Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Anna Paquin plans to be in L.A. for the Sept. 16 Emmys, but gives the impression she's not particularly looking forward to the event.

The 25-year-old actress, who earned an Oscar at age 11 for "The Piano," is up for Emmy honors for her role as Elaine Goodale in HBO's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." She doesn't expect to win and doesn't even plan to prepare an acceptance speech.

"Why set yourself up for disappointment?" says Paquin, who recalls how it felt when she was called to the stage to accept her "Piano" Oscar. "I was terrified. I was a very shy, very, very young 11. I don't think I had ever seen so many people at one time and to have them all sitting there waiting for me to say something ... It was awful."

She doesn't think the Emmys will be any better. "It will probably be more fun to just sit in the audience and clap for the winner. It's nice to be acknowledged — that's enough for me."

She goes on to say she hasn't yet seen the Emmy-nominated work of the competing actresses (Greta Scacchi for "Broken Trail," Samantha Morton for "Longford," Toni Collette for "Tsunami, The Aftermath" and Judy Davis for "The Starter Wife"). She notes, "It's odd that I'm being honored for television, because I have so little connection to the medium. I don't even own a TV, though I plan to someday get cable."

That would be nice, real nice, because she's going to have a firm attachment to cable soon, real soon — as star of Alan Ball's "True Blood," a series set in small-town Louisiana, about vampires who co-exist with humans by drinking synthetic blood. In the HBO series, which starts production late next month in L.A., Paquin will play a waitress who winds up falling for a vampire played by Stephen Moyer. "I'm extraordinarily excited. It's really cool and funny and done like no one does but Alan Ball," she says of the creator of the wonderful, quirky "Six Feet Under."

GREATER GOOD: Dermot Mulroney tells us he has no problem with the fact that his voice was replaced by Nicole Kidman's in "God Grew Tired of Us." "Funny enough, the original narrator was me," says Mulroney, who served as the associate producer on the award-winning documentary film by his childhood pal, Christopher Quinn. The change in narrators, he says, was completely intended. "When they got accepted in Sundance, Christopher showed a cut that had a temporary narration with me.

All the while, I told him that we should go big and find someone else. Christopher had met Nicole through Catherine," he says, referring to his ex-wife, Catherine Keener, "and then through Catherine he contacted her, and I know for a fact that she saw it once and said yes. Nicole's voice just ended up being perfect. It would be a different movie if you had me grumbling my way through that narration."

The film, now out on DVD, tells the inspirational true story of three boys from Sudan, who were forced to leave their homeland due to civil war, and made a new life for themselves in the United States. Brad Pitt, another buddy of Mulroney's, served as executive producer. "That was another case of Christopher being in the right place at the right time. He met Brad at a birthday party of ours. Before we knew it, they were huddled up at the bar talking about this project. At that point, Brad had already started becoming involved in African issues so it was a perfect match there. Aside from his financial help, he also knows the power of the media so he came out to promote the film as well."

TRIPPING THE LIGHT: Two-time "Dancing With the Stars" champion Cheryl Burke is looking forward to returning to the ABC show when its new season premieres in late September and says she's completely open to any partner she may be given. "I really don't care as long as the person is very open-minded and a hard worker, who is willing to do whatever it takes," claims Burke. Easy for her to say, considering she's been partnered with some of the most athletic men in the competition, with Drew Lachey, Emmitt Smith, and Ian Ziering. "It's very important when you do something new that you have an open mind. It's especially harder for men because they don't want to come across as feminine. Sometimes that makes them closed off to things." When asked if she's tried to talk any of her newfound celebrity friends into joining the program, Burke responds, "Sometimes I'll ask them, and they just laugh. When they hear it for the first time I think they just think they can't do it. They're very insecure about it. It's not until you start that you begin to get into it."

TIME OFF AT LAST: Sam Waterston reports his most recent "Law & Order" series break was unusual for him. "Every year I've done something different from the show over hiatus. This year, the different thing I did was to do nothing," says the actor, now back at work on his 17-year-old series. And not rushing around, he found, "was really good."

(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 2007 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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