Beck/Smith Hollywood

Luke Perry laughs at a recent magazine article in which his former “Beverly Hills, 90210” cast mate, Jennie Garth, is quoted saying that they’re working up a project to do together.  “You listen to a thing she says?  I have no idea what she’s talking about!” the actor claims in a jocular tone.

“You know what I love about working with Jennie?” he adds.

What’s that?

“I don’t know.  I was hoping you’d know, ‘cause I don’t.”

But seriously – Perry acknowledges that “Jen’s a very good friend.  It’s hard to schedule anything with her, though, because she has a lot going on.  She’s one of these people conquering every medium.  She’s in a movie right now, and I think when she comes back she has some kind of reality thing going.”

Perry is certainly a man on the move himself – with the third installment of his “Goodnight for Justice” Western movies for television coming up Saturday (1/26) on the Hallmark Movie Channel.  “Goodnight for Justice: Queen of Hearts” pits his rough-hewn circuit judge character, John Goodnight, against a female con artist played by “Endgame’s” Katharine Isabelle.  Ricky Schroder also stars in this, the second follow-up to his original “Goodnight for Justice” – the channel’s highest-rated movie ever.

“In the era of this movie, a lot of times women were exploited for the virtues they had to possess.  To have a woman who took full possession of her own virtues and said, ‘No, I’ll be in charge’ – I thought it would be great to play off a character like that,” says Perry, who has retained his heartthrob looks into his forties.

He created the character and has much to do with the story planning and scripts, in addition to serving as executive producer and, apparently, taking on other responsibilities as needed.  Sometimes, he acknowledges, inspiration comes in the form of what’s available to shoot.

“When you make these movies as quickly and inexpensively as we do, you have to sort of reverse-engineer them,” is how he puts it.  “Queen of Hearts” has sequences of classic Old West riverboat gambling, for example.  Says Perry, “We were scouting another location and we saw the boats.  While scouting the boats, we saw this other piece of geography I thought would work really well, and it did.  You see what’s in the fridge and what you can make out of it.”

What he’s made with “Queen of Hearts” is another solid, enjoyable Western with plenty of moments fans will love.

As for whether there will be more “Goodnight For Justice” movies?

“I don’t know,” he says.  “This was our final one of the ones we did back-to-back.  I’ve got ideas for more of them.  I found some really cool stuff up there [in Canada] that we could use.  I’m feeling a lot of love from the channel, but they’re pretty fiscally conservative over there.  They always want to see how something performs before committing to the next thing.”

It sounds as if Perry himself feels fairly committed, however.  A few minutes later, he acknowledges, “I’ve still got all that wardrobe from all those movies here in a box.  I’ve never done that before – never actually kept all the character wardrobe.  Hallmark wasn’t sure they were going to make more, and I said, ‘Well, I’m sure, so I’m keeping the stuff.’ That way, I’ll figure it out.’”

Perry, divorced since 2003, also has other characters, other scripts he’s nurturing along.  “There are different periods of history I’m interested in,” he says.  But he doesn’t even want to get specific about those times and places.  “Then somebody will read it and get to them first.  I’ve had a couple of not-so-good experiences with that.”

He also wouldn’t mind returning to the series world. “If the character works and it’s a good fit, I love to play a character over the course of years,” he says.  But he has no interest in a reality skein of his own. “A camera crew following me around?  No.”

“Goodnight for Justice: Queen of Hearts,” meanwhile, is “the best one of the three,” he wants to stress.  “I think it’s the one where we really hit our stride and we have a lot of movie in there.”  With John Goodnight confounded by a beautiful schemer?

“Listen, let me tell you one of the great truths of my life – I just don’t understand women,” he insists with his familiar twinkle.  “This is a dynamic in my life I just can’t get away from.  I don’t understand, though I’ve had mother sister daughter, wife — every relationship you can have with a woman and I don’t understand them. They make you do crazy things.”

So far, it’s been working out pretty well for him.

Kimberly Elise plans to spend much of her summer traveling around the country, giving talks and leading workshops to help teen girls.

The four-time NAACP Image Award-winning actress of such films as “Beloved” and “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” participated in Florida’s recent “Choices & Consequences: Why Good Girls Like Bad Boys” conference that was arranged in the wake of the slaying of a young St. Petersburg mother whose boyfriend was a drug dealer. Elise gave a moving talk about a negative relationship out of her own past, before she went to college and was so anxious for validation from a man she “became a shadow of myself…I was so addicted to him.”

Now she says that talk was the beginning of what she hopes to do as she launches her Young Women Rising foundation, “to help young women develop their senses of self-worth, self-love and empowerment.  We’ll be doing all kinds of initiatives in the months ahead,” she reports.  A website, youngwomenrising.com, is planned for debut in a matter of weeks.

Elise’s “Hannah’s Law,” debuting tonight (6/9) happens to dovetail nicely with the cause she has taken on.  In the Hallmark Movie Channel original film, she plays the real-life, larger-than-life Old West character Mary Fields, a.k.a. Stagecoach Mary — the ex-slave who became a legendary cross-country mail carrier.  “I had to use my imagination a lot, because there’s not a whole lot out there to research — and there are tall tales about her that might or might not be true,” notes the actress.

She does know that Mary “was very brave, and she got into fights.  She would break at nose at two and be gardening by four.  She had a very soft side, and was very beloved by her town that she lived in.  She was one of the few women who were allowed to go in the saloon.  Not only was she a woman, but she was a black woman, so to be able to go into the saloon with the men was pretty phenomenal.  There is an old picture of her with the town baseball team — all these white guys and Mary.  She just loved the baseball team.”

In the movie, Mary is best friends with the fictional Hannah Beaumont (Sara Canning), a bounty hunter, and the two have each other’s backs through their dangerous adventure.  Danny Glover and Billy Zane also star.  Elise spent weeks learning to drive a stagecoach — for real — and to shoot antique weapons to play her role.  The biggest challenge, she says, was coping with Mary’s multi-layered wardrobe that included bullets and gun belts, as Mary was known for packing a pair of six-shooters and a ten-gauge shotgun.  “I had to be dressed by like, three people — and a whole team would have to come and undress me just so I could use the bathroom,” she admits. Still, “I loved every minute of playing her.  It was an honor.”

Certainly, Stagecoach Mary serves as example of female empowerment.  “I love that aspect,” says Elise, “and I love the relationship between her and Hannah, taking care of each other.  That’s how it works in real life, too.”

MEANWHILE:  Elise is up for American Black Film Festival Grand Jury Prize honors for her work in the Ghanaian film “Ties that Bind,” to be announced June 23.  She’s also awaiting word on “Bounce.”  The latter is a prospective VH 1 dance drama series for which she recently shot a pilot.

“It’s set in the world of professional sports…basketball.  It’s a really interesting piece,” she says.  “Me and Dean Cain and a lot of brilliant young actors are in it.”

First up: she’s giving the commencement address at the Cicely Tyson Academy in New Jersey come June 15.  Elise and the renowned actress she resembles are good friends and “I am so excited and honored that she asked me.”

            Playing a homeless veteran who is fraught with post-traumatic stress syndrome is not what Steven Weber would ever have expected of a Hallmark Movie Channel acting assignment.  However, that’s just the role the “Brothers & Sisters” and “Wings” star wound up with in his April 28 drama “Duke.” 

            “It’s not the standard Hallmark fare.  It was a deeper, darker Hallmark – but still appeals, I think, to their core audience,” Weber says.  Taken from real life, “Duke” is the story of the troubled veteran and his faithful companion of 10 years, a Border Collie named Duke – and the unexpected chain of events set in motion when the dog falls ill.

            “I’d been playing mostly bad guys in suits in recent years, so it was a chance to go deeper,” notes the actor.  “It was a great role full of amazing opportunities, selfishly speaking, to chew the scenery a little bit, and share scenes with an amazing dog.”

            Unfazed by the old axiom that actors should avoid scenes with kids or dogs, Weber found himself working with two canines in the title role.  “Zeek was the dog that played Duke 90 per cent of the time.  He performed beautifully, a true professional,” Weber reports.  “His trainers were invariably running off-screen and prompting him.  It was interesting.  Of course, he is a dog, and you have to be very patient; he didn’t hit the target all the time.  But thankfully there were a few instances when the camera was running and caught some genuine connection between him and I, which was really nice.”

           Weber considers himself “a dog lover, but indirectly.  I have two children, nine and 11, who are beginning to bug my wife and me for a dog.  But the lifestyle – our work has had us going all over the country, and it wouldn’t be fair to leave a dog.”  Right now, the boys are apparently making do with “the frog we bought at the Sharper Image that stays under water for two years” – which sounds like a real dud as a pet, if you ask us.  “No, it’s not,” Weber insists, dead-pan.  “They feed him and he has a nice view and it’s a lovely deal.”

            But he admits his sons are gaining ground in their dog lobbying.  The fact they heard all about “Duke” and Zeek during production — but couldn’t join Weber on location because of school — “is something they’re really using against me.”

Luke Perry Hallmark Channel photo

Luke Perry in a sitcom?  Maybe.  The actor who rose to fame as Dylan McKay on the original “Beverly Hills, 90210″ tells us, “I’m talking to folks about that.  Comedy is really exciting to me.”  And, having guested on several sitcoms, he likes the schedule. “Half-hour comedy shows are like a play, one night a week.”

Perry exudes charisma and charm as his Old West circuit judge character, John Goodnight, in his “Goodnight for Justice: The Measure of a Man” movie that premieres on the Hallmark Movie Channel Jan. 28.  He created the character and serves as executive producer of the followup to his 2011 “Goodnight for Justice” telepic that earned the channel its highest ratings ever.  A third “Goodnight” movie is already in the can, and he’s sketching out plans for more.  “I’m really excited about keeping the door open on this franchise,” he says.

In “Measure of a Man,” the judge reunites with a former flame, and gets involved with her troubled teenage son who has become a gang member — 19th century style.  “I’m not trying to be bigger-better-faster.  I’ve always contended that Westerns don’t have to be all about action if you have interesting stories and characters, like the older pictures I like,” says Perry, a life-long fan of the Western genre.  He’s also a horseman to the marrow, with six horses of his own.

Perry says the “Goodnight” movies have done well abroad, which makes getting foreign financing easier.

As for what else he has brewing, “I have a lot of contemporary stuff I want to do, too — a couple of different shows I’ve been developing.”

His Westerns film in exquisite locales in British Columbia, and he notes, “I like to be out in the wide open space.  It’s difficult for me to be on a stage all the time or a studio lot.  I like being outside — but having said that, if it was the right situation, I would be open to another series.”

Jared Abrahamson, Kim Delaney Hallmark Channel photo

Kim Delaney is back at work on “Army Wives,”  no doubt glad to be putting distance between herself and the unfortunate incident last month when she was escorted off stage — as she struggled through a rambling, nonsensical attempt at a speech honoring former Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Liberty Medal Award presentation.

She’s yet to make a public statement as to what went wrong that night, leaving it to the media to point out her past problems with alcohol.  It’s a shame.

The actress turns in a memorable performance in the Hallmark Movie Channel film, “Finding a Family,” premiering tomorrow (10/15), in which she plays a woman with severe bipolar disorder following a brain injury.  She looks stunningly different.  In scenes in which the character is enraged, she is scary.  In scenes in which she’s broken down, she looks fragile and lost.  Now, especially in light of the September incident, the movie has an extra, can’t-turn-away element.  It almost echoes certain moments from Delaney’s own story, including  how she lost custody of her son Jack in 2005 because of her drinking.

Recent years have been much happier, with Delaney going through a second alcohol rehab stint in 2006, and making a personal and professional comeback including her success with Lifetime’s “Army Wives,” her apparently close relationship with Jack and her obvious pride in his accomplishments as a student at the University of Pennsylvania.  She’s been talking about producing projects back in her home town of Philadelphia.  Perhaps she will.

“Finding a Family” tells the remarkable story of Alex Chivescu (Jared Abrahamson), who somehow managed to become an honors student despite his volatile home life.  He went to court to terminate his mother’s parental rights and have himself declared a ward of the state, and then found a family willing to take him in, all to keep his dream of going to Harvard alive.  It’s a worthy addition to the inspirational movie genre, with Delaney’s portrayal just riveting.

Chivescu says he hopes people will get the takeaway of “overcoming adversity on your own terms.”

Lea Thompson Hallmark Channel photo

Lea Thompson says she didn’t have to think twice about the prospect of making the Hallmark Movie Channel’s “The Cabin” movie that premieres Saturday (7/30).  The actress of “Back to the Future,” “Caroline in the City” and her current “Switched at Birth” series fame points out, “I’ve done so many movies, and so many TV movies, but oddly enough, never a romantic comedy.  So to get one in my late forties is kind of appealing.”

The movie has her as a divorcee who takes her children to a gathering of the clan and sporting competition event in Scotland — only to find that her cabin has been double booked with a family headed by handsome-but-difficult single dad Steven Brand.  Lea found the Dundee, Scotland-born actor to be “really funny, and really sweet” — and their interaction fun to play.  There were, however, unexpected challenges on the production, which actually took place in Ireland, Scottish tartans notwithstanding.

“There’s a good reason why Ireland is not Hollywood; the weather is so uncooperative,” Lea observes.  “It was really cold and really wet.  They were like, ‘It’s a vacation movie.  It’s summer vacation.’  And I was like, ‘These leaves are pretty orange.  Can we put on a sweater?’”

“The Cabin” also demanded a great deal of physicality.  “They must have said, ‘We need someone to toss the caber.  Let’s get Lea!’  Crazy, huh?  I wondered how much they were going to let us do, but we did all that crazy stuff.  I was so amazed that no one got hurt.”  The one-time ballerina also got to show off her footwork in a dance sequence.  She notes, “The crew always appreciates it when you do something physical.  It brings everyone together.”

It was a special family time for Lea herself.  “I brought my sisters along — Colleen and Shannon.  All my life I thought they had Irish names, and now we find out that they’re fake Irish names.  Real Irish names are much more interesting.  We are Irish, so it was really a dream come true to be there together.”

Lea Thompson in "The Cabin" Hallmark Movie Channel photo

Lea Thompson, just wrapping the first 10 episode season of her hit ABC Family Channel “Switched at Birth” series, reports she’s going to get in some quality rest and relaxation time before diving back into work.

“My daughters and I going to rush off to Europe.  I’ve been planning it for hours and hours,” says Lea, whose 20-year-old daughter, Madeline, just graduated with honors from The New School university in New York.  “We’re going to Spain, France and England.  We’re really excited,” she says.

It’s been an intense stretch of work for Lea over the last couple of years.  She’s done a string of big and small screen movies — including a role in Clint Eastwood’s forthcoming “J. Edgar” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and her own Hallmark Movie Channel original, “The Cabin,” a romantic comedy coming up July 30.

And then there’s “Switched at Birth,” with its record-breaking premiere and subsequent high ratings.  “We were really surprised by how well it did,” she admits.  Despite what could have been a campy or cheesy premise — rich and poor teenage girls discover they were given to the wrong parents when they were born — Lea stresses, “It’s not pandering.  There’s a class struggle.  There’s a racial struggle.  There’s a struggle with a child who has a disability, who is deaf — and people are really signing on the show.  People have to think a little bit more than they might have expected.”  And they must like it.  Fancy that.

About the finale segment they’re just finishing now — she says it’s a cliffhanger.

MEANWHILE:  Lea also has her “Mayor Cupcake” comedy coming out on DVD next month.  She executive produced the romp, in which she plays a homemaker who becomes the mayor of her small town.  “It really is cute.  My daughter Maddie gets to sing in it, a song from ‘The Breakfast Club,’ actually.”  The scene became an unplanned tribute to late “Breakfast Club” creator John Hughes, she says.  Lea’s leading man is none other than “Breakfast Club” alumnus Judd Nelson.  She and her husband, director Howard Deutch, met on another Hughes movie, “Some Kind of Wonderful.”   The day of Maddie had to sing the song, Hughes had just died, “and we were all crying,” Lea recounts.  Lea’s 16-year-old daughter, Zoey, is in the movie as well.

Luke Perry Hallmark Movie Channel photo

Don’t be surprised if Luke Perry returns to the series scene.  The actor, who remains indelibly etched in the minds of many as “90210′s” Dylan McKay, tells us he’d love to get back into weekly TV action again.  “My kids are a little older now; my life has changed that way.  A series would suit me now better than in years,” he says.  “I love television, and there’s nothing better than doing a series when you have one you really like.”

Perry reunited with his one-time “90210″ co-hunk, Jason Priestley, for the Hallmark Movie Channel’s “Goodnight for Justice,” premiering tomorrow night (1/29).  Preistley served as director on the Western in which Perry plays a 19th Century Wyoming Territory circuit judge with a revenge agenda of his own — an idea created and produced Perry himself.  Although Preistley isn’t seen in the movie, Perry smiles at the thought of devising a part for him should there be a sequel.  And there is already talk of continuing Perry’s John Goodnight character in another Hallmark Movie Channel film or two.

“I’d like to do it.  I’d like to find another good story to tell with this character,” notes Luke.  “As far as Jason acting in it, well, it would have to be the right thing and then it would be up to Jason.  I don’t know if we could afford him,” he says with a laugh.

“Goodnight for Justice” is full of fightin’, fallin’ and other action, and Luke admits, “My back isn’t getting any younger.  I kind of tweaked it a couple of times.  We knew it was going to be very difficult to do that kind of action and stuff in the short amount of time we had.  It’s very much a credit to Jason that he was able to pull that off.”