Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"Grey's Anatomy" has suffered a 12 percent viewership drop-off this season, making it one of a trio of aging ratings giants ("CSI," "Desperate Housewives") that have taken double-digit hits in 2009-2010. Show creator Shonda Rhimes has another medical drama on the way taking her attention. And Katherine Heigl is gone. It's enough to make fans feel McQueasy.

But fear not. Chandra Wilson is full of assurances: "We know we are a solid anchor for Thursday night, and I know that our intention is to continue to make a great show."

She notes, "The actors have two more years on our contracts, and the writers are confident they have two more years of story. After that, they could write and write and cross that threshold where they keep going, like 'Law & Order.'"

That would suit the actress, who's won four Emmy nominations and a SAG Award for her portrayal of one-of-a-kind surgeon Miranda Bailey, just fine. She says she's definitely still enjoying the show and putting her all into it, "every single minute, every single day, every single script that comes down. There's always something new to look forward to, a new angle, something about my character that's interesting." And she doesn't take it for granted. "Looking at things as an actor, everything is temporary. It's my seventh year at 'Grey's,' but to me, it could all end tomorrow. I might have been the one to get hit by the bus, because that could have been a big ratings-getter."

Chandra just got recognized with another NAACP Image Award – she now has four — this time for directing. It was her first "Grey's" stint behind the camera, so the honor was "very unexpected and flattering" she says. Her second episode as director aired recently and gave her the intriguing task of directing her own love scene with hunky Jason George. What a dream job!

"You would think, right?" she laughs. "It was an interesting line, about the romance and about Bailey's first kiss with him. I got to do a lot of playing with choices with the cameras. That was an exciting day."

But alas, George is headed off to Rhimes' new show, "Off the Map," so is Bailey in for heartbreak?

"That's the pilot," notes Wilson.

HOW FAST THE FALL: Last week's sad appearance by a rail-thin Dennis Hopper at his Hollywood Walk of Fame star unveiling is all the more stunning considering that it was only in September that the "Easy Rider" filmmaker/star was telling this column how happy he was: "I've got a wonderful life — and that's a miracle. After so many years of drug and alcohol abuse, I should be dead."

He'd been clean for more than 26 years, he said, and more important, "I haven't seemed to have had a bad influence on my kids." His son, he said, "went through a program and is sober." His three daughters, he said, were "just fine. … It's a great family … I've got a son, a daughter and my granddaughter living with my wife and me in our house in Venice."

Later that same month, Hopper was rushed to the hospital, feeling faint, leading to his diagnosis of prostate cancer. In January, he filed for divorce from wife Victoria – a split that has become extremely ugly, with Hopper accusing her of raiding his home and absconding with artworks and other valuables worth an estimated $1.5 million. And, as has been widely reported, legal papers that came to light last week show his attorney saying he is so ill and frail with his now-terminal cancer, he was unable to be deposed. Hopper's children were among those who turned out for his star unveiling, the last hurrah of a Hollywood counterculture hero.

CASTING CORNER: Interesting that Disney Channel sweethearts Ashley Tisdale and Alyson Michalka are making a movie for the CW – "Hellcats" – which has Michalka as a girl who is striving hard to rise above her poor background, and gets involved in cheerleading as a means to a scholarship. It also stars Gail O'Grady. Other cheerleaders, jocks and assorted characters are being cast now.

Among the swarm of sitcom pilots is ABC's "Who Gets the Parents" with Adam Arkin and former "Malcolm in the Middle" mama Jane Kaczmarek among the cast. It's about a couple of seniors who finally divorce after decades of bickering, neither of whom can resist in meddling in their adult children's lives. Subsidiary roles are being filled.

With reports by Emily-Fortune 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.

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