HOLLYWOOD -- Rob Schneider has gone from behaving badly to acting amorously.

After his NBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly was prematurely cancelled, Schneider began looking for new outlets for his brand of outrageous slapstick.

His buddy Adam Sandler came to his rescue with a small role in this summer's hit comedy Big Daddy.

Grateful as he was, Schneider had a bigger fish he wanted to fry.

"I'd had this idea for a while about an ordinary little guy who cleans fish tanks. One of his clients is a gigolo. When the stud goes on holiday, he leaves the cleaner in charge of his tank and apartment," says Schneider.

"One day the little guy answers the stud's phone and before he knows it, he's doing more for the guy than cleaning his tanks."

Schneider told Sandler about his film idea.

"Adam said if I'd write it, he'd produce it.

"It took me 10 months to write Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo but it only took Adam 2* hours to sell it to Disney. That's the kind of clout he has these days."

Schneider says Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo -- which opens Friday -- is a homage to Richard Gere and his 1980 movie American Gigolo.

"I did my impersonation of Richard as the quintessential male prostitute one day on Jay Leno. Richard caught the show and called to say he thought I was hilarious.

"That was really the impetus for the concept for my movie."


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