Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

When "Tia & Tamera" premieres tonight (Aug. 8) on the Style Network, viewers will be seeing the famous Mowry twins in their all-grown-up lives — as Tamera gets ready for her wedding to Fox News correspondent Adam Housley and Tia and her husband, actor Cory Hardrict, get ready to welcome their first child.

The 32-year-old sisters' off-camera growth has been at least as impressive. As Tia points out, "Being a woman in this business, sometimes the roles become limited. You have to create your own opportunities."

Thus, they launched their own production company and started developing and pitching projects for themselves. Last year, they produced their Lifetime movie, "Double Wedding." And now, they have their new reality show. According to Tia, "We pitched it, created it and hired a producer to co-produce with us."

Both sisters are excited about the prospect of more producing. Right now, of course, Tia is in the throes of new motherhood — son Cree was born June 28 — and admits to being sleep-deprived. She's due back on the set of "The Game" in September.

Tamera, who's enjoying life as a newlywed — she and Adam married in May, as will be seen on episode 3 of "Tia & Tamera" — is also interested in expanding her behind-the-scenes work into directing.

"I'm a very creative person," she says, "and to be able to take an idea and bring it full-circle into a completed movie — it's an amazing, amazing event for me."

Meanwhile, Tia is pressing her to come up with a cousin for Cree as soon as possible.

How different things look from the way they did 12 years ago, when, she admits, Tia wondered if her career was over.

"When 'Sister, Sister' ended in '99, I chose to go abroad," she recalls. "In 2000, I stayed in Italy for three months. I traveled around the world — Egypt, Paris, Spain. I was away from my comfort zone, from all my friends and family. I had to rely on my own strength and God ... When I landed back in America, I kissed the ground. I was so glad to be home.

"By then, I realized, 'I want to act. I really do.' But I had to start from the bottom and work my way up. People still thought of me as a little girl, but I was a woman in an adult body."

Eventually, Tia started getting through to casting directors. The industry began to see her as the adult she had become. A meeting with "The Game" creator Mara Brock Akil marked a turning point. Tia won her starring role, of course — and is now facing a whole new kind of challenge: doing a fifth season of 22 episodes with her new baby by her side.

A CATHARTIC EXPERIENCE: Brace yourself for a string of hugely emotional Sept. 11 remembrances. At the Television Critics Association summer press tour, upcoming 9/11 programming took a share of the spotlight.

For instance, there's the feature length documentary, "The Love We Make," which follows Paul McCartney as he ventures out into post-9/11 NYC and plans his mammoth "Concert for New York City." The music icon, who spoke to press via video linkup — charming the crowd — talked about his plane being grounded on the tarmac that day and seeing the Twin Towers burning, convinced it was an optical illusion.

He has great affection for the city, with memories including The Beatles' landmark Shea Stadium concert (with fans' screaming that, to them, sounded like "a billion seagulls").

On top of that, he married one New York girl, he said, speaking of the late Linda McCartney, "and I'm about to marry another" — Nancy Shevell. He also spoke poetically about the healing and communicating powers of music being "magical." The special airs on Showtime Sept. 10.

Then there's Showtime's "Rebirth," a documentary by filmmaker Jim Whitaker. It follows a set of people whose lives were turned upside down by the events of the terrorist attacks. "Rebirth" takes a year-by-year look, watching as the survivors come to grips with their losses and live on.

Firefighter widow Tanya Villanueva-Tepper told press that even early on, she held onto a "tiny sliver of hope" that her life would someday get better and that she agreed to be filmed partly as a remembrance, and also because she wanted other widows to see that healing process happening. Survivor Tim Brown said he hopes "we can use this as a tool for our military, our first responders" in handling grief.

GOING, GOING ... It's been three weeks now since former "Two and a Half Men" star Charlie Sheen's announcement that he would star in a new series based on the 2003 film "Anger Management." Since then, we've heard a lot about what's happening on the "Two and a Half Men" set, as Ashton Kutcher assumes the starring spot vacated by the belligerent miscreant Sheen — and CBS chieftain Nina Tassler balks at confirming or denying TMZ's report that the new season will open with Charlie's character's funeral.

What we haven't heard as of this writing is the grand announcement about who is going to pick up "Anger Management." Reports had TBS as a frontrunner, but TBS has essentially declared, "Not us."

But you just know that plans for Sheen's show are growing in some hidden place from which they will burst forth — not unlike the creature in John Hurt's belly in "Alien." Imagine all the conversations his proposed comedy has generated around town by now, how many times Sheen's preposterous live stage show and internet meanderings have been mentioned, how serious the discussions have become about the high cost of insuring an actor with Sheen's history of legal and substance abuse problems (not to mention attitude problems).

And then there's the question of who might be talented enough — in addition to money- and/or attention-hungry enough — to take on show-runner duties for "Anger Management."

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

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