Beck/Smith Hollywood

Talk about raising interest in your Oscar hosting gig! Seth MacFarlane certainly did just that with his nominations announcement performance last week, didn’t he? In case anyone missed it, MacFarlane issued such gems as a Hitler joke tied in to the Austria-Germany collaboration, “Amour” and a comment that directors sit and watch other people make movies. And he earned a fierce collection of responses. For instance, an Entertainment Weekly headline asked “Seth MacFarlane, Oscar nomination presenter: Smug and condescending?” while Slate observed that he “managed to botch his Oscar-hosting gig in record time.”

Even as that was happening, ABC chieftain Paul Lee was explaining to press as the Television Critics Association conclave in Pasadena why he is “really bullish”about MacFarlane’s upcoming Oscar emcee stint.

“I am a huge Seth fan. I think what Seth brings — first of all, is a sense of joy,” he declared. MacFarlane, who is himself nominated for Best Song honors for“Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from “Ted,”really “wants to be there,” he went on. One would hope!

“And he also has this fantastic combination of — he’s one of the funniest writers in the world, but if you watch ‘Family Guy,’ I mean, who would have expected, you know, ‘Family Guy’ would be the heart of show and dance and variety? He loves the show, and I think he’s going to bring a lot of that energy to it. He’s coming to the Oscars, you know, with a great sense of respect, but I think he’s going to bring us a really contemporary feel.

“Look, you don’t know. You don’t know until he comes out there, but I’m sensing he’s going to have a lot of fun out there, and I think, with the movies that are there, I think — I’m sensing that we are going to have a good Oscars. I may be proven wrong, but I’m feeling good about it and particularly good about him.”

That remains to be seen, but Oscar winners (“Chicago”) and musical producers extraordinaire Neil Meron and Craig Zadan are certainly a dream team, particularly in a year when “Les Miserables” is in the mix. As Lee acknowledged, “They love show and tell. They love variety. And so I think you are going to see a very entertaining Oscars. I think Seth is going to be right at the heart of that.”

ALSO: Lee talked about the future of “Dancing With the Stars” and the fact that the recent all-stars season was a ratings disappointment. “It turns out people want to see bad dancing as much as good dancing,” he said, adding that the show will be cast in its regular way next time around. He does still expect to air “DWTS” twice a year. It’s still a big, broad crowd pleaser, he noted. “Sixteen million viewers. That’s still a lot of viewers.” He believes that with the right casting, younger viewers can be enticed back to the show. Seth MacFarlane, maybe?

SORRY TO SAY GOODBYE: The death of beloved California TV personality Huell Howser at age 67 last week has truly saddened a lot of folks around these parts, who’ll miss the perpetual unbridled enthusiasm he brought to his California travelogue shows. Among them, no doubt: Barbra Streisand and James Brolin. Brolin admitted to us a few years ago that he and his wife just loved to settle down and watch Huell doing his thing, taking viewers on excursions from Death Valley to Eureka, meeting assorted colorful sorts along the way. And Brolin had developed a spot-on perfect impression of the Tennessee-born Huell, which he demonstrated for us: “You have a tree here, and another tree there! Why, you’ve almost got a forest!!” Howser is being memorialized today (1/15) at L.A.’s Griffith Park Observatory.

Life has been, well, racing along for “Dancing With the Stars” pro Chelsie Hightower and her celebrity partner, three time Indy 500 Champion Helio Castroneves.  The duo not only prepped for this week’s debut shows with four and five-hour rehearsals over the past several weeks — they did their dancing betwixt and between Helio’s races.

“We were in Florida for a week, got back and then went to Fontana (CA) for the very last race of the season,” she reports.  That gave Hightower the chance to see Helio’s Indy Car world — and shoot some lively B-roll with the camera team that followed them around, in addition to practicing.

“Everybody’s going to be pushing the boundaries.  I think everybdoy wants to come out and see something they haven’t seen before,” notes the 23-year-old Latin ballroom champ, speaking of the just-launched All Star season in which past winners and near-missers are going head-to-head for the coveted “DWTS” Mirror Ball Trophy.

As far as how she and Helio plan to push those boundaries?  “I want to give them something they haven’t seen from Helio.  But I can’t give away my secrets,” she says with a smile.  She also says that the winner “has to have the overall package, to put on a performance for the whole nation that gets the votes…Helio was on my short list of celebrities I wanted to work with, definitely.  He has such a charismatic personality.  I was super excited to have him.  He obviously wants to show he has the chops, and he also wants to have a great time while we’re doing it.”

With six “DWTS” seasons already behind her, the beautiful blond dancer is thinking beyond “DWTS.”  For me at this point, I kind of have to see what is the smartest thing for me to do that will set me up the best for the future.”  Yes, she’s thinking of acting prospects, and has had some interest in that regard.  “The most obvious thing is to build up my brand, so that’s what I’ve been doing with endorsements and promotion.”

The Mark Cuban you see gleefully muscling other people out of deals on “Shark Tank” is not the same guy you’ll see on ABC’s “Trust Us With Your Life” show Tuesday (7/17).  “He’s actually very fun and outgoing and nice,” claims “Trust Us” talent Brad Sherwood.  “I think on their show, his persona is that of the completely hardcore businessman.  He has a totally different persona on our show, telling his stories from his life.  You’ll see on the show — he has a silly side.”

He certainly has a lusting-for-fame side.  Cuban evidently enjoys getting face time on television — don’t forget “Dancing With the Stars” — even though he obviously doesn’t need it.  This is the guy who owns Landmark Theaters and the Dallas Mavericks among many other things.  He’s worth a reported $2.3 billion, for crying out loud.

And now he’s landed on “Trust Us With Your Life.” For those who have yet to sample the ABC summer offering, it has Fred Willard as host and reteams Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie and Sherwood from “Whose Line is it Anyway” as well as other improvisational artists.  They apply their skills to re-enacting stories that celebrities tell about themselves — or at least, they use the real-life situations as a starting point for their wild improvs.

“We’ve all been together so many different times, not only on ‘Whose Line,’ but performing live together, and other stuff.   It’s nice to get the whole gang back on a show with improv, which is what we love to do,” Sherwood says.

Eight segments were shot.  “They’re going to run them, and depending on how they do,” Sherwood says, “they’ll decide if they want to do some more.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gladys Knight is not only in the TV spotlight as a “Dancing With the Stars” contestant — she’s also planning for the launch of her first album in six years, “Another Journey,” next month.  Among the helping hands producing the recording is “American Idol’s” Randy Jackson, who won a Grammy for co-producing her “At Last” album in 2001.

“Yeah, I’m still working with big Dawg Randy,” says the legendary Empress of Soul with a laugh.  “That’s my buddy.  I’m finally coming out with that album.  People kept asking me for it.  I really thought I was through with recording, to tell you the truth.”

She says she’s been amazed to hear Gladys Knight and the Pips songs being sung by contestants on “Idol.”  “It does my heart good to know I did something that’s lasted all these years, and that they feel the music we did is worthy enough to choose to perform at such an important moment in their lives.  That’s how I feel about it: ‘This is your time to shine, and you chose my song.’”

Now is her time to shine as a dancer.  Asked for a progress report on her training, she says, “I’m doing pretty good.  I’m kind of shocking myself, because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do this.  I think a lot of it is due to my partner, Tristan (McManus), and how he teaches and how patient he is.”

Is Gladys a natural dancer?  “Noooo.”  She laughs. “You would think so, honey, with all them Pips dancing around me all the time, but they never let me dance, you know?  I used to want to learn the routines of the Pips and in the beginning I did.  Then Pops said, ‘Ok, look.  This is how it is, Baby.  You’re a lady.  So you’ll strut and the Pips will dance.’  And that’s how they set it up.”

The 67-year-old grandmother of 17 has been keeping up her concert tour schedule, training with McManus while on the road.  She is in the midst of a two-week break as we speak, expecting to get back out for gigs in Canada and Mississippi after tonight’s and tomorrow night’s shows.  “Is that crazy or what?  But when I perform, our engagements are set months in advance and there were things I just couldn’t cancel,” she explains.

Where does all her energy come from?  “Well, I try to eat right, and, you know, exercise is always good for you.  I had fallen off the wagon, so to speak, in terms of exercise, but dancing gives me my cardio.  It’s working out pretty good.”

            “Dancing With the Stars” pro Tony Dovolani has had a wide variety of celebrity partners through the past 13 seasons of the ABC show, returning Monday (3/19) but never one he’s felt more in common with than Martina Navratilova.

“We completely relate on every level,” Tony declares.  “We’re both living the American Dream.  After coming here from other countries, we both love the American way.  We’ve both competed for the U.S. in international competitions.”

Dovolani came here from his native Kosovo at age 15, and is certainly at home here.  “Put it this way.  My kids are totally American,” he says.  His many achievements outside “DWTS” include 2005 and 2006 World Rhythm Championships.  Of course, 59-time Grand Slam title winner Navratilova also came here as a teen; she famously asked the U.S. for political asylum at age 18 and was subsequently stripped of her Czechoslovakian citizenship.

Beyond the shared Eastern European roots and elite competitions, Dovolani deeply admirers Navratilova on a personal level.  Asked how she compares to past partners such as Chynna Phillips, Wendy Williams, Jane Seymour, Kate Gosselin and Melissa Rycroft, he points out, “None of the others have gone through what she’s gone through.  She has a different soul, a different way,” he adds of Navratilova, who is also a breast cancer survivor.  “It’s not just that she’s a gay activist, but she came out at a young age at a time very few people came out, and she said, ‘Accept me for me.’”

As the Health and Fitness Ambassador for AARP since 2007, again Navratilova is challenging social barriers.  In fact, she’s made it clear that one of the reasons she is taking on “DWTS” is her hope to inspire other 50+ people to get out of their comfort zones and try new things, in addition to staying in shape.  They’ve been practicing four or five hours a day, he says, working to overcome the fact she’s not a natural when it comes to dance.

“I asked for an athlete because I wanted to see what it was like to work with one of these champions,” he says, “and I couldn’t be happier than to have gotten Martina.”

Nicollette Sheridan as Edie Britt

There was a time when Nicollette Sheridan’s court battle against “Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry and ABC would have meant career suicide.  The blond bombshell has branded herself as a troublemaker.  She’s shown an edgy, prickly side on the witness stand.  She’s invited scrutiny from the public and the media — the kind of scrutiny that involves repeated references to her 48 years of age and to her career having faded before being revitalized in 2004 by her “Desperate Housewives” role of Edie Britt.

Yes, there was a time we would have expected her to be expelled by the industry over this fight — relegated to the dinner theater circuit like Suzanne Somers when she fell from network grace after tiffing with “Three’s Company” over her demand for a 500 per cent pay raise and a piece of the show decades ago.  There would be no win for Sheridan’s career, whether or not she wins some or all of the $20 million she’s aiming to get following her claims of assault against Cherry and subsequent wrongful termination.  (Cherry’s jovial quips eliciting laughter from the jury this week — not a good sign.)

However, this is 2012, when good things happen to bad boys and girls.  Charlie Sheen’s wanton carryings on, his beating up of women, his drug use, his arrests, his widely-booed Violent Torpedo of Truth stage show and all his internet strangeness got him a much-anticipated new FX TV series, “Anger Management.”  Recent morgue worker Lindsay Lohan’s “Saturday Night Live” guest-hosting stint last weekend garnered the show its second highest ratings of the season.  Also in the news is “Jersey Shore” low-life Snooki, famous for stumbling around intoxicated in public and so forth; as reports of her pregnancy swirl through the media, she sports a half-million-dollar engagement ring.

Nicollette, in fact, might not be bad enough.  She’s going to need to step up her game and do more than show exasperation.  She did slap her attorney, but only as a demonstration of what she says Cherry did to her.  Maybe she should slap him for real, and get rid of those sedate dark courtroom clothes.  Show cleavage.  Show disrespect.  Show up drunk.  Have a wardrobe malfunction on the courthouse  steps.  Take a tip from Lindsay, who cleverly painted “f— you” on one of her fingernails knowing the cameras followed her every move as a defendant.  It might not be too late for a “Mark Cherry Sucks” tattoo in an eye-catching spot, for example.

If Nicollette and/or her handlers are clever enough to use all this attention to burnish her brand as a still-hot-looking diva cougar, maybe it could actually help her career.  Maybe there will be a new show in it for her.  At the very least, surely Donald Trump would save a seat for her in his “Celebrity Apprentice” board room.

Melissa Gilbert

Former child star Melissa Gilbert credits her back surgeon for the fact she’s become one of this coming season’s contestants on “Dancing With the Stars” — and not just because he healed her broken back.  “It actually started with him, because my final day [of post-operative appointments] was the day that Jennifer Grey won.  He’s her surgeon too,” recounts the amiable actress.  “He started saying, ‘Now YOU need to do it.’  I said, ‘I’m glad you think my back is healed enough so that I can do that.  If I injure myself, though, you have to operate for free,’ and he laughed.”

You can count on the show highlighting her story of conquering tough physical challenges.  As you may recall, Melissa toured the country through much of 2008 and 2009, playing Ma Ingalls in the popular stage musical version of Little House on the Prairie.  For months, she was in extreme discomfort, but somehow, she finished the tour.  When she returned home and went to the doctor, “I found I had broken my back.  I knew the disc was herniated.  I didn’t know the back was actually broken.  If I had, I’m sure the

doctors would have said ‘Don’t go.’

“After the surgery, it was a really long recovery, and I didn’t get cleared to work really until February of 2011.”  Gilbert, who has written about her past battles with alcholism, enlisted the help of Dr. Drew Pinsky to guide her as she dealt with her intense post-surgery pain, due to her concern she might become addicted to opiates.  She would take her Dilauded, Percocet and muscle relaxers, and then take two days away from the pills “and just tough it out.”

By summer, she was pain-free.  And, “There’s nothing I can’t do.  I can do Pilates.  I can run.  I can jump.  I can do yoga.  I can do whatever I am asked to do.”  Including “Dancing With the Stars”!

There’ve been rumors — and tabloid stories — of her taking on the show before.  Last year also saw the breakup of her 16-year marriage to Bruce Boxleitner, and “The National Enquirer wrote some ridiculous story about me healing my heart by doing ‘Dancing With the Stars.’   They had me studying tape of other stars who had done it — which was funny, because at the time I was shooting my movie at the time,” she says, referring to last December’s Hallmark Channel movie, “The Christmas Pageant.”

As for why she’s taking on the show, Melissa tells us: “It’s just because it seems like a real challenge for me.  And you know me — if something scares me, I’m gonna do it, and this kind of scares me because I’m now part titanium.”

IF YOU ASK US:  It’s been a tough year for Oscar.  This year’s show was book-ended by the Los Angeles Times expose that delineated the Academy membership as 94 per cent white, 77 per cent male, and with a median age of 62 — and the New York Times piece that laid out a variety of indicators showing that the Oscar show’s glory days are over.  (And the ultra hard-campaigning Harvey Weinstein’s relatively little-seen films winding up at the forefront of the Oscars again and again hasn’t helped ratings.)   Scathing reviews such as the Hollywood Reporter’s “Oscars Become Badly Paced Bore-Fest” had to have hurt — and a little extra salt in the wound came in Forbes’ report that Best Original Screenplay winner Woody Allen not only wasn’t present, he watched the NBA All Star Game instead.  Of course, with Woody, nobody was surprised.

The rest of America — businesses and individuals alike — has had to get used to once-unthinkable cutbacks, shakeups and forced reinvention to survive in these tough times.  Now it’s the Academy’s turn.   Most obviously, it’s time to take the craft awards out of the primetime Oscar show — and to make a concerted effort to diversify membership.  Take all the negativity surrounding the 84th Oscars and use the energy for positive, deep and meaningful change, not just a few more young faces on the show.  It can work!  After all, America, like Hollywood, loves a good comeback story.

Barbara Bain

HELLO, AGAIN:  Esteemed veteran actress Barbara Bain is enjoying her turn in Claire Chaffee’s comedy, Why We Have a Body as directed by cast mate Tanna Frederick.  “It’s an extraordinarily heightened approach, a bit like a cartoon — fanciful.  It makes me think of Terry Gilliam’s films,” says the actress, who rose to fame as the sexy and soignee spy Cinnamon Carter in the original “Mission: Impossible.”  She adds, “It’s hard to believe this is Tanna’s first directing job.  My reaction was kind of, ‘Wow, look at what she’s done with this material.’  I was very impressed.”  That’s saying a lot, particularly since Bain has been spending much of her time in recent years directing plays as well as acting in them.

Bain is playing the globe-trotting, not-so-wonderful mother of two grownup daughters who are going through turbulent times in Why We Have a Body,  which is running at Santa Monica’s Edgemar Center for the Arts through April 8.  One daughter’s a career criminal, the other is married, but having a lesbian affair.

Meanwhile, she’s also in the indie film “Nothing Special” with Karen Black, about a woman trying to have a normal life while dealing with bipolar illness.  The film’s awaiting a distributor.  And she has a series of six one-act plays at the Beverly Hills Playhouse ahead on her agenda.

Paul Blackthorne ABC photo

ABC’s promising “The River” chiller, from the creators of “Paranormal Activity,” features handsome and charismatic British actor Paul Blackthorne.  Ironically, Blackthorne confesses, “I absolutely can’t bear the idea of watching anything scary.  I used to get nightmares from ‘Dr. Who’ — hiding behind the couch watching that,” he says, possibly not 100 per cent serious. 

He plays the crafty reality TV producer who volunteers to take a missing adventurer’s (Bruce Greenwood) family on a search into the Amazon jungle to find him — if he can document the whole thing for a show. 

Blackthorne says he had some fun with his part when they shot the first season (the show premieres Feb. 7) in Hawaii.  “Playing a reality show producer who has a mission besides their search, he’s obviously trying to create a lot of conflict and drama for their show.  But the game changes when things start to go bump in the night.” 

Filming found them “digging holes in the ground in the middle of
the night” and such, but Blackthorne says he loved it.  “In the paranormal world, all sorts of strange things can happen, can’t they?” he notes archly. 

“They’ve come up with all sorts of amazing twists and turns already.”

MEANWHILE:  Speaking of reality, Blackthorne is currently editing a documentary of his own, “American Crossroads.”  He and an Australian buddy (Mister Basquaili, a famed Australian photographer) road tripped across theU.S.A.right after the 2008 economic collapse, talking to everyday folks from farmers to preachers, cowboys to folk singers about the state ofAmerica.  What did they find out there?  “The optimism and basic hope people do have, in spite of the country’s state at the moment,” he replies. “People have that in common regardless of background.”  Nice to know.