Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

The young cast of "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" are getting a royal workout as they traipse around the globe to promote the feature that opens today (5/16). "We just got back from Mexico City. We go to Japan Saturday, then back to L.A., then Israel, Prague, Paris, London, Madrid and Munich," reports William Moseley, a.k.a. Peter Pevensie, a.k.a., King Peter the Magnificent of Narnia. His schedule goes into July.

"But I'm absolutely fine, ready to rock and roll. The promotion is actually fairly glamorous; you're treated wonderfully, and you get to stay in nice places. I always find a couple of hours here and there to look around. It's pretty intense — but it's fantastic that Disney and Walden Media are so happy with the movie they want to push it this much."

For Moseley, the sequel meant stepping up his acting, since his character shows more maturity and dimension — "struggling with his insecurities. He almost can't believe that he was this high king once." He's also dealing with a loss of faith, as he finds himself unable to see the lion Aslan, the spiritual ruler of Narnia, "and he becomes this ego-driven young man, kind of self-righteous.

"I worked with an acting coach, Sheila Gray, for three and a half months in New York before starting … I worked my guts out," he says.

The handsome 20-year-old, who's the subject of Internet fan sites set up by young female admirers, seems to be taking fame in stride. "I love it when people say they like our work — especially children. I care much more about the opinion of children than adults because they're so honest and genuine. If you've got them on your side, you're all right."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: "America's Most Wanted" host, John Walsh, feels very proud that his show has captured its 1,000th fugitive — a landmark that's being recognized in a special broadcast on Saturday (5/17) — but the host admits he would trade it all to have his son Adam back.

"I would trade everything in two seconds to go back to having Adam alive and to be a hotel developer and be in that business that I was," says Walsh, who lost his 6-year-old son Adam in 1981, when he was abducted from a Sears in Florida and killed. "You look back and see how heartbreaking and life-changing it was, but the positive side of it is, it gave me a huge way to make sure that Adam didn't die in vain.

I think the celebrity and the hard, hard work involved in this show give me a great platform to change things, so despite seeing the worst of society, I also get to see the best."

Having reached such a huge milestone has cemented the "Most Wanted" team's purpose, Walsh says. "We were the first reality show — and people said it will never last — they'll never catch one guy. It's amazing after 20 years that we're still chugging along so strong. No one could have ever predicted that the show would still be as popular as it is and as effective," he notes. "Now we've got 1,000 criminals caught. It only took us 20 years, but we made it."

THE BIG-SCREEN SCENE: Though British star Colin Firth co-stars in "Mamma Mia," one of the hottest anticipated summer movies, he's most excited about what he considers a little gem of a film upcoming from "A Mighty Heart" filmmaker Michael Winterbottom.

"It's called 'Genova,' and I think there is no director more interesting right now," says Firth, who stars in the film with Catherine Keener. "It's about a family in America. The mother dies in a car accident in the very beginning, and the father takes their two daughters to Italy to get away from the scene of great sadness and give them a new life for a while. I don't know if you've seen 'A Mighty Heart' with Angelina Jolie, but Winterbottom shoots in an incredibly, beautiful way. I've seen 'Genova' twice now, and I think it's one of the best pieces I've ever done."

STRANGE: Katherine Waterston, whose performance in the current "The Babysitters" has garnered lots of attention, recently wrapped the independent feature "The Factory" — which has eerie parallels with the horrifying recent headline story about an Austrian woman held captive in a dungeon for decades. Says Katherine, younger daughter of Sam Waterston, "It's really grim. I play a pregnant paraplegic girl who has been kidnapped and spent over three years in a basement. She's suffering from Stockholm syndrome, so she thinks her digs are luxurious, even though they're not at all." The film, starring John Cusack as the cop who's chasing after the serial killer suspect — frantically, once his own daughter goes missing — does have a tie to reality, Katherine says. "It's based on a case in Pennsylvania in the 1970s, an extreme right wing guy who wanted to start a family, but whose values went wrong."

With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster.

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 2008 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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