Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Expect to see a very different Hilary Duff in her forthcoming big-screen "Greta." "It's a very good role for her, a real stretch," reports esteemed Academy Award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn. She plays Duff's grandmother in the feature, which has the pop princess as a young waitress in an interracial relationship with a cook who has a criminal record (Evan Ross — a.k.a. Diana's up-and-coming film-star son).

"Her character is a brat, a sassy girl, a real handful for me to deal with," Burstyn adds. "She did very well, and Evan is very good."

"Greta" just wrapped, and Burstyn hurried on to Omaha, Neb., to begin filming this week on "Lovely, Still" with Martin Landau, Burstyn's sixth movie this year. Landau plays an elderly grocery bagger who has never been in love — and then he meets new-lady-in-town Burstyn. She's delighted by the late-in-life love story, especially since "Marty and I are old friends. This will be such fun to do with him. We'll finish just about Dec. 20."

Come Dec. 9, Burstyn will be seen in ABC's holiday prize: "Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's 'For One More Day.'" It's the adaptation of Albom's best-selling fantasy about a washed up, alcoholic baseball player (Michael Imperioli) who gets a chance at redemption through being granted one more day with his late mother (Burstyn). 

Albom, who penned the best-selling "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" and "Tuesdays with Morrie," has often written about dying. "Eventually, we all have to grapple with the terrible fact," she says, meaning death. "And he grapples with it in this fictional account. But it's not just coming to terms with death. It's coming to terms with life."

MAKING LEMONADE: Comic/actor/master impressionist Frank Caliendo sadly reports he was only able to get half of his new TBS "Frank TV" sketch comedy show episodes in the can before the writers strike — but he's taking it with equanimity. "They're sorting things out, and there will be four or five (epsiodes), but we were supposed to do eight," says Caliendo, who nails impressions of President George W. Bush, John Madden, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Donald Trump and the entire "Seinfeld" cast among others on the show, debuting Nov. 20. Now that there's an unexpected lull in his schedule, Caliendo says, "I may take a little time off to spend with my family.

I haven't been able to do that for about six months. It's kind of like taking lemons and making lemonade — but don't get me wrong. I want to see the writers get this resolved so everybody can get back to work." 

The former "MadTV" regular, who was voted one of 10 comics to watch by Variety this year, is married with a 3-year-old son, Joey, who practically steals the show from Dad in one episode in which he's being prompted to do his impression of President Bush. "One of the reasons I wanted to do the spot with Joey was because it's me with my son in real life instead of me trying to be the performer. It's a different side of me that people don't often see, so I just thought that was cool."

MIXED MEDIA: Comedienne/actress/talk-show host Chelsea Handler reports the big-screen adaptation of her book, "My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands," will go before the cameras the end of December. "Originally I was supposed to star in it, but because of my schedule with the show, I'm going to take a smaller role," says the former "Girls Behaving Badly" regular, who now hosts E!'s late night "Chelsea Lately" talker. Casting has just begun for the film, but Handler says she has no wish list of who to bring her tail, er tale, to life. "I had to do a lot of research (for the book)," she quips. "Honestly, I never considered it would be anyone but me, but it's not really my decision now that I can't be as involved as I want."

Meanwhile, Handler is one of the fortunate few not affected by the writers strike as "Chelsea Lately" is not a Writers Guild show. Upcoming guests over the next couple of weeks include David Alan Grier, Margaret Cho, Hanson, Andy Dick and "Dancing with the Stars'" Karina Smirnoff. "Karina is going to give me a dancing lesson, which should be interesting because I have about as much rhythm as a kangaroo," she says with a laugh.

BLUE STATE: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are continuing to work hard to get supporters in Hollywood, and while many celebrities have already chosen their favorite candidates, director Brett Ratner tells us he just wants to see a Democrat in office. "I'm having political events just to get people to give money to the Democratic Party," says Ratner, whose next film project is a comedy with Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock. "It doesn't matter what candidate you want but just to get a Democratic president." 

With reports by Stephanie DuBois and 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.

COPYRIGHT 2007 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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