Lionel Richie.

When it came to casting the female lead for Lionel Richie's new video, I Call It Love, the singer-songwriter didn't have to look any further than his famous daughter Nicole.

But it was L.A. Reid, the executive producer of Richie's new album, Coming Home, who had to point it out to him.

"It is so odd, you just don't understand, this is an out-of- body experience," said Richie yesterday afernoon, relaxing in the back room of a Queen St. East supper club after he performed at Roy Thomson Hall on Monday night.

"To the world, that's Nicole Richie. To Lionel Richie, that's the little girl down the hall that we adopted at three years old, so that's my daughter. Nicole and Paris (Hilton) got famous, so I'm getting used to this whole concept."

Still, it made sense to have Nicole play a woman involved with a man (C.S.I.:Miami hottie Adam Rodgriguez) in the video clip.

"This was an interesting no-brainer," said Richie. "'Cause we were looking for, 'Who's MTV-friendly? Who's video-friendly? Who's the hot star in Hollywood?' And L.A. Reid, excuse me, Uncle L.A. according to Nicole, said, 'Why are we looking for a star? (We've got) Nicole!' I was looking for a singer or I was looking for a songwriter? And, of course, this was the best, hanging out with her."

Still, Nicole asked dad to excuse himself from the set during two scenes -- when she was kissing Rodriguez and at a party. "She said, 'Dad, can you just kind of (go away) 'cause I don't know how I'm going to act,' " recalled Richie. "And I said, 'You know what? That's a good idea, Nicole, I'm outta here!' It was surreal on one hand, but so wonderful."

Naturally, all of this went down before Nicole checked herself into rehab last week to deal with her alarming weight loss.

Richie said he was glad she was getting serious help.

"She tried to solve it the first time by herself," he said. "And then as it went on, she went, 'Dad, I don't know what the heck this stuff is.' I said, 'Let's go figure it out.' But it's all in the public eye. As I told her before, 'I know this is difficult to say, but get over it.' "

Richie maintained it's not anorexia.

"She wants to find out why she's not gaining weight 'cause she's eating forever," he said. "She was eating, that's not the problem. And I told her I had the same problem back when I was growing up in the business. Mine was stress-related, and so I kind of got the feeling right now that she's very close to her dad in a lot of her stomach activity."

Richie is hopeful Nicole will have a "triumphant return back to the world in about three or four weeks."

Once that happens, does he think that Nicole wants to follow in his musical footsteps one day?

"She sings, she plays, and believe it or not, if I told you right now she writes, I wouldn't know," said Richie. "I didn't know she could act until I saw her on this (video shoot). You know, your kids surprise you to death. My mother and father, to the day they died, were in awe of the fact that, 'Is that the kid on the second-floor, who couldn't read or write music? How did he get in the music business?' Well, here's Nicole. I mean she started taking acting lessons and she was doing a little music but when do we make the switch over to famous? And so I'm kind of in the same position as my mom and dad. I don't really know who she is but I know she's capable of everything at this point."

Richie's just worried that she can't find her way in private.

"The only thing that's really difficult about what she's going through right now is that she has no experiment time," he said. "It's all (in the) public eye. We could sneak, back in the day. If I wasn't on stage or you didn't catch me coming out of the stage door, or you didn't catch me out in an airport, you didn't catch me. It's a different world now (with) the privacy factor. And I must tell you, she's handling it well, but I know it wears on her."

Commodores reunion?

Don't rule out a Commodores reunion for the surviving membwers.

Lionel Richie, the onetime leader of the '70s funk outfit, hopes it will happen sooner than later as part of his current two-year world tour.

"We're trying to sneak something together," Richie told the Sun. "'Cause we lost Milan (Williams), the keyboard player, recently and it was pretty much a great wakeup call because if we're ever going to do something, the future's getting shorter."

Richie described a scenario where the surviving Commodores would join him as special guests on some select dates of his solo tour.

"You'll definitely see it. I think what's probably going to happen is we'll find a couple of places, probably on my world tour, the second time I come to Canada, just to experiment, to see how that reaction would be. And then, after that, we crank it. 'Lionel with the Commodores' -- oh my God!

"I mean I would love to see it. And of course I keep calling the guys on the phone and going, 'Guys, don't forget how to play.' They go, 'Rich, we haven't forgotten.' "