Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"Dancing With the Stars" pro Tony Dovolani admits he and his latest partner, talk-show host Wendy Williams, have some challenges ahead as they prepare for the March 21 premiere of the show's 12th season. For one thing, Williams is a super curvaceous 5-foot-11 in stocking feet — "about 2 inches shorter than I am," Dovolani says.

"She has real issues. She's a mom; she's 46 years old. She's at that point in life she feels she's either going to do it now or not." And though Williams' show was dark last week, and she and Tony were able to put in five-hour days of practice at a studio near her New Jersey base, this week the show is on and it's a different story.

"She has a contract to honor, or course. But she's one of those indestructible women. She'll be able to do both," he says.

He also says, "I'm so glad she decided to take on this challenge. I'm very excited to help her achieve something she never thought she would: to be able to do these dances and be graceful and beautiful doing them. She was always the tall girl in school," he notes — and she knows what it is to feel awkward.

Dovolani adds that he's found Williams "a very pleasant surprise. She comes in really embracing this. As she puts it, she wants everything — the makeup, the hair, the costumes. ... She's picking things up pretty nicely."

Williams made hay with the awfulness of Kate Gosselin back when the reality show star did "DWTS" — with partner Dovolani. Now that Dovolani is her partner, Williams has brought up the Gosselin debacle a couple of times "and asked my opinion of it. I think it was that Kate had so much going on in her life, this was one more thing she shouldn't have done. Kate wasn't all that bad. She had her drama, but if you turned off the cameras, she was OK."

That's pretty kind for the pro, who once was driven to briefly quit trying to work with the seemingly whiny and uncooperative Gosselin.

"Well, look," he says. "I think she's very insecure as a person. But she has kids who one day are going to read all kinds of things about their mother, including negative things. I don't want to be one of those who says something negative."

Gotcha.

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: After seeing James Franco looking lost and disconnected as he attempted to co-host the Oscar show, one might say he should consider dialing back his non-acting ambitions a little bit. However, Franco maintains a schedule manic enough to make Charlie Sheen look like a couch potato.

For one thing, there is his very big directing gig ahead with Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian." It's been reported that Franco won producer Scott Rudin over by shooting a test scene that included horses, accurate props, costumes — and Mark Pellegrino of "Lost," Scott Glenn and Luke Perry as stars.

"I didn't know James Franco at all," Perry tells us. His participation came about through "a stuntman friend, Stanton Barrett. It was great fun to do. I love Cormac McCarthy's books. We'll see what takes place with that."

He felt Franco acquitted himself well as director of the piece. As for whether there'll be a place for Perry in the movie, he says, "I truly wish him great luck on it — and I'm not holding my breath."

Franco, who's also directed short films, told Entertainment Weekly he wants to get "Blood Meridian" before the cameras in 2012 — after he shoots his adaptation of William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying." As you may know, he is also working on his doctorate at Yale, a master's in film at NYU (he earned one in writing from Brooklyn College last year), and he's planning to be in a musical at Yale, while co-teaching a master's course in editing at L.A.'s Columbia College. Plus, there was his recent "General Hospital" emoting. Plus, his sea of film projects completed and yet to come, including "Howl" as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, and the April 8 comedy "Your Highness" — and the November release sci-fi flick "Rise of the Apes." Maybe Franco was just darned tired at the Oscars.

Perry, meanwhile, could be in the series mix again before pilot season ends. He's definitely open to the idea of a return trip to the series realm. And he'd like to do more with his John Goodnight Old West judge character he created for the recent Hallmark Movie Channel original "Goodnight for Justice."

STAR MAKERS: ABC's forthcoming Edgar Allan Poe crime procedural is the kind of risky show that could be great or really, really bad, but if producers achieve their casting goal — and line up someone in the Johnny Depp or Simon Baker league — the 19th-century master of the macabre might just become an icon all over again. The pilot has Poe as "28, handsome and unorthodox," solving crimes in hopes of sparing others the kind of suffering he personally has endured. Nevermore!

Another unorthodox crime solver in this year's pilot mix is the titular character of CBS's "Hail Mary," a Southern single mother who teams up with her murdered son's best friend to solve cases the police don't care about. The son's pal is a bit shady himself, described as a small-time con artist from the projects.

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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