Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"G.C.B." actress Jennifer Aspen weighs in on the title controversy on the forthcoming ABC prime-time serial drawn from Kim Gatlin's book, "Good Christian Bitches" — which then became "Good Christian Belles" and has now been reduced to its acronym.

"It's not an anti-Christian project," says Aspen. "I would never, ever be a part of something that attacked any religion. That's not my thing. I spoke to the author of the book, who is a devout Christian. The point of the title was, she felt there were certain people in the Christian community acting inappropriately and giving the religion a bad name, and she wanted to call them out. If you're going to talk the talk, you should walk the walk. So she wanted to coin the name and make it strong so people would remember it. Well, I could get behind that idea. It was a risky move, but for me, it was an enlightened one."

However, Aspen says, when the company went to Dallas to shoot exteriors, "we went to church there, and talking to the members, I realized that name is very offensive to various people. When we got their viewpoints on it, I was really glad they changed the name."

Aspen points out that "two of our executive producers are Christians, and their faith does mean a lot to them. This project was not born out of a Hollywood idea — it was born out of that community."

The mid-season replacement comedy, set in Dallas — "Where every day is judgment day," per the promo tag — has Leslie Bibb as a former high-school mean girl who has to return to her Texas home after her marriage ends in scandal. There she faces all her one-time frenemies. Annie Potts and avowed Christian Kristin Chenoweth are also in the cast.

"Leslie is the girl who was bad who has now gone good," Aspen says, "but you're very suspicious when she tries to friend you on Facebook. 'How do you have the nerve to request me? Don't you remember the terrible things you did to me?' But you see her picture with two kids there and she looks nice."

According to Aspen, who a Scientologist, the set contains "a rainbow of faiths. Normally, you don't talk that much about religion or politics on a set, but on this one, we do. Not in an argumentative way. It's more like, 'What do you practice? That's cool,' respecting each other's beliefs. I'm personally a lover of religions because each of them contains universal truths."

That may be, but the lusty ladies, with lines like "cleavage makes your cross hang straight," are bound to rankle more than a few.

By the time viewers see "G.C.B.," however, production of the first 13 episodes will be complete, Aspen says. "We're dying to see when we get on the air."

KEEPING THE FAITH: Sean Astin had so much fun working with his mother, Patty Duke, on the recently wrapped feature, "Amazing Love" that, he says, "I had to force myself not to smile too much during the big dialogue scene we had. She came and did a day. She looks great. She's been traveling a lot. She just did a guest spot on 'Hawaii Five-0.'"

"Amazing Love" is a Christian film, the first one Sean has done, he says. He believes that he was sought out for it because of his and wife Christine Harrell's labor-of-love movie project, "Number the Stars." They wrote the screenplay based on Lois Lowry's Newbery-winning young readers' book about two 10-year-old girls — one Jewish and one Lutheran — who are best friends in 1943 Denmark, where Danes launched a massive flotilla to evacuate Jews ahead of the Nazis.

"It's not a Christian movie, per se, but a story fourth- and fifth-graders have to read that has a very strong faith component to it," notes Sean.

They have most of the financing. "For most independent filmmakers, what we have would be a fortune. But based on how we designed the movie, we're not quite there yet. We've spent a lot of money and a lot of time building our movie, and it's going to be worth it."

Sean will next be seen in "Love's Christmas Journey," debuting tomorrow night (Nov. 5) on the Hallmark Channel.

UP AND COMING: It's hard to imagine now — ABC Family's origins as Pat Robertson's family cable network — isn't it? Not only is this the channel that gives us shows like "Secret Life of the American Teenager," which inspired a drinking game for each time the characters refer to sex. Now they're getting ready to bring viewers "Bun Head," a series about a Las Vegas showgirl "looking at the dead end of her career and life, looking for a change," according to casting materials. Being added to the cast is a character named Talia — a "very Las Vegas showgirl" — in her mid-to-late 30s.

The story of a celebutante who decides to turn her family's nearly-bankrupt ranch into the ultimate city slicker dude ranch, "Out West" sounds like a TV movie, maybe for the Disney Channel, Hallmark, Lifetime, or heck, even ABC Family. But it's not. It's a low-budget feature, casting now.

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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