Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"Dancing With the Stars" has marked a reunion for Chynna Phillips and Chaz Bono, who were thrown together as little kids because of their respective music-superstar parents. "Interestingly enough, my mom and Cher used to be buddies," recalls Chynna, daughter of Mamas and the Papas' Michelle Phillips and the late John Phillips. "I used to go over to Chaz's house. I have vivid memories of running around with Chaz as kids. They had a huge, huge house. I remember being taken a little aback by how grand the home was. I remember Chaz always being kind and sweet," she adds. "We've been catching up, for sure."

Of course, socializing is a side issue of "DWTS" for the beautiful, blond, Wilson Phillips singing star. Chynna is making a declaration — via the competition — that she's ready to turn her energies back to show business.

"I've been in Mommy-mode the past 11 years, so to do this, I have had to literally retrain my mind. It's been sippy cups and drop-offs, and now it's arm extensions and arabesques. Oh, my gosh. This is not where my head is at," she says with a laugh.

She also says, "I'm looking forward to resurrecting the Chynna Phillips brand, so to speak — singing, acting, maybe coming up with my own branding line of something in fashion." She notes that she and her Wilson Phillips band mates, Carnie and Wendy Wilson, have been doing some one-off dates of late. Now she's hoping they can put together a tour. ("DWTS" viewers will soon see her dancing to Wilson Phillips' first number-one hit, "Hold On." Tonight [Oct. 3], she'll do the rumba.) Carnie and Wendy have been in the "DWTS" audience, cheering her on.

So has her family — husband William Baldwin, daughters Jameson and Brooke and son Vance. Plus Michelle Phillips, and, soon, sister Bijou, she says.

"I'm getting a ton of support from them. Billy is Mr. Mom, doing the pickups and dropoffs, schlepping the kids to Los Angeles so I can see them a few times a week — which has really been helpful," says Chynna, who is based in scenic Santa Barbara, Calif., about 90 miles away. "They come on Friday and stay on the weekend, and I go up on Wednesdays. It's challenging, but you have to look at the whole picture. It's only 12 weeks."

Chynna has another motive close to her heart in signing up for "DWTS." She wants to draw attention to the plight of some 30,000 orphans in Tijuana, Mexico.

"It's super heartbreaking, how many are on the streets. And then there are the ones who are in orphanages that are like baby jails, literally with cells. They're only let out an hour or two a day." She's working with the Los Angelitos orphanage, raising money for a new 60-room dorm there.

ON THE PERSONAL SIDE: With her profile soaring ever higher thanks to "The X Factor," Nicole Scherzinger admits that her biggest challenge is "trying to balance the work and the personal life. I don't know any boundaries, don't know when say 'No' in my business life." She goes on, "I think anybody who works really hard in this industry can relate. Your personal life does kind of suffer. You have so little time with your family and loved ones. You find a way to work it out, wish you could have your cake and eat it, too. Thank God for the wonders of Skype and Blackberries."

The former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman, who has been dating Formula One race car driver Lewis Hamilton for four years, adds, "When you do have the time, that's where it counts. My family is very understanding."

SOARING: ABC's "Pan Am" has taken off with first-class ratings as a new season favorite. Beyond its appealing cast and fun storylines, the show boasts a wealth of accurate details that bring back the early '60s. It's what actor Mike Vogel ("The Help," "Miami Medical") calls "that nice little sweet spot of time, post-Korea, pre-Vietnam, where JFK is in office and anything is possible." The 32-year-old plays Dean, the dashing lead pilot character, and brings verisimilitude with him — because he happens to be a pilot himself.

"Of course, it's a very different airplane than the basic one I'm used to flying, but the patterns of things are the same," Vogel says. "This is what we need to get our gear down and our flaps in and our lights on ... There's purpose to what we do. We're not just sitting there flipping switches and pressing buttons."

Vogel, a history buff (whose two grandfathers were in WWII, one a Seabee and one a tank commander who fought in the Battle of the Bulge) says he's thrilled with "the possibilities this series will open up for flying for me." He says the vintage planes used for the show attracted a swarm of real-life pilots at Republic Airport in Long Island, N.Y., where they shot. "We had a DC-7, a B-25, an L-29 ... The pilots were all coming up, asking questions, intrigued with what we're doing and offering, 'You want a ride? I'll take you up.'"

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2011 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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