Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Patricia Arquette has her track shoes on, waiting — with trepidation — for the signal to sound that production is resuming on "Medium."

Though Patricia is worried about "the long-term economic effects the Writers Guild strike will have had on the crew," she personally found the layoff since late November to be something of a blessing.

"I was so rundown that the enforced exile was positive for my health," she says. " I was so rundown from the strain of shooting an hour show that I spent all this time off work resting and getting my life in order."

The stress of "Medium" — which saw her putting in 16-hour days — resulted in her collapsing on set in 2006. "They shortened my hours a bit after that," she says. "They got it down to a 12-hour day — but with drive time and rehearsal time, it was still amounting to 14 hours, and my body couldn't take it."

She notes, "I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but the grind has really been hard on my system and on my family."

This is the first series for Arquette (the mother of 20-year-old son Enzo from her relationship with musician Paul Rossi and five-year-old daughter Harlow by her actor husband Thomas Jane), and she doesn't sound certain she'll be content to remain on the small screen scene.

Known mainly for work in such flicks as "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3," "Beyond Rangoon," "Holes" and "Flirting with Disaster," she is working on one feature and has bought film rights to the fantasy book "Willful Creatures," which she plans to develop for screen with a co-writer.

As far as her future with "Medium," she notes that she has another year to go on her five-year contract and that after that, "it will depend on a lot of things — the other actors, everyone on the crew." But most of all, on "my health and family situation."

MIXED MEDIA: Golden Globe winner Bruce Davison, who's very good when he's very bad, goes the villainous route again in the upcoming indie film "La Linea," with Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia and Armand Assante. "I'm a supposedly retired CIA guy who shows up, and mayhem begins to happen," says Davison of the film about an unstable new kingpin of a Tijuana drug cartel targeted by an assassin.

"But the movie is full of troublemakers, and the real troublemaker is played by Esai Morales. He's got a great part." Davison says he found working with Andy Garcia the first time a real treat. "He's as good a man as he is an actor, just a great guy. I remember we'd be shooting and he'd call me over to the monitor and say, 'You're not seeing what I can see here from this coverage, come around and look through here' — which was very generous and very rare. Of course, he's a director too, though this film is directed by James Cott."

Meanwhile, Davison plays Charles Graiman, the creator of the Knight Rider Three Thousand (KITT) car in NBC's new two-hour "Knight Rider" movie airing Feb. 17. "I think it's going to be a romp," says Davison, who stars in the modern-day sequel based on the '80s hit series "Knight Rider" with Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo and Sydney Tamiia Poitier. "The kids are great, and they all seem to be having a good time when they're not getting hurt. NBC seems to be happy with the possibility of a series from the movie, so we'll see how it does."

FOR VALENTINE WANNA-BES: Development is underway on a TV reality-show version of "Fine, I'll Go On Line!" — the St. Martin guide to successful Internet dating. Leslie Oren, the senior vice president of publicity for Fox Television who penned the book, reports that the production company behind "Project: Runway" is one of the firms behind the TV project and that, as things have evolved, it will be she before the "Fine" cameras sharing secrets of successful on-line dating — including how to write the perfect profile, how to refine your e-mail style for dating and first-date strategies. Oren (who went the e-mail dating route for six years and for more than a year has been dating a man she met sans e-mail) points out that some 34 million people go the online dating route. Her feelings: "You won't necessarily meet your husband, and I'm not saying you should — but it's a great way to get to know about yourself and to feel good about dating."

NO LAUGHING MATTER: James Roday of "Psych" is such a funny guy that he's been asked whether he'd like to do standup. The answer is no. "I have infinite respect for those guys. It's one of the toughest rackets out there," he notes. "There's no safety net. You have to have a really thick skin. It's just you and those people waiting for you to not be funny so they can let you know."

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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