Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Demi Lovato's relationship with Joe Jonas has fueled speculation and opinions among bloggers and fans across the Internet and through the teen mags — with their appearances (along with his brothers and new sister-in-law) at two Oscar parties, unleashing a fresh fusillade of photos and commentary. The 17-year-old beauty seems to be taking it all in stride.

She tells us such attention "used to be a problem for me. I used to feel like I had to hide more things. But the more I'm in the spotlight and the more comfortable I am about how I deal with fans, the less I'm bothered by it. There's still a line between what I want to share with them and what I don't in my dating life," she adds. She does say, "I'm very happy."

Fans can count on romance blooming for Lovato — on her "Sonny With a Chance" Disney Channel show, which has its Season 2 premiere Sunday (3/14). Her TV comedienne character has gone from tiffing with rival series star Chad (Sterling Knight) to mutual crushes. In Season 2, "The romance with Chad grows," she lets us know.

Being a hot commodity, it's not surprising It Girl Demi has had offers for feature roles. She says, "I would love to do features one day. It's definitely one of my goals and I've definitely had opportunities, but it's been impossible so far. When we make up my schedule, we basically have it prepared a year in advance. And if there's a choice between trying to make time to do films or do music, I'm always like, I'd rather rehearse for a tour, or perform, or record. Music is my first love."

Lovato has had two successful albums out so far and has toured extensively — including lots of time on the road with the Jonas Brothers. The sequel to their hit "Camp Rock" — with herself and Joe as the romantic leads — wrapped production in October and it will debut this summer. "The second one was so much fun," she says. "It was great going back to those characters and having everyone together again."

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: Regina King, who's featured in the big-screen comedy "Our Family Wedding," opening today (3/12), is looking into other feature projects that might not have been possible for her to consider if her "Southland" series hadn't moved from NBC to TNT. With a shorter season on cable, "You have more opportunities to maybe do two movies, as opposed to just one" over a series hiatus, she notes.

"When you're an entertainer, you do a little bit of everything. I have a production company, and this move allows more time to develop and actually bring projects to light," she adds.

"If you're constantly growing and evolving in this industry, the natural place to go is to produce your own project."

"Our Family Wedding" has America Ferrera and Lance Gross as a bride and groom whose fathers — Carlos Mencia and Forest Whitaker — are feuding, with the added dimension of a union taking place between a Latino family and an African-American one. Says King, "I play a friend of Forest and Lance's family. You cannot get much better than working with Forest. We had an awesome time."

Meanwhile, she's pleased with her "Southland" police drama's move for other reasons. "I think we'll now finally do what we started out to do. One of the things we hear more than anything from officers is that they feel like the show is really real, so we want to stay honest," notes King. "I think the show is pretty gritty as it is now, but being on TNT does afford us the opportunity for less bleeps when it comes to language, and it allows us to be slightly more dark, which I think is a good thing."

Another good thing is that King tells us we'll be seeing a lot more of her character Detective Lydia Adams as well. "The writers have definitely written her complex, like a real person is. It's fun to be able to play a character that is not written as an afterthought."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Critical and viewer response to Fox's "Sons of Tucson" comedy that premieres Sunday (3/14) won't alter the course of the show — at least for this season. That's because all 13 episodes are already in the can. Star Tyler Labine sees advantages and disadvantages to getting all the shooting done before the show's debut. "It's strange, I've done both. We shot the first season of 'Reaper' while we were on the air. It didn't premiere to stellar numbers, so right away, the network was on us, you know?" he recalls. "It was like, 'Here's what we need to do: We need to mention the devil at least 12 times in an episode, and you have to do this and you have to do that,' and it became a very formulaic show in the beginning because they were afraid to let us explore the mythology."

In "Tucson," he plays a slacker type who gets hired by a trio of boys to pose as their dad — while their real father is in prison.

SMALL WORLD: John Wells' untitled medical pilot goes into production later this month for CBS. It's about doctors and nurses who treat destitute patients here and abroad out of a portable hospital. The medicos each have their own dramas that they left behind. Interestingly, "Law & Order: SVU" exec producer Neal Baer, a doctor, has done that kind of work himself. He used to write "ER" episodes for Wells.

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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