At last, Heather Locklear returns as brusque leading lady Amanda Woodward on The CW’s remake of the ’90s soap Melrose Place this Tuesday night. But set spywitnesses say the biggest star on the floundering series is feeling the pressure to raise the show’s ratings and is making life Hell for the cast and crew, according to The National Enquirer.

“Heather’s creating a lot of drama with her diva antics. It’s making our lives miserable. She’s insecure and on edge. The responsibility is weighing heavily on her.”

The 48-year-old actress, who helped make the original Melrose Place a smash on FOX, allegedly had recently ousted actress Ashlee Simpson-Wentz booted from the cast and has been acting like a total prima donna behind the scenes — thundering at cast and crew during random tantrums and even suffering a meltdown after one of her outfits was missing a button.

“Heather was absolutely fuming over the button, and said, ‘You got to be fucking kidding me, right? What kind of operation is this?’” she bellowed before storming off to her trailer, says the production insider.

The Enquirer writes: “Heather — who completed a stint in rehab after a DUI arrest last year — exhibited more tyrannical behavior when she arrived late to shoot an outdoor scene: ‘On one of the coldest days in L.A., she made the cast and crew and tons of extras wait outside to film.’”

A rep for Heather Locklear denies that the actress terrorizing her co-workers wit diva hijinks.