Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Jennifer Aniston's upcoming guesting on buddy Courteney Cox Arquette's FX "Dirt" sent the show's behind-the-scenes team into scramble mode. Yes, we mean the much-talked-about segment in which Aniston is playing a lesbian and shares a kiss with Courteney.

"The episode wasn't even supposed to be shooting yet. The writers hadn't even solidified a script. But she worked with the writers as they shot it and they got what they wanted," reports "Dirt" costar Laura Allen. Allen worked with Aniston, and says, "She was wonderful. Her character drops two big bombshells on mine — two major pieces of information — in the season finale," which airs March 27. "She plays a rival magazine editor to Courteney's, and they have it in for each other and apparently have a romantic past."

Allen's character has enough problems without more trouble from Aniston's. She's playing sexually out-of-control starlet Julia Mallory, who is in the midst of downspiraling into heroin addiction on the show in which Courteney's character runs a celebrity gossip rag. The former "The 4400" actress deliberately made herself underweight for her junkie role, supervised by a trainer and a nutritionist "because I wanted to be safe about it. I've heard of too many people hurting their health."

A SOBERING VIEW: Lesley Stahl has a "60 Minutes" report on autism Sunday (2/18) that, she admits, did not have the outcome for which she hoped.

She tells this column that instead of exploring the controversial increase in the occurrence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) — which the United States Centers for Disease Control estimate hit one in every 150 children — "We worked with scientists in the third year of a four-year study. They are looking for the earliest signs of the illness on the theory that if they can diagnose signs in a child of one year or earlier, they can perhaps intervene in the wiring of the brain through behavior modification. We hoped we would be able to report that there had been such a breakthrough, but unfortunately, we were to learn that there is as yet no way to absolutely diagnose autism."

The story, she says, ended up "a cliffhanger — with a little leaning on the dark side.

Autism remains mysterious in all its manifestations." Although, she notes, one scientist who worked on the study feels that the autism epidemic that is getting so much attention in the media is not an epidemic at all, but "just a result of a change of definition — which happened in about 1994 — to include all facets of the illness, such as Asperger's Syndrome, under the umbrella definition of ASD."

CHILL FACTOR: Stephen King fans, listen up! The big-screen adaptation of "Stephen King's 'From a Buick 8'" is finally on a fast track.

"I guarantee it will be off the ground before the end of this year," reports actor/writer Johnathan Schaech, who adapted the best-selling novel with his writing partner, Richard Chizmar. "It's been our heart and soul for a really long time, and it's gone through its trials and tribulations of Hollywood," says Schaech. "It had George Romero attached to it before, but now we're working with Mick Garris." An added plus, says Schaech, is that King himself is in their corner. "My partner is friends with Stephen and has been working with him in the publishing world for 15 years, and he loves our adaptation. We stuck very truthfully to the book."

Unfortunately, progress is not going as quickly on the writing duo's adaptation of "The Black House," says Schaech of King's sequel to his best-selling "The Talisman." "I don't know what's going on with 'Black House,' because 'The Talisman' has been around forever and they're making it into a television miniseries," he says.

BOTH SIDES NOW: "Crossing Jordan's" Jill Hennessy directed an April-airing episode of her long-running series that's very serious — including the inner-workings of the Dept. of Homeland Security, questions about torturing of suspects, and a scary illness for her character. However, the ever-feisty Jill tells us, she did find time to think about important details on the episode, such as, "I really want to exploit the raw sexuality of the cast. They're all sexy. There's a scene where keys that Jerry (O'Connell) are holding are a key to what's happening. I told the camera operators, 'Can we at least keep his derriere in the frame in this scene? Have him hold the keys near his butt.'' Unfortunately, we're not seeing a lot of form-fitting clothing in this one."

(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 2007 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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