By Amy Amatangelo/ Television
Monday, March 12, 2007

What’s it like when your younger brother becomes more famous than you? Especially when you helped launch his career?

Those are questions Dorchester native Donnie Wahlberg has been fielding a lot lately, especially after his brother Mark received an Academy Award nomination for “The Departed.”

“People have asked me the question, ‘Do you ever regret helping him out? Or getting him started? Or feel jealous?’ Or anything like that,” Wahlberg said recently. “And I can honestly say I would much rather visit him in his 10,000-square-foot mansion than visit him in a 10-by-10 prison cell. Do I ever regret helping him? No. Never. I would not be able to live with myself if I were visiting him in Walpole right now.”

Wahlberg plays undercover cop Andy Burnett in A & E’s fact-based film “Kings of South Beach,” tonight at 9.

Walhberg’s character is tempted by the criminal life as he tries to take down legendary nightclub owner Chris Troiano (Jason Gedrick, who also starred with Wahlberg in the 2002 TV series “Boomtown”). The movie hinges on the relationship that develops between Andy and Chris.

“I grew up in the streets of Boston and I was lucky when I was younger,” he said. “I just had a little bit of a better nose for staying out of trouble than some of my brothers. But we grew up in the same house. We went to the same schools. We had a lot of the same friends. Our criminal records are a little different, but my thinking was always I was very lucky. I just sort of kept my nose just a little bit clean and it allowed me to build something great for myself and building that allowed me to build opportunities for other people like my brother Mark. That’s kind of how I look at (the character of) Chris. He didn’t have the smarts to avoid the trouble and he didn’t have an older brother to bail him out when he did get into trouble.”

To get into character, Wahlberg donned some offbeat outfits (think plaid shorts and Hawaiian shirts) and even agreed to wear his most despised footwear.

“I hate sandals,” he said. “I can’t stand sandals. The worst thing in the world you could ever do is put me in sandals, and the minute I went down there to shoot I said, ‘Give me some sandals,’ because they were right for the character. The minute I got some sandals and put them on, it kind of all just built from there.”

The Dorchester native, who starred in the quickly canceled CW series “Runaway” earlier this season, is about to start filming Spike TV’s new series “The Kill Pit” opposite John Leguizamo.

“It’s a limited-run series,” he said. “Going into a show knowing you’re doing eight episodes is better than going into a series thinking you might do five years and only doing eight episodes.”

Originally appeared at: Boston Herald