Why did she do this? Is the "wholesome" tag such a scarlet letter in today's Tinseltown that it requires this level of penance? Perhaps there's even more to it. Until recently, Gilbert was president of the Screen Actors Guild, which has fought proposals to strengthen protections against televised indecency. Gilbert couldn't have taken a more public stand (in this case, in the prone position) than this disgusting stunt.

"Nip/Tuck," television's most overwrought sleazefest, is beginning its fourth season of plastic surgery and gaudy immorality with a load of new guest stars clamoring for seats on the bandwagon, but the same perverse drive to shatter every barrier of good taste. It's so graphic, violent and sexually repulsive that one prison banned its inmates from watching it. But it's available to millions of impressionable children on the cable or satellite TV systems in their homes.

And TV critics continue to applaud every new outburst of wickedness. The Hartford Courant has raved that "no show has been as consistently audacious, finding the very edges of taste and acceptance each week and using every power of its extended cable status to leap beyond them." The Palm Beach Post lovingly described it as a "shocking, sexy, graphic, funny, wildly over-the-top, I-can't-believe-what-I'm-watching drama."

They aren't looking for artistic excellence. They are looking for the fastest path to subversion, a rollercoaster ride to the depths of excess. "Nip/Tuck" can meet them there with great enthusiasm.

Up next on "Nip/Tuck" is Rosie O'Donnell, and it wouldn't be worth the guest-starring role without Rosie's character having sex with Dr. Christian Troy, the show's stud muffin. TV Guide has already spurred O'Donnell to recount the filming of the "absolutely hilarious" sex scene, how the actor playing Dr. Troy was naked except for a sock and she decided to go topless, and how her lesbian partner loved watching every minute.

And Hollywood's loving it. "Nip/Tuck" creator Ryan Murphy is popular enough that he's preparing another project for FX called "4 oz.," named for the average weight of a flaccid penis. It's a drama about a transsexual sportswriter with a wife and two teenage sons. There's no cast yet, but he claims his phone "is ringing off the hook" from A-list stars who he says shall remain nameless. The wages of preposterous sin are rich indeed in today's Hollywood.