a lesson
without showing the negative side.”
 Paramount Pictures Karyn Parsons and
Tim Meadows star in the comedy "The Ladies Man,"
based on Meadows’ Saturday Night Live character.
Leon can’t help being a womanizer at times, but it’s
all in the name of comedy.
“I hope women aren’t offended by it ““
it’s not meant to be mean,” Meadows said.
He also explained that the projection of his ’70s gigolo
character onto the big screen is not meant to be a mean-spirited
movie.
“It’s a character from another time who lived a
certain way,” Meadows said. “And he sort of uses what
he learns as his basis for giving advice.”
Experience has taught Meadows that the best love advice is not
to view women as sexual objects, but as people. In addition to
listening to his wife, he stresses the importance of remembering
important dates, such as the day they met and their anniversary.
While his wife didn’t know basketball existed before she met
him, she’s now a huge Bulls fan. Similarly, since his wife
supports the fine arts, Meadows has started to watched ballet and
opera.
“In my experience, the women I’ve dated or my wife
now, you have to know what they care about,” he said.
“Even if you’re not a huge fan of it, you have to seem
interested in it, and it must be genuine because women do it for
men all the time.”
Though Meadows was unable to obtain any helpful love advice from
the Ladies Man, he did take away a rainbow candle from Leon’s
radio station ““ as well as a valuable lesson about
moviemaking.
“I learned that it is a lot of work,” he said.
“It’s hard to make a comedy and be funny every day for
12 hours.”
Making a feature film is quite different from filming a live
episode of sketch comedy. And the viewing experience is different
for audiences as well.
“My experience so far is that people go into the movie
expecting to hate it as a boring Saturday Night Live movie and they
come out genuinely liking the character and the movie,”
Meadows said. “That’s better than going in thinking
it’s a good movie and finding out it’s a good movie. I
like being an underdog.”
FILM: “The Ladies Man” opens today in theaters
nationwide.
