Beck/Smith Hollywood

Mary Wilson

Mary Wilson reports that the album of all-new material she’s been working on– with songs by Brian and Eddie  Holland and Lamont Dozier — will be out “within a couple of months.

“We haven’t decided on a name yet.  It has something to do with my journey in life.  It has a lot to say about life,” says the songstress who rose to fame as one of Motown’s legendary Supremes – who, of course, were hit-making giants thanks to songs turned out by Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Mary’s new album is “more adult contemporary,” she says.  “It was originally supposed to come out this month, but it isn’t quite there yet.  Of course, there’s no radio to play new music these days.  There’s the internet and, well, we’ll figure out something.”

Right now, Mary’s busy with her “Up Close” shows, singing sultry ballads at jazz clubs including Hollywood’s Catalina Bar & Grill Sept. 2-5.

“I do ‘Body and Soul’ – there’s a little bit of that sexy thing going on.  I do Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now,’ that really sums up my life.  I do ‘Here’s to Life’ – a very, very beautiful song.”

There’s not a Supremes song on the list.  Those interested in hearing those golden oldies should go to one of her rock ‘n’ roll concerts, not her cabaret performances, Mary says.  “I do my concerts all the time – although, this past year or two have been very, very slow with the economy down,” she observes, referring to the abysmal industry-wide concert scene .  “There’ve been cutbacks on corporate shows, too.  But they’ll pick up when the economy pick up.”

Mary, who lives with three of her eight grandchildren (ages five to 30), looks beautiful and fit.  “I’m 66 and I love being 66 – 66 and a half, actually,” she volunteers.  At a recent rock ‘n’ roll festival in New Jersey, she ran into one of the members of ‘sixties band Paul Revere & the Raiders, who asked her how she could look so good

“I do things to keep myself up.  I drink lots of water.  I do Bikram yoga, the hot yoga, which is a strenuous workout.  I’m not lazy about my upkeep,” she says, “but I’m kind of bad – I drink a lot of champagne.”

Thom Beers Discovery Channel photo

Real guy reality show king Thom Beers has a packed agenda this week – he’s heading north for a meeting with all the sea captains on his wildly popular “Deadliest Catch” show, then onward to confab with the team getting ready for the next season of “Ice Road Truckers.”  And then he’ll be heading south, where, he reports, preparation is underway for what sounds like it could be the next big ticket Beers show, in West Virginia and Kentucky.

“It’s a pilot.  I can’t talk much about it yet,” he says.

Hot environment, or cold?

“Cold,” he laughs.  “We’re actually going into a hole in the ground    We’re going to be down there with the coal miners.  It’s a whole different world.”

Which is how the preternaturally peppy Beers likes it.

“I love getting out there.  Every show is so different – in the surroundings, the characters, the gear you use, and the way you shoot.  They’re a lot more complicated than people think,” reveals the man who has been hailed as reality TV’s only auteur – the man responsible for an array of shows that ranges from “Monster Garage” to “Pitchmen.”

“‘The Colony’ is completely different,” he goes on, referring to the show in which he has 10 people trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.  “It’s all shot over the shoulder because we want everyone to discover, as an audience, as the characters are discovering.”   He considers that program, now in its second season, “a real swing for the fences.”  It worked.  “The age, the demographic of that show – 13 per cent is a brand new audience for Discovery Channel.  My 18-to-49-year-olds are bigger than my 25-to-54s,” crows Beers.

Black Gold truTV photo

Right now, the Season 3 launch of truTV’s “Black Gold” show about oil rig roughnecks in Texas is at the forefront of his mind.  The boys will be back Sept. 8, and more trouble is ahead.  Beers seems to get a kick out of the antics of his rowdy crew.

“The biggest challenge in this show is keeping these guys out of jail,” he reports. “This is a much more rough and tumble world.”  And unlike the seamen and truckers on his other shows, “These guys go home at night.  They work, work, work their butts off, go home, get cleaned up and put on their best clothes and then go out to the bars for a few drinks, then a few more drinks.  They’re young.  There’s a lot of camaraderie.  They make two or three times more than anyone else out there.  If you’ll pardon the expression, it’s fightin’ and #$@!-in’”

Beers has had to adjust his filming plans due to unexpected circumstances more than once.  “The two guys I thought were going to be stars at the start of the show got arrested and thrown in jail right at the start of the first season,” he reports.  “You have to be ready to make changes on the fly.”

This year, a woman’s been added t the mix – one who happens to be pretty, blond and in charge.  “She owns the property where they’re drilling.  She’s awesome.  She carries a gun.  She doesn’t take any S@!!.  I’ve got to admit, we found her, and then we decided this would be a good place to drill.”

George Clooney

George Clooney proved again how utterly charming he is, Al Pacino quoted Michelangelo, and Kyra Sedgwick talked the fifth time being the charm backstage at the 62^nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

Maybe it was that First Amendment question that got things rolling.   George Clooney, honored with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his fund-raising work including this year’s multi-network telethon for Haiti earthquake relief, was asked about the conflict between wanting to maintain some kind of privacy in his life and his belief in the First Amendment.

He said firmly that, as the son of a newsman, “I always felt that the inconveniences I have are worth it rather than infringing on anyone else’s rights.”

Alrighty then, open season!

Clooney quickly deflected a question about his date – girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis — noting that “She picked me up in Italy” and yes, she was around.

He said he’d spent part of his day shooting hoops:  “John Krasinski came over to my house with a bunch of guys to play basketball.  If you see him later, well, he’s limping.”

Illustrating anew that the stars’ biggest fans are other stars, Clooney confessed to a moment of that star-struck feeling when he found himself with Al Pacino and Tom Selleck in the green room, and “suddenly I’m 14 years old.  It’s very funny.”

He also gave the telecast its first glowing review:  “The show is really good tonight.  Jimmy Fallon is just really killing it.  He’s just really funny.”

George on Prop 8 being lifted:  “I think it’s terrific.  Now it’s unlifted again…These are things that take a long time to change…People will look back on this period of history and think of it as an archaic time.”

George on his “ER” leading lady, Julianna Margulies, presenting his award:  “It’s pretty great. We’ve stayed in touch.  We’re good friends.”

Clooney talked about the namesake of his award, Bob Hope, noting, “It wasn’t just the USO shows.  That’s something everybody remembers him for 50 years.  He was one of the great charitable actors.  He did it all, always a great sense of humor.  He was fun.  He’d just show up and do something.”  Asked what he learned from Hope, Clooney, who knew the iconic comedian personally as a young man, recalled that “What you learn from him was, he didn’t take himself seriously.  I really appreciated that.”  Clooney recalled that Hope’s wife Dolores sang with his aunt, Rosemary Clooney, on her “Salute” show, and “she was great.  She’s 101 now and really doing great.”

Noting several times that he felt a little awkward to be getting an award for doing the right thing, Clooney insisted, “I don’t particularly do more than anybody else in the position I’m in.”

Well, not everyone organizes record-breaking, multi-network telethons full of A- List celebrities to help victims of the Haiti earthquake, the South Asia tsunami and Sept. 11 — raises hundreds of millions of dollars, and then follows up to ensure that the money is being used properly as Clooney does.  But anyway, he went on, “If you have a tremendous amount of heat from the spotlight, you’re able to deflect some of it onto people who could really use it.  My dad calls it a ‘Celebrity Credit Card’ that you can try to cash in other places.”

Al Pacino

Al Pacino, who won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his portrayal of Dr. Jack Kevorkian in “You Don’t Know Jack,” admitted that he felt a bit out of place at the TV honors.  “I’m just so used to movies,” he said, noting that he considered his HBO “You Don’t Know Jack” to be a movie, though it was shown on small screen.

“You’re a little lost.  You’re in the midst of all these TV people and you feel a little like you don’t belong.  You still feel like a movie person,” said Al.

Holding an Emmy had to have helped.

Pacino talked about the controversial medico known as Dr. Death for assisting suicides of terminally ill patients, saying he only got to know Kevorkian after making the movie, but “I’m so glad I got to know him.  He’s got that kind of intelligence where you can ask him anything and he’ll come up with something different from what you expected.”

Pacino lost weight to play Kevorkian, a notoriously finicky eater who has impassioned feelings against fat – yet is known to sneak sweets, according to Al.  He joked, “Gaining weight is much easier.  I wish I had to gain weight for a part.  Losing weight requires exercise, and “I’m from the Oscar Wilde school…Whenever I get the urge to exercise, I lie down until it passes.”

He told press he considers it a plus to play a real-life character:  “It’s great when you know somebody exists…It sort of frees you.  As Michelangelo said: ‘Free me of myself, Lord, so I can please you.’  I had that with Frank Serpico when I played him.  Actors like it, it’s very nourishing.”

Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Sedgwick, who took home her first Emmy (outstanding Lead Actress for “The Closer”) in five nominations, was asked whether she’d been afraid of turning into another Susan Lucci, notorious for always being nominated but never winning.  “I love Susan Lucci,” she said.  “I kind of think you think you haven’t got a chance in hell after five times, but it’s always such a gift to be invited to the party.”

Looking amazing in her purple Monique Lhuillier gown, Kyra added that she reached the point, “I started to placate myself” with remembering that a lot of great actors never won Emmys – Martin Sheen, for instance, never won for “The West Wing.”  “I’d find solace in such things.”

With hubby Kevin Bacon in the press room nearby, sipping champagne while she fielded questions, Kyra was asked about competition between the famous couple.

“I think Kev’s won more….We don’t play the same roles…Of course there’s no rivalry.”  She says they always joke around about whether there’s enough room for another award.

Eric Stonestreet

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series winner Eric Stonestreet talked eloquently and movingly about reaction to his portrayal of a dad with a same-sex partner on “Modern Family.”  “I can tell you what people say to me – I get amazing compliments from kids of same sex families.”  He cited a “gentleman who was raised by two moms” who had recently adopted another daughter.  He thanked Stonestreet, saying that now, if bullies ever taunt his sister, “she can say, ‘Look at Mitch and Cam – you like them.”

Mitch and Cam, of course, are the couple played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and himself.   Ferguson and cast mate Ty Burrell were also nominated in the same category, so one reporter wondered whether there’d be awkwardness on the set Monday.

“No, not at all, we had all joked around abut that before — if any one of us won whether it would be fun to punch each other in the stomach or walk out.”  However, “This was a win for the show…We love our job, so it won’t be awkward at all.”

Stonestreet and “Modern Family” executive producer Steve Levitan – who came into the press room after the show won Outstanding Comedy Series honors – both stressed that the upcoming episode in which Cam and Mitch kiss was planned a long time ago.   That is, before the controversy grew over their lack of physicality on the series.  Although, as Stonestreet acknowledged, it’s going “to look like we caved to public pressure, it was planned before.”

Asked about where he found inspiration for his portrayal, Stonestreet pointed to his mom – “spell it right” – Jamey and her excitable, emotional, passionately caring ways.  After he keeps it for a couple of weeks, he’s sending his Emmy to her and his father Vince to keep, he says.

He’s had a lot of women tell him that they identify with Cam.

Edie Falco

“Nurse Jackie’s” Edie Falco came right out and said what a lot of people were thinking about her winning as Outsanding Actress in a Comedy – over a group of funny ladies that included Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Lea Michele, Toni Collette, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.   Said Falco:  “Tina Fey, for heaven’s sake.  It’s ridiculous!”  She also said, “The women I was up against are hysterically funny, talented comedians.  I’m not playing coy here.  I’m just dumbfounded by the events of the evening.”  She added, “But I’m happy to be here nonetheless.”

As for what she planned to do to celebrate?  “I hadn’t planned on celebrating.  I’d planned on going home and ordering room service,” Falco said.  But she was glad to make a change in her plans.

Tom Hanks

For those die-hards who care about the coarsening of public discourse in America today, Betty White’s “What the hell are you looking at” during the opening number of the Emmy show this year no doubt felt like a let down.  Et tu, Betty?  Later, after his “The Pacific” won the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries, Tom Hanks dropped the F-bomb backstage.  At least he apologized right away.  He got carried away when a reporter mentioned how HBO and his Playtone production company continue to be winners, and Tom answered with “$#%-in’ A!”

Hanks also talked about the fact he was sorry there were only two nominees in the category, since there are certain stories that so well suited to the form.  He hopes “The Pacific” serves as a model.  As for what will come next from the firm that has gifted the public with a phenomenal string of artistically, intellectually and emotionally satisfying productions (“From the Earth to the Moon,” “John Adams,” “Band of Brothers” to name three), Hanks said they’re still three or four years away from unveiling any new projects.

Padma Lakshmi

When it comes to the night’s most overtly competitive personality, honors have to go to “Top Chef’s” Padma Lakshmi.  She made it clear that she’d had enough of “Amazing Race” winning “Outstanding Reality – Competition” honors year after year.  “I was really mean to the host on the red carpet.  I think I hit him twice with my purse,” she said.  “I said, ‘You’re going down.’”  And so they did – and “Top Chef” got the Emmy.

Claire Danes

“It’s always nice to see someone who is getting old with you,” said Anthony Edwards, asked about his former “ER” cast mate George Clooney being honored the same night that Edwards’ “Temple Grandin” won seven out of 15 Emmy nominations, becoming one of the huge winners of this year’s awards.

Edwards is one of the executive producers of the telefilm that won Emmys for Made for Television Movie, Outstanding Lead Actress for Claire Danes, Outstanding Director for Mick Jackson, and Supporting Actor and Actress Emmys for David Strathairn and Julia Ormond.  Getting the bio-pic made was a ten-year effort.  “I was very involved from an early part of the journey…Trying to sell a movie about a woman who is autistic and designs slaughterhouses – it’s not the easiest sell,” Edwards admitted.

Clearly, however, it was worth it.  Grandin herself was in the press room, and pointed out that the telefilm has a lot to say about autism and clearing up misconceptions about the nature of the malady.  She noted that autistics range from “Silicon Valley geniuses” to severely afflicted persons who can’t even speak.

She also said she had faith in Emily Gerson Saines, the lead Exec producer and driving force behind the film of “Temple Grandin.”  Saines’ own son is autistic, and she founded the Autism Coalition for Research and Education that’s now a part of Autism Speaks.

Said Grandin, “I knew a mom would get it right.”

Asked what made this win special, Claire Danes declared, “I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder on a performance. It was epic in its scope.  And I don’t think I’ve ever been as inspired by any part I’ve played.”  She feels that Grandin and the film of her story “encourage positive change in the world. That’s wonderful.  I don’t expect to have another opportunity like this.”

Danes admitted that her shimmery golden Armani Prive gown was “not as uncomfortable as it could be.”  She wasn’t complaining.  After all, “It’s a party dress and we’re gonna party!”

Allison Grodner

Look for the Sept. 1 finale of the CW’s “Plain Jane” to “up the stakes” of the CW reality show in which insecure young women undergo makeovers while preparing to make confessions of affection to their dream crushes .  That’s according to Allison Grodner, who produces the show along with partner Rich Meehan.

“We have a woman who recently lost a lot of weight – she’s still not skinny, she’s average size for America – who has a workplace crush.  Imagine professing your love to someone, knowing that whatever the outcome, you still have to see them every day.  And her workplace colleagues were aware of what was happening.”

Grodner’s hopeful for a pickup of the summer show hosted by fashion expert Louise Roe.  “The idea was to make a show different from all other reality shows – to make a mini-movie, like a real-life romantic comedy.  I’m a lover of romantic comedies.  It’s so much fun to be rooting for the underdog, usually it’s the girl, hoping she gets her guy.”

If there’s a Season 2, will there be turnabout – a “Plain Joe”?

“I think that could be terrific, to see this from the male perspective at some point.  There’s a lot of room to tell a lot of different stories,” she notes.  “It’s not always the girl with the glasses in the corner.”

MEANWHILE:  Super producers Grodner and Meehan own a large chunk of summer viewership thanks to “Plain Jane,” “You’re Cut Off,” “She’s Got the Look.” – and the show that started it all for them, “Big Brother.”  The latter continues as a summer behemoth; last week, all three editions turned up in the Top 10 ratings.

Grodner shrugs off the apparent ripoff factor of certain current reality shows and her “Big Brother.”

“Yes, there are a plenty of imitators out there.  I think that’s okay.  We’re flattered by that,” she says.  “I like that we’re one of the shows that shaped reality television competitions, along with ‘Survivor,’ ‘Amazing Race,’ and ‘American Idol’ in this whole turn that’s really happened this century.   I can’t believe we’ve been going at this now for 10 years.  It’s a testament to the format that it’s stayed strong, that we still have diehard fans that are watching in the show on all its platforms – something we pioneered,” she says, speaking of the “Big Brother” house’s continual internet coverage and its Showtime After Dark offshoot.  She also feels “We’ve been helped by the fact we’re a summer show.  People have to wait for it, then they commit to it.  Other shows can work in higher frequency, but I think ‘Big Brother’ has benefited by being on only once a year.”

Still, “I think every year we’re surprised to come back again,” Grodner confesses.

“This season we have a likeable group.  I don’t think there’s anyone so hate-able they’re turning people off, as has happened in the past.”  She laughs.  “Though, there might be people who disagree with me.”

Brooke Burke ABC photo

What’s the best way to age gracefully?  “One of the most important things is not to try to hold onto your twenties,” says Brooke Burke, a drop-dead gorgeous 38.   “You see these people trying to turn back time and it doesn’t work.  The best approach is to look your best at any age.”

With her latest job – taking over as host of TV Land’s “She’s Got the Look” competition reality show for wannabe models of 35 years and older – Brooke has given the topic of lovely women of a certain age quite a bit of consideration.

“We have a 55-year-old woman this season who is stunningly beautiful, confident, and certainly capable of giving the women in their thirties a run for their money.  Feeling beautiful is a big part of it – the mental attitude,” she says.  “You can see that as you watch these women finding their own confidence.”

For Brooke, “She’s Got the Look” fits nicely into the world of women she’s been communicating with and pitching to on her ModernMom.com website – women with children, women who buy her Tauts belly shapers, women past the twentysomething and single season of life.  The industrious Brooke, who rose to fame hosting the E! channel’s “Wild On!” and appearing in Playboy pictorials is, these days, into the juggling season – with four kids and her man, hunky David Charvet, in addition to her career.

And what a busy career.  She’ll be seen on E! getting ready for this Sunday’s (8/29) Emmy awards.  On Monday (8/30), she’ll be joining Tom Bergeron to announce the celebrities participating in their next season of “Dancing With the Stars.”  (Insists the Season 7 winner-turned-cohost of the show, “No, I don’t know anything yet.  I’m completely in the dark.”)

Soon after that, she’ll be turning in the manuscript for the autobiographical book she reports that Penguin plans to publish in February.  “I’m excited, although I have to say it does make me feel very vulnerable.  It’s really an emotional thing to go back and dissect your life and think about the things you did right and wrong.  It’s very revealing.  I’m sharing most of my experiences very honestly,” she says.  “It’s in three parts – mother, lover, woman.”

Stacy Keibler

Stacy Keibler admits she’s no expert on fantasy football – yet – but the WWE diva-turned-actress knows enough to be hosting tonight’s (8/27) Superdraft VIP party at Las Vegas’ Palms Casino Resort.

“Fantasy football has become so big.  I’m excited about it.  I’m a big Baltimore Ravens fan.  I used to be a Ravens cheerleader and a season ticket holder,” she reminds.  “By getting involved in your draft you learn not only more about your own team, you get more involved in all the teams.”

Certainly, a lot of the same fellows who followed her wrestling career are bound to be aboard this odd-yet-growing phenomenon of men and occasionally women who spend money to create fantasy football teams.  In the case of Superdraft, it’s about football, but it’s also about partying.  Keibler points out that the relatively new Superdraft weekend festivities span several events, including a model search.  “Ashton’s (Kutcher) doing a live podcast.  Snoop Dogg is performing.”  Some 2,700 people are expected.

The popular blond personality, also remembered for her stint on “Dancing With the Stars,” just finished filming an episode of NBC’s “Chuck” for the fall – playing an undercover CIA agent.  “Steve Austin is also in it.  We know each other from our WWE days, you know.  We get to have a little bit of a fight.”

Keibler also has a movie in the can, “Dysfunctional Sons.”  She’d love to do a sitcom – or a role in a high-octane movie.  “My career has been more of a marathon than a sprint.  I get offers all the time to do things, but I try to be smart about what I do,” she says, “ to only do things that are right for me and make sense.”

Terry Crews

Times are great for Terry Crews, with his TBS “Are We There Yet?” getting a 90-episode renewal – yes, that’s n-i-n-e-t-y as in 10 fewer than 100 – and his latest movie, Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables,” hitting at the box office and already prompting sequel talk.

But the nice guy NFL pro-turned-actor says he learned some of his most important life lessons during the harder times.

“I spent a year unemployed as an actor.  I know what that feels like.  You have to stick with it and believe, you have to concentrate on improving.  I prayed a lot,” says Crews with a laugh.  “I learned a lot playing in the NFL.  You just keep going and you don’t stop.  Keep going and keep playing and you’ll keep getting new opportunities.  Take the smallest little opportunity and make something of it.

“I have to tell people also, sometimes you have to redirect,” he adds.  “When something is not working out, sometimes you’ve got to get your mind off it.  I decided to do other things for awhile, doing anything I could think of to keep that fire alive, until things started to break for me.”

That was when he found himself doing security duty for Ice Cube while the rap star made the movie “Friday After Next.”  After that, Crews got a supporting part in Adam Sandler’s 2005 remake of “The Longest Yard” with Chris Rock.  Chris Rock remembered Terry when it came time to cast his autobiographical TV show, “Everybody Hates Chris.”  That’s how Crews wound up playing Chris’ dad on the show for five years.  And now, of course, he’s the TV counterpart of Ice Cube’s “Are We There Yet” loveable stepdad.

“Most of my business is repeat business,” notes Crews.  It’s not hard to see why.

Sofia Vergara ABC photo

With the 62^nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards coming up Sunday (Aug. 29), you’d better believe the dieting and working out in Tinsel Town has reached a fever pitch as stars get red carpet ready, and everyone else strives to pass muster on one of the glamour nights of the year.

“Modern Family’s” sexy Sofia Vergara admitted she’s been trying to be good about what she eats, so she can look her shapely best.  Her approach – carrying lollipops in her handbag so “instead of a tiramisu, I can have a boring lollipop” – could launch a trend.  Sadly, lollipops that can make one look like Sofia Vergara exist only in our dreams.

That’s good for a smile, but other “diet like celebrities” ideas out there are taken quite seriously – sometimes for the worse.  As a number of Hollywood stars can attest, rash super diets can have long-lasting negative effects on one’s health

The “Master Cleanse” diet — also called the “Lemonade” or “Maple Sugar” diet — highly-touted awhile back for helping Beyonce shed 20 pounds, is actually more than 60 years old.  Howard Stern sidekick Robin Quivers, who went vegan a couple of years back, lost some 70 pounds on the cleanse regime, in which followers chug a concoction of fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and water for a minimum of 10 days.  But doctors warn of the method, noting that fasting for a few days is fine, but extended fasting can lead to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.  Electrolyte imbalance can affect the heart and other major organ functions.

The same goes for extreme low carb/low calorie dieting.  According to the American Heart Association, such quick-fix regimes leave out vital vitamins and minerals, may be high in fat and can increase the risk of heart disease.

And they don’t lead to sustained weight loss.

Tales of stars and models using laxatives for fast weight loss are also common — but medical experts say that such practices are actually ineffective, and can cause abdominal pain, dangerously low potassium levels in the blood, and lasting damage to the large intestine.  Low potassium levels can cause cardiac arrhythmia — irregular heat beat, which can be life-threatening.

Matt Damon famously shed 45 pounds from his five-foot 11-inch frame to play a heroin-addicted soldier in the 1996 “Courage Under Fire”  – by running 10 miles a day and adhering to a strict diet of egg whites, chicken, vegetables and dry baked potatoes.  He looked perfect for the role, but, as he has admitted, the diet induced an adrenal gland disorder that made him deathly ill and affected him in following years

Martin Lawrence was jogging in near triple digit temperatures in an effort to lose weight for a movie role in 1999 when he collapsed with a temperature of 107 and was in a coma for three days.

All of which adds up to a cautionary note for those who may be tempted to lose weight in unhealthy ways.

Kim Raver ABC photo

Kim Raver thought she’d be spending her “Grey’s Anatomy” hiatus soaking up family time with her husband and two sons – but says she found the lure of Lifetime’s “Bond of Silence’ movie irresistible. 

“It’s tricky.  I only have a short amount of time to spend with my family,” notes the actress, who plays real-life author Katy Hutchison in the telepic, airing tonight (8/23).  “But when I read Katy’s book, I was just so intrigued by the way she handled this tragedy in her life.  It was so unlike the norm, I wanted to play her.”

Hutchison’s husband was murdered when he tried to quiet down a wild teen party in their neighborhood – a case that took her five years and endless persistence to untangle. 

 “There was also this mystery of how her husband was killed and how this tight-knit community where they lived responded – how part of that community turned against her,” adds Raver of the case that actually took five years to solve and is well known in Squamish, British Columbia, where it took place.  The telefilm is set in Washington State and the names have been changed.

The actress, who’s been wed to French filmmaker Manu Boyer for eight years, considers it essential that their seven-year-old and two-year-old sons spend time with their French relatives each year.  They’re growing up bilingual, and “it’s really important they see my husband’s family in France,” she says.  She’s happy that even with “Bond of Silence” production, they were able to get to Europe for three weeks during her hiatus. 

“My life is a Rubik’s Cube of scheduling,” she says. 

With “Grey’s Anatomy” production moving right along into episode five for the coming season, Raver’s Dr. Teddy Altman is well into a new romance with James Tupper’s character.

Speaking of series creator Shonda Rimes and the relentlessly intense episode that ended last season – with a crazed gunman on a shooting rampage against hospital personnel he held responsible for his wife’s death — Raver says, “I think it was a genius move by Shonda and her team of writers, what they did with that finale.  It took all these characters that viewers know and love over six years and gave them somewhat of a rebirth.”  Raver feels the writers have been able to retain the core elements of the show that appeal to fans, yet make it fresh as the beleaguered medical team moves forward.  “To be able to find a way to do that in an interesting way is really rare,” she says.

Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn in "Lovely, Still"

If the Sept. 10-opening “Lovely, Still” makes a splash in the indie film world, a major share of the credit will have to go to Martin Landau, who stars in the tale of an old man who falls in love for the first time. 

Landau was on hand to promote the film — that also stars the lovely, still Ellen Burstyn — when it was shown at the Toronto, Chicago and Milwaukee Film Festivals.  He was there when it screened at an AARP conclave in Las Vegas, where, he says, “It got a standing ovation, though I joke that most of us had trouble standing.”

The esteemed, Oscar-winning 82-year-old thespian explains, “I’m behind this movie because I really, really like it a lot.”  In fact, he helped the movie get made. 

When he first heard that director Nicholas Fackler “had written a film for me, I said, ‘How old is he?’ thinking this was someone 40, 50 years old.  They said, ’22.’  And I said, ‘Wow, I’ve got to go meet with this guy.’”

Landau subsequently told Fackler the script needed some changes, but “’If you want to work with me, I’ll do your movie.’”  He says they spoke a couple of times a week over the next two months, going over every page.  “We had a short list of actresses we wanted, and Ellen’s name was at the top.  When the script was about 90 per cent there, I said, ‘Send it to Ellen now.  I think she’ll like it.’  A few days later, the phone rang and it was Ellen, and she said, ‘Marty, what are we going to do in Omaha for seven weeks?’” — because that was where they’d be heading on location. 

 Along with Mark Rydell, Landau is executive director of The Actors Studio’s West Coast Branch, while Burstyn is co-president of The Actors Studio in New York with Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel.   Landau admits he thought that if Fackler had problems on set, “Ellen and I could help him out.”  However, Fackler proved up to the task of directing.  “He reminds me of Tim Burton in many ways – very, very creative.”

With “Lovely, Still” soon to begin its release, Landau and Burstyn are due to re-team before the cameras next month in Wisconsin for a whole different movie – an untitled ensemble drama by “another young guy, Sam Levinson, Barry Levinson’s son.  It’s about a family that’s dysfunctional and functional at the same time,” he reports.  Ellen Barkin and Demi Moore also star.

Landau is also among the stars featured in PBS’s “Pioneers of Television” series this fall, and “I just did an episode of ‘The Simpsons.’  I never had done one before,” he reports.  “I play a crazy European magician.  It was fun.” 

He adds, “I like to stay busy.”  Obviously.