When he struts on to the set of Grey’s Anatomy, it’s apparent Eric Dane has embraced his “ladies’ man” reputation.

As male members of the Grey’s crew go about setting up cameras, lights and sound equipment for a scene to be shot on the medical drama, their female counterparts stop in their tracks, eyelashes aflutter, when Dane swaggers past.

Life has been like this for Dane since his towel-clad body cemented his nickname, McSteamy, after his debut on the show.

Co-star Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey even had a running gag about Dane on set. Dempsey said Dane, simply by wearing that strategically placed towel on the show, had a pin-up boy status that wasn’t going to do much for his acting career, but would at least lead to a big product-endorsement deal.

When Dane is told Dempsey has been willing media to ask Dane if he has a marketing, calendar or billboard campaign on the way, a smiling Dane says: “Oh, he’s (Dempsey) been talking about the Bed, Bath & Beyond (product) campaign, has he?

“He likes to say that. He likes to ask me when my calendar’s coming out.”

Dane’s on-screen antics might be a hit with women, but he’s not eliciting the same response from men.

A recent Grey’s episode, featuring a hot and heavy scene with Dane and co-star Chyler Leigh, sparked a flurry of queries on internet search engines by worried men.

According to search engine Google, two of the three most searched terms at the time were “penile fracture” and “broken penis”. This followed an episode, titled Stairway to Heaven, in which Dane’s character, Mark Sloan, suffered a fractured appendage after having sex in the on-call room with Lexie Grey (Leigh).

Off-screen, Dane adds, he’s being blamed for women going cold on their male partners.

“Some guy walked up to me in a restaurant the other day and told me he didn’t get any action any more from his wife. He was joking about it, but I guess there was a little truth in it,” Dane says.

Did Dane ask the guy for his wife’s number?

“No. He had his shirt unbuttoned and a big gold chain. I didn’t ask him anything. My wife (actor Rebecca Gayheart) thinks it’s funny.”

Asked how he really feels about the sex-symbol tag, Dane smiles and says: “Well, it doesn’t suck. I honestly believe my name (McSteamy) became popular because McDreamy was already popular and I became a counterpart — rose to that atmosphere. You know what? I don’t mind it. It changed my life. I haven’t seen the downside to the nickname yet.”

Dane is acutely aware, however, he must garner respect for his acting talents, not only his physique, if he’s to build on his solid body of work as an actor. He believes Grey’s writers have been working on giving Sloan substance.

“There’s something I hope continues to progress . . . you see different sides to these guys. They have 11 or 12 characters to service around here, so it doesn’t happen all at once.”

There’s no doubt Grey’s turns actors into stars. Just look at what the Channel 7 drama has done for Dempsey, Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl. But something strange also happens when a performer is cast to play a guest role on the show. More often than not the character becomes so popular that a short story arc is extended and actors find themselves signing on as regulars.

It happened to Kate Walsh (Addison), Dane and Chyler Leigh, whose previous credits included North Shore, 7th Heaven, and The Practice.

“It’s an interesting experience coming into an existing show,” Leigh says. “This is actually my second time doing it. The first time was on The Practice and I came in for their last season before they split. That was a much different experience. Here I’ve had such an incredible experience.”

Leigh has every right to feel blessed. Not only is she starring on a hit show but she’s also a happily married mum of three. She gave birth to a girl, Anniston Kae, on May 7. Leigh and husband Nathan West’s other children are Noah and Taelyn.

Leigh, 27, has done well for someone whose life seemed on an inexorable downward spiral when she was battling drugs.

“I went through a very experimental drug phase,” Leigh said in a US interview in November. “I’m five-six and a half and got down to 103. It was quite scary. When I was 19, doing drugs and drinking, I ended up getting really sick. I couldn’t hold food in my body. You could see my bones everywhere. Nathan and I thought, ‘We could keep going down this road, but it’s not going to lead us anywhere good’.”

After turning 20, she kicked her bad habits, improved her diet and married West.

Grey’s, meanwhile, looks set for a shake-up. Foundation cast member T.R. Knight (George O’Malley) appears set to leave the show. Castmate Heigl (Izzie Stevens) is likely to stay, despite rumours of her wanting out.

From The Herald Sun