LOS ANGELES - Demurely, he kept his shirt buttoned up to the throat. But the baby blues flashed, the pearly whites gleamed, and that hair the color of dark honey nearly brushed those shoulders the width of a refrigerator. It was Tuesday, Day One of the two-week spring preview marathon for TV critics, and Fabio was in the house. The "international romance icon," as his Oxygen biography describes him, will serve as "role model and pageant commentator" for the women's cable channel's "Mr. Romance," a reality series scheduled to premiere in March. The series will feature 12 icon-wannabes competing for $50,000 and a chance to appear on a Harlequin Romance cover. But the sex, pecs and smoldering glances will be lightened by the "satiric, loving observations" of actor/comedian Fred Willard, promised Oxygen CEO Geraldine Laybourne. That approach sounded just fine to Fabio, who was pictured in a preview clip riding into a scene on a white stallion, with a computer-generated twinkle gleaming satirically yet lovingly from his teeth - Fabio's, not the horse's. "I try not to take myself too seriously, you know?" he said. "That's the secret to enjoying life." Normally, the 43-year-old Fabio confided, he avoids reality TV the way he'd avoid chowing down on worms or roadkill. "But when they told me I wouldn't have to eat worms or roadkill, I said 'yes,' " he explained. Born Fabio Lanzoni in Milan, Fabio came to this country about 20 years ago and was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency, which put him to work posing for the Gap and other clothing accounts. But it was his discovery by romance-novel publishers, who have put his image on hundreds of covers, that made him a household name and led to lucrative contracts peddling Miller Lite, Frosted Cheerios and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. Today, he even has his own women's clothing line - "department-store quality at Sam's Club prices," he boasted - and is the author of several best-selling romance novels. Well, in a manner of speaking. "I love this country!" Fabio said with a grin. "I don't write the books; a ghostwriter does it. But they put my name on them, and all of a sudden they're on the bestseller list!"