Beck/Smith Hollywood

Cristina Ferrare admits she never expected to wind up on the “Home and Family Show” — 15 years after winding up “The Home and Family Show.”

“I was surprised when Woody asked me to come back,” she tells us, referring to Executive Producer Woody Fraser. But the supermodel cum actress and TV host didn’t hesitate. “I thought, ‘OK, I’m coming!’”

The Hallmark Channel’s revamped new millennium version of the popular 1990s daytime domestic lifestyle program began last year with Mark Steines of “ET” fame and Paige Davis, who became a viewer favorite back on TLC’s “Trading Spaces.” Ferrare admits she felt somewhat uneasy about stepping into Davis’ place when Davis left the L.A.-based “Home and Family” amid reports she was uncomfortable with the interviewing aspect of the show and wanted to return to her own home and family in New York.

“I was a little nervous because of the circumstances coming in,” Ferrare recalls. “I wanted to be respectful of everybody. I had a lot of familiar faces here. I did what I knew Woody would want me to do, and I had respect for myself. And it took literally, well, after the first day it was like smooth sailing then because everybody was so welcoming and lovely.”

Still, adjusting to the pace of the show took some getting used to. “It was rough in the beginning. After the first week, I said to my husband, ‘Oh my God, what did I get into?’ But it’s like riding a bike; you get back on, and it’s very natural.”

Ahthough Ferrare — whose long list of credits includes four years on “AM Los Angeles,” her gig as one of Oprah’s resident foodies, and an OWN TV show of her own — felt right at home on “Home and Family,” certainly some things are vastly changed since the last time around.

“Of course, 15 years ago we didn’t have cell phones and the internet. And we do things differently, including raising our families,” she says. “You know, when I was raising mine, even though I was a working mom, things were different. Raising families now is harder, I think. If I had teenagers today, I would not have taken this job because even when I had my own kids, I didn’t take as much work when they were teenagers. To me, the teen years are the most difficult time. I have seven children and four grandkids, and I’m of the mindset that if women had teenagers instead of babies, nobody would have children.”

She laughs, that best-girlfriend-sharing-a-dishy-secret kind of laugh familiar to her legions of fans.

Four grandchildren? That’s hard to imagine for those of us who remember Ferrare marrying entertainment executive Tony Thomopoulous in the mid-1980s, after her 12-year marriage to notorious auto executive John DeLorian crumbled.

“Yes, I have a 16 year old, a 13 year old a 10 year old and a seven year old,” she lets us know. Her three grandchildren who live in Texas will come for a visit in summer, “and I’ll bring them every day to work with me, like I did with my own children. I had the luxury of having them with me. They were raised on the ‘Home and Family’ set, coming every single day.” Her granddaughter who lives nearby is also a frequent visitor to the set — which is in a house complete with a backyard and garden, planted squarely in the middle of the Universal Studios lot in Hollywood.

“I love working here. A lot of production is going on, and a lot of history is here,” she points out. “We have the tour tram going by every five minutes. Sometimes we have the audience from the tram come to see the open of the show or some musical act. I come in in the morning, and my younger daughter works on the set with me. We go for walks to Wisteria Lane, where they did ‘Desperate Housewives,’ or up to the old ‘Psycho’ house or Whoville. Walking around the lot early in the morning is just magical, and so much fun.”

As for the show itself, Ferrare says, “It’s just wonderful. It’s important to us that we have a takeaway every day — something the audience can take away and learn from and apply to their own lives. I love that aspect.” Her forte is cooking, of course, and she definitely has a bent toward decorating, while Steines shines doing DIY projects, tech talk and his specialty, photography. She says that she and Steines are involved in every aspect of the show and treat the house as if it really is their own.

There are fans of the old show who have stuck around all this time, according to Ferrare. “Yes, all these years there was always a ‘Home and Family’ fan base. When it came back on the air, all these women were so happy, a whole group of women.”

Ferrare says she felt “It’s just wonderful. It’s important to us that we have a takeaway every day when the audiences leaves the show — something that they can take away and learn from and apply to their own lives. I love that aspect.” Her forte is cooking, of course, and she definitely has a bent toward decorating, while Steines shines doing DIY projects, tech talk and his specialty, photography.

She’s aware that her longevity is unusual in an industry that often chews up and spits out personalities. “But I think people do it for the wrong reasons — they either want the money or the fame. I do it because I love doing it. It’s coming to work every morning. I just love it. And going home at the end of the day, being with people I know appreciate me and who I love — that’s my reward. I have a great husband who has been very sweet and loving through this whole thing. Patient. I have great kids. I feel very blessed. This is a great time in my life right now, to have my kids grown up and to have all the blessings in my life. This is just frosting on the cake. I’m going to enjoy it as long as it lasts, and I’m not going to ask any questions.”

Chad Michael Collins reports it’ll be an April or May production start in Colombia for the sequel to his hit “Sniper: Reloaded” with Billy Zane. “Billy is directing this one,” he adds. “We’ll be out in the South American jungles, going after bad guys.”

Collins has just seen the DVD/BluRay video release of the latest in his popular “Company of Heroes” franchise for Sony. The WWII movie also stars Tom Sizemore, Vinnie Jones, Jurgen Prochnow and Neal McDonaugh. “There are plans for at least another two, and I’m really excited about it. It’s a great thing to have as an actor,” he notes.

That’s in spite of the grueling demands of the productions. It was a very physical shoot, it really gave you a sense of what these soldiers did for months and years at a time before the day of waterproof gear and Gortex — stuff that keeps you warm and protected. We were up in the mountains for the first eight days in two and a half feet of snow. It was below freezing every single day, and the boots weren’t waterproof. It’s basically like you were wearing cotton towels, and once they got wet in that first hour, you were basically stuck with it for the next 14. Luckily, there was no gangrene, no hypothermia though a couple of us came close,” he says with a smile. “We made it out alive.”

Askedwhether he was concerned about working with Tom Sizemore, given the other actor’s troubled past of arrests, rehabs, etc., Collins told us he made a point of keeping an open mind, and found Sizemore to be “just great. It was me and Tom – we worked together every day. I love learning things from theseveteran actors.”

With History’s new “Vikings”series freshly launched, Jessalyn Gilsig says she’d love to go back to her medieval Norsewoman garb – and do a Season 2. That’s because, she says, her troubled Viking queen character Siggy, “would rise again, and that would be a fantastic story opportunity to play.”

Certainly the series, which stars Travis Fimmel as the legendary Viking leader Ragnar Lothbrok, depicts the murderous raiders of the North in all their bloody ingloriousness as a male-dominated society. However, to the surprise of many, “shield maidens” — women in battle – are not just a conceit for the drama, but a standardpart of Viking lore. Gilsig notes, “The role of women in Viking society showed in that there is evidence that they participated in battle and were trained in sword fighting, that they could rule, that they had rights, that they could literally divorce their husbands.”

The actress, who rose to fame with“Boston Public,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Glee,” notes that yes, the Viking women are “reallyfascinating, but I think women have always been interesting. It’s just that the telling of telling ofhistory is different – it’s only been comparatively recently that we’ve shown an interest in them.”

Playingthe wife of Gabriel Byrne’s Viking chieftain character in the nine-hour, $40 million production, Gilsig got used to wearing clothing “with not a lot of structure, a little bit primitive…I wish everyone could see these clothes close up, the handwork, the detail,” she adds. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Without exception, every article of clothing had a reason.”

Shooting took place mostly in Ireland, mostly in authentically dirty and cold environments, and Gilsig acknowledges that it took a while to “get the grime off” once production wrapped. But she felt it was worth the discomfort. “We’re all very proud of it. I just hope we get an audience.”

            The March 3-debuting “All Star Celebrity Apprentice” is bigger and tougher and faster than other “Celebrity Apprentice” seasons.  At least, that’s the idea one gets from talking to Marilu Henner, who is among the contestants who’ve returned to tackle the NBC reality show a second time, along with names including Gary Busey, Dee Snider, Trade Adkins, LaToya Jackson, Penn Gillette, Lil Jon, Stephen Baldwin and past winner Bret Michaels.

            “The tasks were more challenging.  Also, because people had played the game before, they knew what to expect, so you didn’t have people breaking down as much as you saw them really putting their best efforts forward, and everybody got to play to their skill set,” says the actress, author and memory maven.   “The first time I played I enjoyed myself and this time I enjoyed myself even more.  Really, you learn your personal best.  I  came back from this experience on fire.  Like, ‘I’m the project manager of my life and I’m going to whip this into shape and that into shape!’”  She laughs, and adds, “Trump is a character and he’s a lot of fun to play the game with himself.  He’s very: ‘I love the smell of business in the morning.’  You sort of pick that up from him.”

            Marilu is also on fire with her drive to help people get the most out of their memories.  Famous for her eidetic memory that gives her extraordinary powers of recall, she has translated her best-selling “Total Memory Makeover” book into a calendar format with tips to enhance our autobiographical memories day by day.  The paperback edition of “Total Memory Makeover” comes out in June.  A side benefit of Marilu’s program is going through each day with more acute awareness and more of a sense of being present in the moment. 

In May, she’ll go back into production work on CBS’ “Unforgettable.”  You may recall that Poppy Montgomery-Dyaln Walsh series was canceled — then un-canceled — by the network and is now slated to return in summer with 13 new episodes.  To refresh your memory:  Montgomery’s character is a detective who has an eidetic memory like Marilu’s, and Marilu is a tech advisor, part of the creative team, and has been established in the character of Montgomery’s aunt.  Ironically, the aunt has early-onset Alzheimer’s.   

Will she make more appearances this coming season?

“Probably.  I think that’s going to happen,” answers Marilu. 

Also, viewers can expect to see Montgomery going through the process of clinically testing her memory, as Marilu did.  “You’ll see some of that in action.  You’ll see the person who was kind of her mentor in this the way.” 

The character is based on Marilu’s own memory mentor, neuroscientist and Fello, Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California at Irvine.  “The first time I was tested I had to answer over 500 questions.  I went through every memory test ever devised.  There were tests for HSAM, highly superior autobiographical memory — they have kind of this gold standard test that’s 60 questions.  And then they put things from my own life, because they were able to look up a lot of information about me,” recalls the actress who rose to fame on “Taxi.”

Marilu had fun going through some tests set up for her on Anderson Cooper’s show that airs tomorrow (Feb. 22).  Her commitment to memory improvement stems from her belief that “if all we’re doing is living our lives where we wake up, go through our day, turn off the light and go to sleep – wake up, go through our day, turn off the light and go to sleep — nothing has moved forward with us. No experience has had any meaning for us.  I feel like developing a strong autobiographical memory is the strongest line against meaninglessness that we can have.  Because then we can take the information every single day, bring it to our present and then let it inform our future, and that makes a huge difference.”

It’s something worth remembering.

Jennifer Lawrence is a live wire.  The “Silver Linings Playbook” Oscar winner livened things up back in the press room Sunday night after winning her award as Best Actress.   As those who watched the 85^th Academy Awards show know, Lawrence tripped and fell on her way up the steps to retrieve her statuette.  A reporter with a thick accent asked her what happened and if she meant to do that.

“Was it on purpose?  Absolutely,” scoffed the 22-year-old, stunning in a strapless ice pink Dior gown that featured a lavish, patterned skirt.  “What do you mean, what happened?  Look at my dress.  I stepped on the fabric, they just waxed the floor.”

Then she was asked, “What was going through your mind?”

“A bad word I can’t say,” responded feisty Lawrence, to laughter, “that starts with F.”

A reporter asked her feelings on becoming so successful at such a young age, and whether it’s a good thing to get honored so early in her career.  “I guess so, yeah.  Who knows?  I guess we’ll see.” Then the reporter persisted:  was she fearful of peaking too soon?

“Well, now I am,” she answered.

Looking over the crowd of media from around the world seated at tables before her, holding aloft their numbers in hopes of being called upon to ask their question, Lawrence noted, “It’s like an auction, right?… I feel like I’m picking people to make fun of me.”

In the middle of describing her day, as chaotic and nerve-wracked as Steve Martin in “Father of the Bride,” she stopped herself and apologized.  “Sorry.  I took a shot before I came out here.”

But it wasn’t all joking around.  Lawrence took the opportunity to talk about mental ailments, now that “Silver Linings Playbook” is helping to bring public attention and understanding to them.  “I don’t think we’re going to stop until we get rid of the stigma of mental illness. I know David won’t,” she said, referring to “Silver Linings Playbook” filmmaker David O. Russell, whose son has bipolar illness.  She pointed out that taking medicine for asthma and other ailments is something people take for granted, “but as soon as you take medicine for your mind, there’s such a stigma about it.” 

Lawrence’s backstage banter accounted for some of the more entertaining moments in an Oscar night that was uneven in the extreme, both on camera and off. 

The split personality of the evening – part traditional Oscar show, part frat boy joke fest – didn’t work.  It was like one of those zany Food Network fusion challenges, where chefs are asked to make a dish out of peppermint and chives or some such weird duo.  From the opening number on, host Seth MacFarlane ping-ponged between good and bad, the worst being his “joke” about John Wilkes Booth being the actor who really got into Lincoln’s head.  The feeling extended into the press area, too, where David Arquette had a seat as a Howard Stern Show plant (remember when Arquette had a career himself?) and disingenuous questions mingled with real ones.  Like beginning Best Actor winner, Daniel Day-Lewis’ interview with a question about how it was to wear that beard in “Lincoln,” was it uncomfortable?

Day-Lewis answered questions cordially.  (The beard was his own, of course.)  

Day-Lewis, who holds passports from both Ireland and the U.K., was asked within which style he’d celebrate.  “I’d be happy with either one.  I guess because I’m here, I’ll celebrate L.A. style.”  What a great finish to a role that began with the “paralyzing” prospect of getting Lincoln wrong and then never being able to show his face in America again – Day-Lewis making history as the only three-time Best Actor Oscar winner in history.

Anne Hathaway almost started to cry in the press room when she talked about her dream coming true – then was asked about the cynical responses she’s had for being open with her emotions.  Does that get to her?

“It does get to me,” she admitted.  “But you have to remember in life that there’s a positive to every negative and a negative to every positive…The universe is said to be 51 per cent matter and 49 per cent antimatter, so things tip in the scale of the possible.”  She added, “I live my life with love.  I live my life with compassion, hoping for the best for everyone, no matter how they feel about me.”

She also spoke of her “Les Miserables” leading man, Hugh Jackman, as uncynical.

“Tom Hooper, my director, has gone on record as saying without [Hugh] this film could not exist.  He has strength and soul, and artistry and fun.  We do live in a world that can tend toward the cynical. This film — it’s inherent to the film’s success that we believe in the goodness of this character.  Hugh has that.  People believed in him, and it made the film soar.”  Playing the unfortunate soul Fantine, she said, had made her “connect with the darkness of life; and more to the point, to the unnecessary suffering human beings inflict on each other all over the world.  It made me more aware.”

Hathaway glowed when asked about her husband, actor and jewelry designer Adam Shulman.  “He just made everything better and clearer and more real.  And that’s all I’m going to say.” 

At more than three and a half hours, this year’s Oscar show didn’t come close to producers Neil Meron’s and Craig Zadan’s pronouncement that they would “really try” to bring it in on time.  Nor did we see any evidence of their scientific-sounding scheme to take out wasted moments in order to have more time for entertainment.  What we did see was a lot of “Chicago” – a film from a decade ago that was showcased mainly because it was produced by Zadan and Meron.  And the “Dreamgirls” section of their 11-minute tribute to musicals showcased Jennifer Hudson, who has been appearing on “Smash,” which is produced by Zadan and Meron.  How long would the show have run without the Zadan and Meron material, one wonders.  Isn’t the idea to celebrate films of this year?

What a disappointment.

Interesting, Shirley MacLaine’s response to daughter Sachi Parker’s scathing tell-all book. The septuagenarian actress released a statement that she was heartbroken over the tome, blasting thatLucky Me: My Life With – and Without – My Mom, Shirley MacLaine as “virtually all fiction. I’m sorry to see such a dishonest, opportunistic effort from my daughter.”

Well, this column can substantiate some of Parker’s claims from someone who clearly would know: Shirley MacLaine herself, in a number of jaw-dropping interviews of the past with Marilyn Beck. For instance, in 1983 she volunteered that she had let Sachi make all her own decisions, including where she wanted to live, from the time she was two years old. Marilyn, astonished, asked her “How can a two-year-old say ‘This is right for me?’”

“But you see,” answered MacLaine, “she knows that she’s not just a two-year-old. She knows that she’s a very old soul who also chose me for a mother and I chose her for adaughter and because we come together on the spiritual issues, she is very mature and taken responsibility for everything.” MacLaine said she and Sachi were mother and daughter in another life, too, except that then, Sachi was the mother.

Thus, it was Sachi’s fault – er, choice that she spent most of her childhood away from MacLaine, living with her father, producer Steve Parker, in Japan or in European boarding schools. At least, it was according to MacLaine.

Well known for her belief in reincarnation and a wide range of what were once called “New Age” views, MacLaine herself began her “journey of self exploration” when “I was two and commenced what I refer to as reflective therapy – wandering away by myself to think my private thoughts, to wonder who I was,” she said.

“Who says a wife is better, or a mother more loving and valuable, just because she’s under foot all the time?” asked the actress in a 1967 chat, justifying her very long-distance relationship from her daughter and then-husband.

In 1971, the star explained to Marilyn that a parents’job was to bring a child into the world, and then life was up to them. In essence, her obligation to Sachi was overonce she had given birth.

“I wish she had been a bit more of a mommie,” Sachi told People magazine, acknowledging that her mother wasn’t one. She also expressed her view that MacLaine wasprobably too young to be a mother and that the “very seductive” life of a majorHollywood star had much to do with her failings as a parent.

Actually, it’s not hard to make the case that Parker goes light on her mother’s complete self-centeredness and self-absorption.

In 1977, after finishing filming on “The Turning Point,”MacLaine talked about her degree of self love: “I think my level of self esteem borders on arrogance – not that I don’t lack self-confidence in some areas.”

Like what?

“Like feeling inferior because I don’t speak five languages. Shit like that.”

There is irony is MacLaine’s upset over Lucky Me – since her own tell-all books of the past have produced dismay in others. Brother Warren Beatty let it be known that such was the case after MacLaine’s hugely popular Out on a Limbwas published. And, in a scathing Esquire interview, her “Terms of Endearment” on screen daughter, Debra Winger, characterized MacLaine as a self-absorbed egotist who gave herself repeated birthday parties and who couldn’t be quiet about her love affairs.

“I don’t really want to get into that…reaction to that. Because so much of it is her problem,” she told Marilyn at the time. “I also have to say that Debra Winger or whoever else talks about me or does whatever they do in my life, in my play as a separate reality, has to deal with the karmic reaction to what they cause. You see, what she puts out, she will get back. And what I put out, I’ll get back.”

Exactly.