Beck/Smith Hollywood

Usually when we talk about a breakup movie, we mean a movie about a couple  breaking up.  But it’s different in the case of Will Estes’ forthcoming “Anchors” – a film that writer-director David Wexler predicts will actually make a lot of people break up.

That’s according to Estes, who adds, “It’s a real, honest look at the destruction of young first love.  I think, unfortunately for most of us, that’s the way the cookie crumbles:  we don’t end up staying with our first loves.  It’s a good film, an honest film.”

And the film, touted as a sexy, turbulent anti-love story, is also a big departure from Will’s noble cop character, Jamie Reagan – a.k.a. Tom Selleck’s youngest son — on “Blue Bloods.”  He rushed right into work on the indie feature, which also stars Devin Kelley of “The Chicago Code,” as soon as the series wrapped for the season.  In fact, it was almost too much of a rush.

“I am so relieved to be finished with the film.  It was really intense.  We shot about 13 pages of dialogue a day — really big monologues.  It was something that I would have felt pressed to do if I’d had two weeks of rehearsal, but  I had two or three days.  I heard about it Sunday, started shooting Wednesday.  Part of why I said yes is that I thought it would be a really big challenge, a really big exercise as an actor.”

According to Estes, “Blue Bloods” fans can expect to see brotherly friction between Donnie Wahlberg and himself on tomorrow night’s (5/11) big season finale of the show.  “There’s a lot of stuff between Donnie and me — the family relations.  We have a little bit of a blowup that ties into the story of the characters,” Estes tells us.  That’s in addition to the race-against-time thriller story that has Tom Selleck’s Police Commissioner Frank Reagan getting word of a bio-terror plot in NYC.

“It’s a great finale,” he enthuses.  “I’m so excited about ‘Blue Bloods.’  It’s just getting better and better.  Everyone’s really hitting their stride, the writers and producers as well as the actors.”

OPERA-ATION:  Oscar-winning actress Shirley Jones certainly surprised the surgical team that worked on her knee replacement at St. Johns Hospital in Santa Monica, CA the other day.  Orthopedic surgeon John Moreland had a recording of Shirley and Gordon MacRae singing “People Will Say We’re in Love” from the 1955 classic movie musical “Oklahoma!” and turned up the volume in the OR for the benefit of the team while they prepped.  Suddenly, the medicos told Shirley’s husband, Marty Ingels, there was an “extra voice” – Shirley herself joining in, despite being in twilight sleep due to anesthesia.  Now, there’s a show-must-go-on mentality!

“Dancing With the Stars” pro Chelsie Hightower and her celebrity partner, Disney Channel cutie Roshon Fegan, just managed to squeak through the past two weeks’ of eliminations — but the beautiful 22-year-old blonde dancer insists that’s only fueling their passion to succeed.

“I think just being in that position does it to you in and of itself,” she says.  “You feel the emotions when you’re not getting the scores from the judges you were hoping for — but that can propel you.  It lights that fire even more.  You want to come back and show them that you’re supposed to be there.”

Chelsie adds, “That’s really my philosophy of life.  If you have a setback or disappointment, come back even stronger, so they won’t have the option of a negative response.  I’ve always lived my life and my dancing that way.  Use failures or bad things to propel you, then you turn them into something positive.”

Along the way, Chelsie has had star partners ranging from Michael Bolton to “The Bachelor’s” Jake Pavelka and Olympic snowboarding star Louie Vito.  However, she tells us, “in terms of dance aptitude, Roshon is the best partner I’ve had.  He focuses in on everything and retains it. And he keeps growing all the time.  It’s fantastic.  He’s great, he really is.  He’s so much fun — always positive, no ego, great work ethic.  Fortunately, this show is about hard work.  He really does come in with a great attitude every day.”

Will it be enough?  We’ll know by May 22.

NEXT STEPS?:  Speaking of “Dancing With the Stars,” Melissa Gilbert, who has been expressing huge gratitude toward her large and loyal fan base for bringing her this far in the competition, would like to find another series home once she hangs up her dancing shoes.  She envisions an ensemble series.  “I’d be content to have younger people carry the show and then I come in and sprinkle my fairy dust and leave,” is how she put it.  She could see working two or three days a week on a show, which would still give her time to be with her children and continue her burgeoning writing pursuits.

It’s a brighter day for superstar chef Gordon Ramsay since his long, painful legal battle with his father-in-law was resolved.  In fact, he tells us, “I feel so much better now than I have in the last 10 years.  If anything, I feel more creative.  And I totally understand the business top to bottom.”

The chef and his wife’s father – his former business partner and close friend Chris Hutcheson, whose scandalous double life with a secret second family has provided years of fodder for the British tabloids — reached a settlement worth in excess of $3.24 million in February.  “I don’t sit and dwell and start crying over spilled milk.  Coming to terms with an awkward position, my father-in-law squandering money after working so hard.  If you can’t trust family, who can you trust?  But, we’re over that hurdle now.  I’m in complete control.  We’ve repositioned, restructured,” Ramsay says.  And he adds, “I’ll never put myself in the position again.”

The dashing, famously volcanic chef-restaurateur-entrepreneur-producer-TV star has his time booked two years into the future.  He is all over Fox’s schedule this summer, with three prime-time shows:  Premiering May 29 are new seasons of his popular “Hell’s Kitchen” and “MasterChef” shows, and, come June 4, his new “Hotel Hell.”  As for the inevitable questions about over-exposure, he notes, “I’ve had those questions for the last 10 years, to be honest.  No one ever gets tired of quality.”  The shows are diverse, he stresses.  “‘Hell’s Kitchen’ is a professional format, providing aspiring wannabe chefs with a unique opportunity for success.  This year’s prize is just out of this world.  ‘MasterChef’ is completely amateur — a domestic theme.  The format is something quite unique.  And ‘Hotel Hell’ is, in many ways, the next step on from ‘Kitchen Nightmares.’  I always, you know — before anything gets canceled I want to move it up a notch and take it forward.”

Talk about a labor of love! Indefatigable actress-director Tanna Frederick reports that a June 25 production start date has been set for “The Farm,” a story about a single mother who returns to her childhood home when her grandfather becomes ill, and must deal with her past. Parts of the story are inspired by the true-life saga of Tanna’s own grandparents’ struggle to stay on their family farm. The film will be made…on the Frederick family farm.

“The Farm” is one of three films being shot in the actress’ home state in coming months thanks to Tanna’s efforts. Her Project Cornlight is an initiative to revitalize the industry there, and she says, “Everybody is so excited. It’s beautiful! It makes me want to cry. In this world I grew up in, there’s not a lot of city life, but there’s a lot of imagination. Like watching fireflies in a field, it’s absolutely beautiful.”

No wonder Tanna was honored this past weekend at the inaugural Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, with the their CineCause Award.

Esteemed actor and playwright Stephen Lang admits his experience playing Mary McCormack’s father on “In Plain Sight” was “bittersweet.  It was kind of a poignant thing to do, in a way.  Here they are, having forged their stamp on the show for five seasons and now they’re coming to the end of it.  And I walked right into the myth.  My character is not in any way an ancillary character.  He’s central to the show.  So I was part of the family without ever having been part of the family, and then it was over.”

The “Avatar” actor came aboard the USA Network show – which has its final two episodes tonight (4/27) and next Friday (5/4) — right on the heels of doing Fox’s “Terra Nova.”  That Steven Spielberg production debuted with high hopes and ambitions, but soon wound up succumbing to the cancellation dragon. “There’s no question that I had similar hopes for my own show to have a long life, and that we were in the process of creating a family there as well,” says Lang.  “So, yes, on ‘In Plain Sight’ I got to see an example of what might have been.”

MacCormack told Lang that the question of who would play her estranged, long-on-the-lam dad “had been under discussion for a long, long time.  The fact they wanted me to play it went a long way toward helping me, I think.  But I’m used to playing characters who bring a lot of baggage with them,” notes Lang, whose gallery of characters includes Babe Ruth, Stonewall Jackson and gunslinger Ike Clanton.

Right now, Lang is in Kentucky, playing a high school coach in the indie feature “23 Blast.”  As for what he’d like to do next in a perfect world, he comments, “I enjoyed my last stint in network television.  I love the idea of creating a character over a long period of time.  But I’m a superstitious cat; I don’t like to talk too much about what’s next.  I’m always looking for good projects, and I generate work for myself.”  He laughs, then adds, “If they’d only give me a sitcom.  That’s the best job in television.”

IMAX moviegoers who see Greg and Shaun MacGillivray’s spectacular new “To the Arctic 3D” not only have breathtaking visual treats in store, but some musical ones as well. Paul McCartney songs are used in the movie, and according to producer Shaun, “He really came through for us. This is the first time that he ever sent out his original recordings, done on 48 tracks, to have them mixed in a way that he doesn’t control completely. Our composer was able to get those tracks and mix them beautifully for the six-channel IMAX system. Of course, when McCartney mixed them, they were all for two-channel. He saw the wisdom of remixing for the magnificent sound in IMAX theaters.”

Considering McCartney’s well-known love of critters and ecology-mindedness, it’s not surprising that he’d do his bit for the MacGillivrays. Greg is the two-time Oscar nominee whose films include “Everest,” “The Living Sea” and “Dolphins.” Shaun’s credits include “Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk.” And their history of supporting nature extends to educational outreach and much more.

The “Arctic 3D” film’s central focus is an extraordinarily cooperative polar bear mother and her cubs, but the movie also shows what’s happening as the ice melts up North. MacGillivray Sr. insists there is hope to restore the Arctic.

“Of course I have to admit that I’m an optimist, always, and I think when people are given the choice between two options, they’ll choose the one that is better for humanity. In the case of the Arctic, obviously the choices that we can make that will help are in the area of conserving energy — at home, by turning off the lights, and at the pump, by driving more fuel efficient cars. Conserving energy in all ways. People will save money by doing so as well, so it’s a double win for everyone. You can always make things change,” he continues. “There are wonderful success stories — the anti-littering campaigns, the ozone layer — all kinds of conservation efforts that have changed the world.”

The “Blue Bloods” team has scattered all directions, with the  CBS series having wrapped production for the season last week.  Winnipeg native Len Cariou tells us he’s spending a week in Los Angeles.  And after that, “The wife and I are going to Europe for a week, then Canada for a couple of visits.”  The Tony-winning actor notes that there are still “some good surprises — a couple of good twists” in the last couple of shows this season — which has its finale May 11.  That last episode involves Tom Selleck’s police commissioner character learning of a biological threat to New York City — and worse than that, he can’t tell his family about it.