Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

What a job — going from Denis Leary's bed to David Duchovny's in just a couple of weeks' time. Those are the breaks for Callie Thorne, whose first post-"Rescue Me" gig is on "Californication."

Thorne is part of a "Californication" story in which Duchovny's sex-addicted writer, Hank Moody, gets involved with an actress who is playing his daughter in a movie, and with the actress' mother.

"We went right into a steamy scene — of course," she notes, recalling her first day on "Californication" production. "To suddenly be intimate with David Duchovny, someone I've consistently been in awe of — it could have been disastrous, but instead, we had an enormous amount of fun. The credit for that goes to David. Even though it's a sexual thing going on, there's such a magnitude of comedy, any nerves I was feeling went away."

Thorne, best known as Sheila, Leary's crazy extra-marital paramour on "Rescue Me," adds, "It was also great for my psyche, the perfect timing after wrapping the series."

So how do Leary and Duchovny compare? "They are similar in that they are both forces to be reckoned with. They also share this great magnetism in terms of talent and humor, and they're incredibly handsome and sexy," she gushes. "In some ways, their characters are alike in that they're troubled sort of reluctant heroes, men who've done some really abhorrent things and yet, if you're a guy, you want to hang out with them, and if you're a girl, you want to date them." If they met, "They would be besties," she opines.

According to Thorne, Leary and the rest of his "Rescue Me" cohorts managed to stave off getting emotional about the end of production on the series until the very last day of shooting. "I think that everybody was in denial a little bit. We had really big things going on in the last two episodes we were shooting," she says. "But certainly, that final day, when they started calling 'That's a series wrap!' on each actor ... The words were just too much to take."

The award-winning FX series returns for its sixth season Tuesday (6/29) — preceded by a full-fledged New York premiere event tonight (6/24).

Season 7 is already in the can, planned for airing next year.

LINEN, LINEN, LINEN!: The racial and cultural segmentation of audiences that's been a fact of life for comics on the road is disappearing, according to funny man JB Smoove, whose latest TV gig is hosting "Russell Simmons Presents Stand-Up at The El Rey" on Comedy Central, debuting July 11. He points out, "I go back to the first season of 'Def Comedy Jam' (in 1992). When I started, it was like the turn of black comedy. We had our audience; the white comics had their audience. Now, everybody's pulling closer together. Shows are more diverse; audiences have changed. You see that everywhere — everything is merging; everyone gets each other now. It's an amazing place to be as far as music and stand-up."

Smoove has several different fan bases — from his turn as potty-mouthed houseguest Leon Black on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" to his "'Til Death" role alongside Brad Garrett, to his ridiculous stand-up. He loved taping the first set of installments of "Stand-Up at the El Rey" partly because "It's a great mix. I love these young comics. I have a young energy, an enthusiastic energy, and with these young folks on the show, we just feed off each other with this positive outlook that's contagious." He adds, "I think there will be more shows, and I think there will be a tour."

Meanwhile, Smoove has a nonstop string of dates this summer, and he'll be seen on TBS tonight (6/24) as part of Cedric the Entertainer's "Urban Circus."

"I'm on linen," he declares. "I mean, the iron is hot — and linen is the hottest setting you can get."

INDUSTRY BITS: Casting for subsidiary roles on Steven Soderbergh's "Contagion" continues, with actors vying hard for even the smallest bit parts. Not only is the revered director a lure, so is the uncanny cast of superstars lined up for the thriller, which is now targeted for a production start in mid-December. Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard and Gwyneth Paltrow are all set for the scary epic that has intertwining stories from four continents about a killer virus rampaging over the earth.

Director Savage Steve Holland is prepping a movie that sounds like an allegory, about a grown man living like a 10-year-old because if he becomes an adult, he'll lose his fairy godparents who give him everything he wants. Casting is under way.

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 2010 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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