Beck/Smith Hollywood

Hutch Dano Disney Channel photo

Disney XD’s “Zeke and Luther,” which is now launching its third season, has made stars out of 18-year-olds Hutch Dano and Adam Hicks. At least, it has with a certain segment of the population. The affable Dano tells us that getting recognized “depends on where I go. I have a little sister. I went to her science fair at school last week, and I got recognized there a lot. But if I go to see an R-rated movie, adults don’t look twice.”

His and Hicks’ skateboarder characters continue to mature this season, he notes — beginning with their season opener, in which Zeke takes a fall that threatens his future.

“One of the coolest things about the show is that every season, you see the main characters step up more and more and become better and better friends as the season progresses,” believes Dano. “Every season, you want to bring something new to your character. For me, Zeke is a little more serious, he’s a leader, he’s older — but you also want to be able to let him let loose a little more. We do that. We have spit takes, we have those moments when we’re jumping all over the place … It’s a tough balance to find, even working with the writers.”

Dano, who had his own “Den Brother” Disney Channel movie last year, and co-starred as Henry Huggins in the big-screen “Ramona and Beezus,” wouldn’t mind “Zeke and Luther” going on into a fourth season, or more.

“I love the show. I love the cast and crew. I’d definitely be open to continuing on whatever happens with the show.”

Charlie Sheen

Why, Chuck Lorre, why? With Charlie Sheen’s series-ending public rant last week, Lorre has to have attained some sort of new Guinness world record for dealing with out-of-control, out-of-their-minds, self-destructive TV stars.

In case you missed it, Sheen referred to the “Two and a Half Men” creator as a “clown” whose “tin can” writing Sheen claimed to have been “effortlessly and magically converting…into pure gold” for nearly a decade.
Lorre’s used to unappreciative stars, to say the least. Consider: the esteemed writer/producer first whetted his sitcom chops working on “Roseanne” back in the early ’90s. Behind-the-scenes fights on that show became an everyday part of the job, as the star wrested more and more control out of creator Matt Williams’ hands and launched a frenzy of frequent firings. Before it was all over, tales of screaming tyrannical behavior emanated from the set regularly and Roseanne let it be known that she suffered from multiple personality disorder.

Roseanne

But that show was likely a better experience for Lorre than the first show he personally created – the 1993-1998 “Grace Under Fire,” starring Brett Butler. The comedian, once thought to be the female answer to Lenny Bruce, exhibited demonical diva ways including verbal abuse and sexual harassment, according to Lorre’s suit over profits from the sitcom. Her nastiness led staff, including writer Alan Ball, to talk about the show using terms such as “the gulag.” Lorre left.

Brett Butler

Butler confessed to painkiller addiction and the production became subject to her rehabs and relapses — but due to high ratings, the team carried on (sound familiar?) until at last ABC got fed up with Butler missing tapings and abruptly pulled the plug.

Then there was Cybill Shepherd, a decided improvement. Nevertheless, she was accused of megalomania during production of her “Cybill” show of 1995-1998. Whoever did what to whom, clearly, it wasn’t fun. Lorre was fired after five episodes despite creating the show. (A phalanx of other writers quit or were fired as well.)

First, though, Cybill had Lorre banned from the set, reportedly because she hated it when he and another producer, Jay Daniel, sat watching her performances on the monitor and critiquing them. Imagine producers doing such a thing!

Small wonder that in 2008, Lorre relished the assignment of cowriting a “CSI” episode entitled “Death of a Sitcom Diva.” As “CSI’s” Robert David Hall put it, “I think Chuck is working off his aggression in this script.”

By then, “Two and a Half Men” was already a long-standing hit, and it looked like taking a gamble on seemingly-reformed hellion Charlie Sheen was a good idea. Considering the show’s long running success, it still looks that way. But as every reader of pop psych tomes and women’s magazines knows, if you keep getting into the same kind of toxic relationships over and over again, you have to recognize that it’s your responsibility and make changes. Lorre’s apparently-harmonious “Big Bang Theory” and gratitude-infused “Mike and Molly” casts suggest he’s found the healthy truth: there are talented, funny, creative people out there who manage to do terrific work without all the pain and suffering.

Goodbye, Charlie Sheen. Ahh.

Norwood Young, the singer who became notorious for his multiple plastic surgeries and outlandish home on E! Entertainment Television’s “High Maintenance 90210″ a few years back is finally telling the story behind his story — and it’s a moving one.  He stresses that his former drive to change his face had nothing to do with not wanting to look black; he’s proud to be African American.  It had to do with years of childhood sexual abuse.

“Keeping this a secret, it manifested into drug abuse.  It manifested into psychosis.  It manifested into self-mutilation in the form of more than 15 plastic surgery procedures,” says Young.

“I had the voice of my cousin in my head saying, ‘Shut up!  It’s supposed to hurt.  You’re a pretty boy,’ so I didn’t want to look like that, didn’t want to look like myself.  I don’t like my eyes, I don’t like my cheeks.  I would just change this stuff.  And I was able to mask the reality with these idiosyncrasies in a show business community where they’re not only accepted, but admired.”

Young -- Another Time

“The King of Hancock Park,” so named for his high-profile legal battle to remain in the area, became more well-known for his excessive lifestyle than for the vocal talent that had gotten him onto Broadway and into recording studios.  He surrounded his house with an over-abundance of statuary.  His partying often included known names.

Two turning points, years apart, led him toward healing.  One was seeing an Oprah Winfrey Show segment on childhood sexual abuse that made him realize just what had happened to him.  The second was reading negative online comments about his appearance on E! — particularly a viewer who wrote that he’d keep his children away from Norwood because he looked “dark and demonic.”

“I am anything but dark and demonic,” Norwood says now.  “I’m all about love.  I  have a non-profit organization to feed the homeless.  My music is all about love.”  The awakening led him to break his drug and alcohol habits, and started him on the road to restoring his original handsome appearance through reconstructive surgeries.  He recently underwent a final operation that involved the recreation of his nose utilizing his own rib cartilage.

He admits that when he announced that he would no longer be drinking or doing drugs, “I lost about 65 per cent of my friends.  It hurt, but it was a good part of the process.  The friends who were my real friends were very supportive.”

Norwood, who has told his story in his new “Getting Back to My Me…The Chronicles of Norwood Young” memoir, has now become a Spokesman for The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).   Earlier this week, he says he received word from California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall that he is going to sponsor a bill at Norwood’s suggestion “to make April into Domestic Abuse Prevention Month.  It’s a start.  I’m hoping my story will help others,” says the artist, who’s also singing again these days.  “Not everyone is insane enough to cut their face up and blessed enough to be able to put it back together.”

Colin Firth is looking forward to doing a lot of cooking, as he’s found it’s “a very good way to decompress.”  Natalie Portman is looking forward to staying “in bed, not having to do my makeup or hair, keeping my sweats on and relaxing.”   The “King’s Speech” Best Actor and “Black Swan” Best Actress Academy Awards winners seemed to be, among other things, downright relieved to be at the end of the awards season marathon.

But if going through all the interviews, parties and other awards shows and events while pregnant might have been extra taxing for Portman, she told press backstage that she found advantages in the experience as well.  “It’s been sort of a protection against, you know, all the hoopla.  It keeps you centered on where your meaning is in the midst of a lot of new shiny stuff which is superficial.”

Portman pointed out that, contrary to reports, she doesn’t know the gender of her baby yet.  Asked what the baby was doing when her name was announced, Portman admitted she didn’t remember anything about those first moments when she went to collect her Oscar.  However, “the baby definitely was kicking a lot during the song portion of the show — a little dancer.”

An astute reporter asked the Israeli-American Portman — the face of Miss Dior Cheri – about her response to Dior designer John Galliano’s recent arrest, complete with charges of his using anti-Semitic slurs.  She looked momentarily taken aback, and then simply passed on the question.

Another reporter asked her what were the chances of her naming her baby Oscar.  She replied, “I think that’s probably, definitely out of the question.”

*                      *                      *

The erudite Firth said he had not seen the new PG-13 cut of “The King’s Speech,” but added, “I don’t support it.  I think the film has its integrity where it stands.”  In a move that strikes many as ridiculous, the MPAA rated the movie just named Best Picture of 2010 with an R – only because of a scene in which Geoffrey Rush’s speech therapist character endeavors to get his client’s mind off his stuttering by getting him to use unaccustomed swear words, including the F-word.  “I’m not someone who is casual about that kind of language.  I take my children to football games…and I hate hearing that language around them, but I’m not going to deny them the experience of a live game,” said Firth.  “I don’t take this stuff lightly.  But the context in which it’s used in this film could not be more edifying. It’s not vicious…I haven’t met the person yet who was offended by it.”

Firth also gave a behind-the-scenes insight as to how Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper set the scene for Firth’s Academy Award-winning performance.  “The way of working was conducive to the kind of tension and anxiety that I needed. The very first thing that Tom shot of me was single shot of me.  It was quite a baptism by fire.”  Firth noted that normally on a movie, a director will start with simple shots, such as characters getting out of cars, while the cast and crew are settling in, then work up to “the critical stuff, the stuff on your face.”  Tom started him off with a 10-minute scene with the camera trained right on his face.  “There was nothing to do but commit.”

*                      *                      *

Melissa Leo

Speaking of the F-word, Melissa Leo said she had no idea that it was escaping her lips when she accepted her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “The Fighter.”  “Those words, I apologize to anyone that they offend,” she said in the press room, with seeming sincerity.  “There’s a great deal of the English language that is in my vernacular…It was a very inappropriate place to use that particular word in particular.”

Asked about the excruciating wait for the Best Supporting Actress winner to be announced by the meandering 94-year-old Kirk Douglas, Leo made it clear she didn’t mind a bit.  “You know, he’s an old actor, and he knows.  Actually, he was doing us all a huge favor.  The longer he strung it out, the calmer we got to be.  I got to take more than one glance at Amy,” she said, referring to fellow nominee Adams.  “He strung it out in a rather delightful way for me.”  The announcement raised her heart rate, but Douglas’ bit “allowed my heart to settle down a little bit.”

The 50-year-old actress, who told us that her career had never been better since she matured out of her ingénue years, also commented on her dress.  She chose white, she said, referring to her real-life character, Alice Ward, the mother and manager of boxers Micky and Dicky Ward.  “I would like to think that Alice would have liked it.  I noticed a lot of footage of Alice in white.  It showed up on camera in the era of black and white TV.”  She added, “I could not have played her without having met her.”

*                      *                      *

Christian Bale

Speaking of Dicky Ward, Christian Bale – who won Best Supporting Actor honors for playing the fighter – missed out on Melissa Leo’s award thanks to being out of the Kodak Theater with his real-life counterpart.  “I find myself likewise out in the bar with Dickiy and my wife thinking that it was like the other awards where you just walk on in and go out and unfortunately missed Melissa’s acceptance speech because they wouldn’t let me in.  I was literally banging on the door with Dicky going ‘Let us in!’  And they wouldn’t let us in.  That was my mistake.  I’ll know better if I ever return to the Academy Awards.”

So, he also missed Leo’s F-bomb.  “I missed the F-bomb, but you know, I’ve laid down many of them myself before.  So I think I know what it’s all about.”

The normally press averse Bale was met with questions alluding to his very good-naturedness.  “It’s just a genuine thing, you know?  I’m so flattered when anyone comes up to me and says they were so touched by the performance, I really adore that.”  But as far as going through the rigors of awards season campaigning, he reminded the press that he’s been in China, making filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s WWII move set amid the Japanese rampage in the Chinese city of Nanjing — and “I’ve not been a part of any of the campaigning that’s been going on.”

He praised his fellow nominees and mentioned there are a lot of other actors who’ve done great work this past year – and noted it’s nothing like the motorcycle racing he was watching this morning, where there’s a clear winner crossing the finish line.

He said he’s going to let his daughter decide where to put the Oscar.

Asked about the next “Batman,” Bale noted that, “I’m in the middle of filming a movie in China , but after that, it’s going to be straight on to ‘Batman,’ so yes, absolutely.  Much more ‘Batman.’”

He also fended off a question about Charlie Sheen by, again, saying he’d been in China and doesn’t know what’s been going on, earning a few guffaws from the press corps.

Bale said that he’d already decided he liked the character before it hit him, “’Oh, he’s a welterweight, isn’t he?’  He’s a crackhead.’  How many fat crackheads do you see?”  And therefore, the actor would need to put himself through a grueling weight loss process to play the role.  Talking about raw ability and passion, Bale recalled Jimi Hendrix, who played guitar with “his fingers just bleeding, blood dripping off the strings and I thought, ‘That’s it. That inspires me to no end.’  So whatever it takes, I feel like I’ll do for a movie.  But the thing is, a lot of people see it as a gimmick, and it’s not a gimmick.”

Would he do it again?  “I’m getting a little bit older now, and I’m starting to recognize that if I do too much, there may be no coming back from it.  I don’t have quite that same mentality which I did only a few years back, where I felt I was invincible and it didn’t matter what I did, I was coming through.  You know, I have a child now.  I just want to be smart about any other body alterations I make in the future.  There is only so much a body can take…Who knows?  Maybe that will be the last of it.”  But he admitted he’s been saying that for several roles.

*                      *                      *

Best Adapted Screenplay winner Aaron Sorkin – “The Social Network” – told the press, “Like a lot of people, I grew up worshipping the movie ‘The Graduate’ and like a lot of people I wondered how it must have felt for Buck Henry to see Dustin Hoffman bringing Benjamin Braddock to life for the first time.  Now I don’t have to wonder” – because he experienced the same feeling watching Jesse Eisenberg bringing to life his version of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Asked about the partially Facebook-enabled revolution in Egypt, Sorkin admitted he’s “been cranky” about social networking until recently.  “Along the way somewhere, I turned into my grandfather…But when I see social networking tools mobilizing people for great causes like that, I really want to thank the Mark Zuckerbergs out there for doing it.”

He also thanked Mark Zuckerberg for being “an awfully good sport about this.  There’s not anyone out there who would want a movie done about things they did when they were 19 years old.”  Or, if you did, you’d want the movie to show only their own point of view, certainly not the point of view of people suing you for hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Sheryl Lee Ralph

Sheryl Lee Ralph admits her first reaction to being asked to host pre-and post-Oscar coverage for CNN and HLN wasn’t what one might expect.  “I was so scared I cried,” says the actress and singer.

That’s because she had just been in an automobile accident, “and I had the worst whiplash ever.  I was sitting there in my brand-new, no license plates Prius at Sunset and Highland, and I got hit from behind.  It was awful.”

But she didn’t want to turn down the choice assignment.  “It’s like, God puts these things in your path and I just thought, ‘I know you didn’t bring me this for me not to make it work out.’  The next day, I found the therapist who could help me, Dr. Craig Liebenson” of L.A. Sports and Spine, a chiropractor who’s worked with dozens of elite athletes.  “I thought, if he could get Kobe through a championship, he can get me through the Oscars.”

Over the past couple of weeks, she’s since been through a battery of tests and adhered to a recovery regime including hot packs, cold packs, breathing exercises, lots of rest — she’s been sitting out Academy Awards parties — and more.  What it hasn’t included is “prescribed pain medication.  Another doctor prescribed some, but I said, ‘Look, I can’t think with pain medication.  I have to be sharp.  I have to be clear.  My brain has to take in information about quite a few people.’”  Learning about all the nominees is, as she notes, “like a college course.  You have to be able to recognize people, know what they’re wearing, what their process was.”

We caught up with Ralph, a.k.a. the tireless AIDS-HIV advocate, a.k.a. the wife of Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes, while she was getting some Oscar-time pampering.  That included a massage, a pedicure, and application of Long Mi eyelashes — at Beverly Hills’ L’Ermitage Hotel.  The hotel also is hosting Academy Awards time gifting suites, so there is certainly no shortage of stars on hand to collect everything from designer clothing and jewelry, to trips, to “fabulous barbeque sauce” to “crushed ruby lipstick from Holland.”  That’s Sheryl Lee’s favorite item at the gifting suites so far.  “I love it.  I’ve always loved red lipstick.  And this has real rubies in it.  I’ll have a million dollar smile for real.”

She tells us that Steven Tyler was “coming out just as I was going in.  I’m sure he was collecting some things for his daughters.”   Of  course.

MEANWHILE:  Ralph, who shares hosting duties with HLN anchor A.J. Hammer, will definitely be on the lookout for 14-year-old “True Grit” nominee Hailee Steinfeld come Sunday (2/27) night.  The Best Supporting Actress hopeful has one of Ralph’s favorite stories.  “‘True Grit’ is such a young woman’s movie; it’s about a little girl’s true grit.  How does a little girl overcome what was expected of women in the 1800s — which was nothing.  And if they dared fight, it was okay to beat them.  But this film wasn’t marketed to young women at all.  They left Hailee out of all those ads, even though she was so deserving of attention,” the performer points out.  But Hailee is getting plenty of attention now.  Says Sheryl Lee, “Whatever is for you can’t not be for you.”

clockwise from bottom left Leah Remini, Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne, Julie Chen, Marissa Jaret Winokur (who has left the show) and Sara Gilbert CBS photo

Leah Remini’s happy with the progress of “The Talk” — what with CBS already renewing the fledgling chat show on which Leah is featured along with Julie Chen, Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne and Sara Gilbert.  However, the admittedly self-critical funny lady is quick to say, “It’s still a work in progress.  We stay after the show and talk about where we can improve.  We’ve only been on since October,” she reminds.

Asked how it is to do the show compared to how she thought it would be, Remini admits in her charmingly convoluted style, “What I thought at first about what it was, it was going to be not as hard.  It is hard to do a live show every day.  I thought I’d be able

to just walk in and go, ‘Hi, what are we talking about?’  ‘Let’s go home now.’  There is much more mental work in preparing than I expected.”

Yes, she’s felt burnout.  “Holly and I sit in her room and go, ‘Wow, man.’  You’re just drained.  But the next day, we’re good again,” she adds.  “We’re talking about something fun, or something in the news we have a take on, or something we really want to share with people — and we’re re-energized by that.”

She’s enjoying the company of her “Talk” show mates and their fun chemistry — a big plus.  She feels their celebrity interviews “are still missing something” — a small minus.

“I can’t put my finger on it.  I’m glad that we always get something more, something different, from them besides whatever the thing is they’re there to promote,” she says.

Leah acknowledges it’s not easy juggling the show’s demands and her family life with six-year-old daughter Sofia and husband Angelo Pagan.  Sofia has come to the set, and will come when Justin Bieber guests.  “I think I’m just going to call the school and tell the truth.  I can’t make her stay away when she has a chance to meet him.”

Leah’s “The Talk” deal called for a new sitcom to be developed for her at the network, but there’ve been hitches.  Obviously, working eight hours a day on “The Talk” doesn’t leave much time for other professional pursuits.  “I’m up at 5:30 to be at work by 7:30.  It’s not an easy day, but when I’m finished, the sun is still out.  There is time for another show,” she says.  “But maybe I don’t want to be a series regular.  Maybe I want to be a recurring character on another show.  I need to have some time with my daughter.”

The actress lets us know her maternal duties now include being “a chauffeur and a chef.  When my daughter’s home from school, it’s like, ‘Where is my play date?’  It’s only going to get worse from here on.  She’ll get to be a teenager and say, ‘Mom, I don’t want to hang out with you,’” Leah predicts.

Also, “I feel a real loyalty to ‘King of Queens,’ to Doug and Carrie.  When I read the scripts they send, I go, ‘I can’t be married to this guy.’  It’s weird, right?  I feel like I’m actually married to Doug,” she says, referring to Kevin James’s character.  She ends up, she says, “saying, ‘Oh, I know who’d be good for that,’ and I pitch them ideas for other girls.”

New video due from Warner Bros. March 29

There could be a new generation introduced to the zany thrills of the most famous World War I beagle flying ace ever in history — if the new team assembled to make Warner Bros. March 29 release, “Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown” succeeds with this latest entry into the Peanuts oeuvre.   That’s the word from Craig Schulz, son of the late, great Charles Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the beloved comic strip gang.

“Next would be the Flying Ace film. We’ve got that started, and we’ve been having a lot of trouble with it, but if the Blanket show goes over well, I’m sure we’ll find a way,” he says.

Craig Schulz Minnesota Public Radio photo

According to Craig, “Every month or so there will be a new producer who’ll come up to Santa Rosa from L.A. with an idea for a new Peanuts — with new themes, with the edginess that’s out there in animation now. We get that constantly. But the family is really resolved that we’re sticking with my Dad’s work.”

Thus, “Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown” was made with painstaking effort toward authentically recreating the look, sound and feel of the classic Peanuts specials. According to Craig, 95 percent of the dialogue comes from original Charles Schulz strips. The senior Schulz, you may recall, decided to end the strip when he retired rather than hand it over to anyone else.

Craig tells us the impetus for “Warm Blanket” came when Warner Bros. contracted for Peanuts (Paramount was the comic’s former film home) and “within the contract were rights to two new specials.” But without his father or the late director Bill Melendez, “We had to get all new people and work from the ground up.”

Craig served as one of the executive producers and writers of the new special along with Stephan Pastis — author of the Pearls Before Swine comic strip and an avid Peanuts fan. A great break for Charlie Brown and his pals came when Pixar director Andy Beall (“Up,” “Ratatouille”) moved over to the Peanuts shop. “I always thought that no matter how good the story was, or the voices were, if it didn’t look right we’d be in big trouble,” says Schulz. “Once Andy came in, it started to look like the strips from the ’60s. All the animators said the same thing: The characters look so simple, but they’re extraordinarily difficult to animate.”

As for the cast, “We had over 100 kids come in” to audition. He personally listened to a selection of candidates while going back and forth between recordings from the 1965 Christmas special “matching voices. It turned out Andy and I agreed on every voice, with the exception of Pigpen. I never thought we’d find a Sally, but we actually had a pair of sisters who each sounded like her.”

The end result, which Warners is launching as a home video release, is exactly what Schulz had hoped for — a special so true to the originals “it will seem to fans as if they must have missed it earlier.” In it, Linus faces extreme blanket withdrawal as his blanket-hating grandmother’s visit draws near.
Meanwhile, Schulz adds that “We’re working hard” to expand the presence of Peanuts on internet portals, iPods, mobile phones, etc. — in addition to video.

“Obviously, the world is changing dramatically. We have to create stuff that works well in the new digital platforms. At the same time, Peanuts is timeless.”

William Sanderson Current TV photo

William Sanderson is having a blast playing a 20,000-year-old bartender in an establishment at the edge of the universe in Current TV’s new “Bar Karma” series.  However, the esteemed character actor admits the fact a bunch of internet users out there are determining aspects of his character and storyline “terrifies me.  They might want me to wear a Speedo,” he dead-pans.

“Bar Karma” is the production sparked by video game king Will Wright (Spore, The Sims), who envisioned a TV series created by an online community.  Former Nickelodeon Entertainment President Albie Hecht heads the creative team that works in conjunction with the internet group convened by Wright.  In fact, the community was responsible for putting Sanderson’s character, James, into a suit, and Sanderson likes that.  The “True Blood” and “Deadwood” veteran calls James “an impossibly old cynical misfit whose grasp on reality is loose, and who is flexible with the truth.

“It’s a gift to be doing this,” adds Sanderson.  “The writing is really good.  And the premise is interesting…What would happen if you could change your life?”

As far as his casting, “Probably the fact I was in ‘Blade Runner’ didn’t hurt,” he says.  At 63, he’s figuring that “Bar Karma” might just be “my last hurrah.  I’m going to wrap it up after this, probably.  But I’m very happy.”

Miley Cyrus poledance

Here it is, only February and already we have a strong candidate for this year’s Tacky Taste Awards:  poor pitiful papa Billy Ray Cyrus, for the GQ interview in which he blames “Hannah Montana” for pretty much all the ills in his life — including the end of his marriage and his concerns over the behavior of his 18-year-old daughter, Miley.

“The damn show destroyed my family,” he proclaims.  He gripes that every time there was a scandal, like Miley’s awards show pole dancing or her sexually provocative Vanity Fair photos, his daughter’s “handlers” had the nerve to put him before the press to take the heat. “‘Somebody’s shooting at Miley!  Put the old man up there!’ Well, I took it, because I’m her daddy, and that’s what daddies do. ‘Okay, nail me to the cross, I’ll take it,” he whines.

Good daddies don’t allow their little girls be photographed topless cuddling a bed sheet at age 15, or join them for creepy couple-style shots that hint at incest.  Billy Ray’s mea culpa in GQ is all about how he should have been more of a parent and less of a friend to Miley, but doesn’t include anything about his responsibility in matters like photos in which he was personally involved.

To many observers, his true priorities have often shown through the thin veneer of a family man performance.  This is the guy who tended to frown, sigh, purse his lips, become clipped or otherwise give evidence of his distaste whenever press asked Miley-related questions — instead of Billy Ray-related questions.  Even in the best of times.  He rode the young talent’s coattails into an obviously fervently-desired fresh wave of fame.  And now that his “Hannah Montana” ride is over, he’s in GQ, pointing fingers at everyone else for Miley’s excesses.

Hate to achy breaky it to you, Billy Ray, but GQ would never have been interested had it not been for her.

Gilles Marini, Reshma Shetty USA Network photos

PONDERS FUTURE OF ‘BROTHERS AND SISTERS’

The question of whether there’ll be a sixth season of ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters” has yet to be decided — but some are already starting a letter writing campaign.  That’s gratifying news to the show’s Gilles Marini, who points out, “I think the word as we speak is very positive.  You know, the network does not have to tell us tomorrow, ‘Oh, you guys are picked up.’  There is time.  They’ll crunch the numbers and see what their options are.

“I thank ABC/Disney for bringing us back for five seasons.  That is extremely rare,” he coninues.  “I hope that the show goes on and on, but whenever it is the end, I’d like to hear, ‘Guys, this is the last season.  Let’s ride it out the right way,’ and they allow us to close the storylines instead of abruptly stopping it.”  The Frenchman, whose romantic Luc Laurent character, love of Rachel Giffiths’ Sarah Walker, has become a “Brothers & Sisters” mainstay, adds, “The fan base around the world is massive.  The social network messages we get come from countries you’ve never even heard of before.  It’s very rewarding, and all that much more reason you don’t want to make the fans feel somehow let down.”

He also points out, “We’ve been pretty steady in the ratings, even against monsters like the Grammys.”

Sexy Marini plays “a choreographer who is very hard-headed” — who comes down with a life-threatening illness — on the season finale episode of the USA Network’s “Royal Pains” Feb. 24.  “Are they going to be able to save him?

Eh!  We’ll see,” says Marini.  He reports he’s going to have a big viewing party at home for the event.  “I think I’m going to invite Cheryl Burke and all my ‘Dancing With the Stars’ friends to come and check out my dancing on the show.   We are working on the tango for her wedding when my character gets extremely ill.”

Coincidentally, Marini was already friendly with “Royal Pains” lead Mark Feuerstein before his casting.  They shop at the same market in Studio City, he says, and “I see him there all the time.  I think he met my wife before I met him, talking about food.  I think we were by the tamales,” he jokes.  “He’s a very nice man.  It was a great group of people, doing this show.”

The “Royal Pains” guesting is Marini’s second such busman’s holiday this season.  He also played a magician involved in a murder case on “Castle” recently. “I had a month off ‘Brothers and Sisters,’ and as soon as a couple of producers heard that was the case, I got to do these other TV shows — two very good TV shows.  ‘Castle’ was such an event for me — from the wardrobe to the character, it was completely different from ‘Brothers and Sisters.’”

Barbra Streisand Universal photo

HITTING THE HIGH NOTES:  Besides “Glee’s” Lea Michelle getting to meet and interact with her idol, Barbra Streisand, behind the scenes at last Sunday’s Grammy show (wouldn’tcha love to see Streisand as Lea’s grandmother?  Wouldn’t it be the all-time cameo?) Streisand was in another little piece of show biz history.   While the audience showed its love with a standing ovation for Streisand’s performance of “Evergreen,” there was a love story in the orchestra behind her.   The conductor for this rendition of the song she had written for “A Star Is Born” and for which she won the Oscar as composer (the first female composer ever to win an Oscar in one of the musical categories) was the noted Ian Freebairn-Smith, who had conducted her recording of her song for the film and the eventual album three and a half decades before.   First violinist for the Grammy performance of the song was Sharon Freebairn-Smith who had filled the same position for the original recording session when she and Ian were first in love.  For Sunday night’s Emmy rendition of the song, their daughter, Vanessa, was a cellist.

MYTH AS GOOD AS A MILE?:  David E. Kelley’s much-talked-about “Wonder Woman” TV series reboot still needs its Wonder Woman/Diana Prince as this is being written, as well as her coworker and confidante, Mindy Mayer, and the acting CEO of Diana Prince’s company, Henry Demeter.  This version has the Amazonian super heroine as a corporate executive who keeps her crime-fighting persona secret.

OUT OF THIS WORLD:  While Stephen King fans are absorbed in the hot speculation over Ron Howard’s plans to adapt the novelist’s Dark Tower series for film AND television, Howard and co. are moving forward with casting for the first “Dark Tower” movie.  A potentially career-making role for an under-11-year-old boy is that of Jake Chambers, described as “the only child of an upper middle class Manhattan family who has visions of another world and is convinced he has something of cosmic importance to do” — while his family believes he’s mentally unhinged.  The flick is due to commence production in September in New York, with a 2013 release date already slated.

Still to be determined, of course, is who will fill the “Dark Tower” lead that will last through the feature and following mini-series.  Howard recently addressed internet reports that Javier Bardem and Viggo Mortensen are prospects, noting that getting such a long commitment from such big names would be complicated to say the least.