Beck/Smith Hollywood

Dr. Lisa in Africa, "The Doctors" photo

Imagine, doctors in developing countries being trained in online classes rather than going to med schools in foreign countries — and, statistics show, often remaining abroad instead of returnnig to impoverished homelands.  In fact, such use of technology is moving into reality now, according to “The Doctors”  Dr. Lisa M. Masterson.   And she ought to know, because her Maternal Fetal Care International (MFCI) organization is making it happen.

Dr. Masterson founded the firstOB/GYN residency program in sub-Saharan Africa, in Eritrea, in addition to starting birthing clinics in Kenya and India. “Instead of spending the $6,000 it would cost to fly me there, I’m going to teach classes by Skype and then donate that money toward equipment,” she explains.

Dr. Lisa M. Masterson

The remarkable medico can move with seeming ease from seeing patients in her private practice in Santa Monica, to her work as a staff physician (at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica and UCLA), to chatting with celebrity moms on TV about potty training toddlers on “The Doctors” — to addressing the United Nations. In fact, a segment on her recent speech before the U.N. is being included on Tuesday’s (11/2) edition of “The Doctors.”

“I literally think my whole body was on edge,” before her address, admits the attractive Masterson. “My mission was just to try to open people’s eyes as much as possible. The response was overwhelming — so many people were asking me about my charity and what I do, and how to work together.”

Masterson’s efforts toward decreasing maternal and infant mortality
rates fit perfectly into the U.N.’s millennial goals, which is why she’s already
working with the international organization. Sometimes, she says, “The answer is in the palm of our hand, and it quite literally is. Technology has made equipment like the ultrasound that’s the size of a cell phone. There are fetal monitors that women can take with them, that allow doctors to monitor women from hospitals or offices.  Well, how come we can’t monitor a woman from Africa, then?  We’re testing it out here.”

Dr. Lisa, as she’s known to “The Doctors” fans, has an autobiography coming out next year, and it’s bound to be gripping.  “Sometimes it’s difficult to go back over painful times, but going through them that’s how I got to where I am.  Because I’m doing so much of what I want to do, some people have the idea I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth or something like that, but I wasn’t,” she says.   She admits it wasn’t easy to open up, that it’s not her personality.  However, she adds, “I had a lot of great female role models in my life.  On the show, I’m the only woman.   If telling my story can inspire a lot of girls to know that they can achieve their goals, it will be well worth it.”

Jessica Walter CW photo

Jessica Walter reports that she and George Segal are having a blast shooting their forthcoming “Retired at 35″ comedy.  The second TV Land original series, it will be paired with the oh-so-hot “Hot In Cleveland” come January.

“Initally, they offered me a guest-starring role as George Segal’s wife, who leaves him.  I hoped I’d get back on for an episode or two.  But then they came back to me and I”m going to be in all shows produced,” says the  actress, who lets us know her new character is not as mean as such well-known Walter women as “Arrested Development’s” Lucille Bluth.

“Retired at 35″ has a New York professional man (Johnathan McClain) becoming so charmed by his parents’ upscale retirement community in Florida, he decides to quit the rat race and move in with them.    “Now he’s also dealing with the separation of Mom and Dad, which ups the stakes a little,” says Jessica.

Her and Segal’s interplay as long-time spouses is helped by their long-time friendship.    ”I first worked with my Georgie Segal in ‘Bye Bye Braverman,’ a movie with Sidney Lumet directing, that came out in — are you sitting down? — 1968,” she notes with a laugh.  Also, Jessica’s husband, Ron Leibman, has worked with Segal on such productions as “Where’s Poppa?” “The Hot Rock” and assorted television shows.  Jessica played Segal’s ex-wife on his “Just Shoot Me” series as well.

“We bring a history to this,” she points out.  “It’s funny because I threw a little birthday party for my husband recently and of course George Segal was there.  At one point George and I were sitting on the couch, and we have this interesting relationship where he’ll kid me, and I’ll kid right back.  My husband watched us, and then said, ‘This is the show, right here on the couch.’”

Jake Lacy, Joanna Garcia, Debra Jo Rupp, Jennifer Finnigan, Kurt Fuller, Josh Cooke ABC photo by Bob D'Amico

Don’t be surprised if Jonathan Silverman turns up on ABC’s “Better with You” as a guest star, possibly even for a guest arc, according to show star Jennifer Finnigan — a.k.a. Mrs. Silverman.

“I could definitely see him doing a few episodes of the show, but I’m not sure when.  Everyone would love that,” she adds, “Everyone knows what a good comedic actor he is.”

The star of “Weekend at Bernie’s” and “The Single Guy” fame is a familiar face around the “Better with You” set.  “He’s incredibly supportive.  He’s here every week on tape night.  He’ll sit in my dressing room and watch on the monitor, hang out, ask if I’d like water, get me food,” Jennifer reports.  “It’s an amazing thing.  I think he’s more excited about my successes than I am.”

The “Better With You” Team is in a celebratory mood this week, as the show just received a full season pickup of 22 episodes.  Though the good news didn’t come as a surprise — what with the series, sandwiched between “The Middle” and “Modern Family” earning strong ratings since its debut — but “It’s always nice to make it official. We were so excited,” says Jennifer.

She and Josh Cooke play a couple who have been in a committed relationship for nine years and live together, but aren’t married, in the relationships comedy.  According to Jennifer, a November sweeps flashback episode will provide viewers with reasons why their characters remain unwed.
She admits that she does identify with her slow-to-decide character, Maddie, in some ways.

“I do!  I think she definitely thinks things through to the point of over-thinking and over-analyzing.  I was engaged for three years before we decided to make it official and get married.  I take that very seriously and think things through to the utmost.  I can be pretty neurotic.  On the other hand, Johnny proposed to me six months in, so we got going pretty fast”
When they did finally decide to wed, in 2007, they did so in a small, intimate ceremony on the island of Mykonos.  “It was perfect.  There were only 14 of us there,” she says.  “Johnny and I are adventurers, we love to travel and see the world.  We’re best friends.”

Boo!  Yes, that’s right, when Halloween is upon us, there is nothing scarier than turning on the television and seeing “Psycho’s” Janet Leigh get stabbed in the shower or her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis being chased by Jason in “Halloween.”  For many years, these were two of the women who held Hollywood’s title Queens of Scream.  But what of today’s top scream queens?

First of all, we must broaden the definition, what with the new millennial trend toward fraternization with socially-acceptable vampires and other monstrous types.  Yep, these days, rather than trying to run away from the scary guys, our heroines often run toward them.  For real.

You don’t see Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan scream so much as appear stressed, greatly stressed or stressed beyond reason in her love for vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and really strong like for werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).  Sometimes, she is startled and a slight “ah” may emerge from her lips.  Yet how could anyone leave Stewart off their list of top scream queens of today?  She just won the Best Fantasy Actress Award at Spike TV’s Scream 2010 awards and she has “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1” due out next year.  In it, we’ll see Bella and Edward’s daughter!  Stewart and Pattinson are a real-life couple as well, in case you somehow managed to escape the news.

Anna Paquin – same thing.  Sookie Stackhouse on HBO’s “True Blood.”  Oh, yes, she’s a fraternizer, all right, with her lover, vampire Bill Compton, played by Stephen Moyer, who Paquin married in real life in August.  The Oscar winner is also among the stars of next year’s hotly anticipated big-screen “Scream 4.”  She MUST be on the Scream Queens list.

Nina Dobrev is torn between the affections of two vampire brothers — Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley — on the CW’s “Vampire Diaries.”  Not surprisingly, the rumors are out there that she’s also being romanced by one or the other in real life.   Paparazzi captured photos of her and Somerhalder at LAX!  But it turned out they were just flying out to location.

In 2009, Evan Rachel Wood of “True Blood” was dating Alexander Skarsgard – you guessed it, her vampire boyfriend on the show – if you believe Socialite Life.com and other gossip outlets.  But she got back together, until August, with her on-again, off-again fiance Marilyn Manson, which is almost the same as having a vampire boyfriend.

But back to the issue at hand – about those scream queens of today.  We have Milla Jovovich in the “Resident Evil” movies, but she’s not screaming in fear of zombies — she’s taking the suckers out.  And sure, we hear Katie Featherston scream in the “Paranormal Activity” movies, but it is she who is the thing to be feared.

Scream Queens 2010 style — it’s a different world.

Will Ferrell

So, Will Ferrell wants a cologne of his own, eh?

That’s one of the intriguing factoids that comes to light in the funnyman’s 10 Things That Make Me Laugh list for Entertainment Weekly, due on stands tomorrow (10/29).  Item No. 5 states that Will finds “S,” Shakira’s new fragrance, funny, “but I’m also jealous.  Dammit, I want my own fragrance.”

Other items on his list include No. 7, “The Show ‘Hoarders.’  I know this is a disease, but how hard is it to clean out the garage?”

He gives props to fellow “Saturday Night Live” alums Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on the list – which does include straightforward items as well as silly ones.  And he reveals that he enjoys “The Knife Show” on MTV with Josh Horowitz:  “This is where I get most of my information on knives…and so should you.”

Ferrell’s “Megamind” opens Nov. 5.

Doug Benson Comedy Central photo

Comic Doug Benson likes the idea of breaking the mold and “doing standup comedy in a different way” – a fact he makes clear in his “The Benson Interruption” show that launches on Comedy Central Nov.  5 at midnight.

The show captures Doug interrupting other comedians in the middle of their acts, a bit he’s been doing live at comedy clubs for a while.  Benson pals Adam Carolla, Nick Swardson, Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Thomas Lennon, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Eugene Mirman are aboard for the initial six episodes.  Explains Doug, “When you put comics together in front of an audience, you just say ‘Go.’  It becomes about who is the alpha comic.

“It’s a cross between fun and awkward.  If you smash those together, you get ‘fawkward,’ a new thing, a word that goes over the title of the show and lets people know, it’ s not all going to go smoothly.”

Benson has certainly ventured into “fawkward” territory before.   One of his comedy bits that gained an oddball popularity had him calling actor Willem Dafoe a $#!@-head for no good reason.   Fans made t-shirts.  “It could be terribly unsettling, even for a well-known actor, what I did,” he acknowledges.  Doug quit doing the bit.  He says he’s never met Dafoe, and guesses “he’s blissfully unaware of what I was doing.  if I did meet him, I would just have to explain to an extremely scary-looking man that he’s a fine actor who’s been in a lot of downright successful or peculiar movies and no one would say that about him.  That’s why I called him a $#@-head.”

Maybe you had to be there.

Whitney Port, Ben Nemtin

Don’t be surprised if MTV’s “The Buried Life” quartet takes off for foreign countries in coming months — now that the show has garnered a devoted following in North America.

“We actually experimented with it a little bit this year,” reports ringleader Ben Nemtin.  “On next week’s show (11/1), we escape from a deserted island.  We have to survive and we have no survival training.. We actually build a raft to get off the island.  It’s one of my favorite episodes.  It’s always best when we’re out of our element.”

Tonight’s (10/25) show features the guys stealing a lock of Robert Pattinson’s hair — on a dare from fans.  The four twentysomething friends who set off in a purple bus with their bucket lists and a camera four years ago have already accomplished feats including playing basketball with Barack Obama and asking dream girl Taylor Swift on a date.

He reveals that items that have been rejected include Going Into Space and Smoking Cigars With Fidel Castro.  “We tried to get MTV to go for it.  We’re Canadians;  we could go to Cuba,” Nemtin points out.  “But we’d have to get a different crew….”

“The Buried Life’s” humanitarian bent sets the show apart, with each episode also showing the guys — Nemtin, Dave Lingwood and Jonnie and Duncan Penn — helping other people achieve what they want before they die.  They also hope to inspire others to make their own life lists, a topic Nemtin loves to talk about on college campuses and community spots where they interact with young people.

Mary Wilson

Mary Wilson, whose two autobiographical books — “Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme” and “Supreme Faith: Someday We’ll Be Together” were both hits — is now dreaming up a third.

“I would like to do one more book, based on my layman’s philosophies of life,” says the sexagenarian songstress, who tells us she would like to focus on the questions,  “What do you do after the dream has ended?”  And, “How can you find a road to contentment and be happy again?”

She had to find her own answers several times in a life filled with triumph and tragedy — “after the Supremes ended, after losing my son,” she notes.  She lost her teenage son Raphael in a 1994 automobile accident that also left her with serious injuries.

“The journey has been enlightening.  I’d want to be sure to put it out there correctly,” she says.

Wilson has been too busy to think much about writing in recent months.  With her latest solo album on the way, she has been performing her jazz show in cabarets on both coasts and in-between.  She also has eight grandchildren to think about — three of whom live with her in Las Vegas.  On top of that, there is “one of my biggest projects — my Supreme Gown exhibit, which was out on a two-year tour of six different museums throughout England, including London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.   Then it was at the Experience Music Project in Seattle for three months, ending in September.  There are fifty-some gowns, ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ gowns and all that.  I’m hoping to be able to tour the United States.”

Butch Patrick

Butch Patrick

Halloween’s  just around the corner, so it’s a busy time of year for Butch Patrick, the one-time “The Munsters” son who has now taken on the role of keeper of the flame for the goofy ’60s sitcom that has shown a zombie-like refusal to die — some 44 years after ceasing production.  Patrick, now 57, is making personal appearances at 13 (of course!) commercial haunted houses.  He’s prepping for his own Halloween bash — tickets on sale now — that’ll feature his reunion with former “Munsters” cousin Pat Priest in Pennsauken, New Jersey.  And he’s putting in the good word for the Hallmark Channel’s “Munsters” marathon all day Oct. 31.

“That was a good time in my life,” says Patrick, who as a child divided his time between Hollywood soundstages and various ball parks where his father, major leaguer Ken Hunt (Angels, Cubs, Senators), would play.  His late series parents, Fred Gwynne and Yvonne DeCarlo “were really good people.  It was a nice family,” he says.

Patrick tells us he isn’t interested in going back into acting, but might expand his activities in the marketing realm.  In fact, the former wolf boy reckons he could practically do public appearances full time if he wanted to, there’s still so much “Munsters” love out there.  “You could do the car convention circuit because of the cool cars we had on the show.  Because of all the merchandising, you could do toys and comic books.  You could do horror and sci-fi.”

What he isn’t doing — reports to the contrary — is marrying a long-time “Munsters” fan he met at a convention.  “That actually was a misguided news story.”

Victoria Justice, Brooke Shields Nickelodeon photo

Here’s a unique approach to overcoming the insecurity and lack of popularity issues that plague many a teenage girl — find your inner werewolf.  At least, that’s kind of what happens to Victoria Justice’s character in “The Boy Who Cried Werewolf.”   The Nickelodeon movie, also starring Brooke Shields (doing an homage to “Young Frankenstein’s” Frau Blucher) debuts Saturday (10/23).

“I thought my character in the movie was relatable to a lot of girls — she doesn’t have a lot of friends, the popular hot jock doesn’t notice her,” relates the beautiful 17-year-old star of Nickelodeon’s “Victorious” series.  However, as she is coping with that certain problem that starts to overcome her after her exposure to wolf blood, “She starts gaining inner confidence in herself, she realizes beauty is more than skin deep, it comes from within.  You have to feel good about yourself.”

Victoria admits she wasn’t so sure about handling the werewolf aspect of the role, however.  “I was really excited to do the role, it had so much action that was like nothing I’d ever done before.  Luckily, I wasn’t always in the transformation stages.  I didn’t always have to be i the prosthetics.”

When she did have to get fully wolfed-out, “It took about three hours, I would say.  You just have to sit there and not talk.  I would put on my iPod and try to go to sleep.  Getting to walk out of there in hair and makeup was really awesome.”

Now Victoria’s getting ready to start filming Monday (10/25) on the second season of her music-filled sitcom that’s set in a performing arts high school.  “I think we’re all really excited for the second season.  We learned a lot of things from the first season, got to know each other really well, got used to comedic timing.  The later episodes were some of the best ones.  I’d be the first to say the first season left a lot of room to grow.”

She reports there’ll be even more music in Season 2 of the show than Season 1.  Personally, “I think it would be really cool to see her break up with a guy or something, to see that softer side — real emotions.  I think even though it’s a Nickelodeon show, people would respond to that realness.”

Jay Leno NBC photo

SWEET VINDICATION:   It’s a good bet that Jay Leno is loving the press surrounding Bill Carter’s soon-to-be-released “The War For Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy.”  The New York Times scribe, who chronicled the Leno-David Letterman battle for “The Tonight Show” in 1989 to great acclaim (and an HBO movie), now dishes the details of “The Jay Leno Show” debacle.  Conan O’Brien and team come off as a supercilious bunch, to say the least.  NBC bosses look like bumblers.  And Leno’s depicted as the guy understandably bemused by the fact he brought the network years of ratings victories only to be handed a pink slip.  Wonder what Jimmy Kimmel and other comics who’ve been using Leno as a punch line punching bag will have to say — if anything.  The book comes out Nov. 8, the day O’Brien’s new TBS show launches.

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE:  Greg Grunberg says that the idea of his bringing back the ultra-colorful Harry Mudd character from the original “Star Trek” series in one of his long-time pal J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” movies is just that – an idea.  “There’s been no serious talk about it.  I’d do anything they want me to,” adds the former “Heroes” star.  Mudd definitely has an appeal:  “He wears crazy hats, an earring, he has beautiful women around him all the time.”