Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"Chelsea Lately" writer/performer Fortune Feimster was surprised by the widespread retweeting and re-quoting of her Twitter comment last week regarding the revelation of Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child. The rising comedy performer cracked: "Good thing Arnold Schwarzenegger has been upholding the sanctity of marriage since apparently us gay folks don't know how to" — and the remark was picked up by entities including the Los Angeles Times.

She then got some flak from people who defended Schwarzenegger.

"I'm not trying to offend anybody, but he vetoed two marriage equality bills, and I have a right to point that out," notes Feimster, who is poised, articulate, steady and very, very smart.

We know that she is all those things because she was on staff here at Beck/Smith Hollywood Exclusive for several years while cutting her teeth in the comedy realm. She is also an alumna of the famed Groundlings improv company, as well as a stand-up comic seen in clubs on both coasts and in between — who got her first national exposure last year on "Last Comic Standing."

The intensity of a burgeoning show-business career would be plenty to deal with without the added responsibility of being watched as an out gay woman. But "I don't mind having that responsibility," she says. "I'm a gay person. Obviously, I have strong opinions about our rights."

Meanwhile, Chelsea Handler couldn't be a hotter property, of course, with the new "Lies That Chelsea Told Me" attaining No. 1 on the New York Times Best-Seller List, her popular E! show and now, her newly picked-up NBC prime-time series, "Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea." (Laura Prepon is playing Chelsea, while the comedian herself shows up as a recurring character, Chelsea's sister.) For Feimster, the focus is Handler's 11 p.m. show and all the convivial contretemps that go with it.

How does she feel about Handler's remarks about her clothes, her size — calling her "Mister"?

"It's like getting picked on by a big sister. It's all out of love. She doesn't say anything about me that I don't joke about myself. I never feel it's out of meanness. She also jokes about herself and other people, like Brad (Wollack) and his red hair. She homes in on whatever it is that makes you different," says the North Carolina-born performer, who stresses that she's grateful to her very funny boss.

Up till now, Feimster's job requirements have included antics from portraying the singer Meat Loaf and terminally chic reality personality Rachel Zoe, to having to be seen in a bikini top.

She doesn't mind looking ridiculous, but "I'm not one to bare it all," she says. "I have my limits. No nudity."

BOYS WILL BE BOYS: Sounds like continuity error aficionados can have some fun with the campy Herman's Hermits movies "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter," "Hold On!" and "When the Boys Meet the Girls" — all of which have been freshly brought out by Warner Archive Collection.

"When we did 'Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter,' we'd been touring 360 days a year, and then suddenly, we were working in one place all the time, eating three healthy meals a day, instead of rushing to make our trains and planes. I went from 110 pounds to 140 pounds," recalls Hermits front man Peter Noone. Consequently, if you look closely, his weight pops up and down, scene to scene.

The trio of movies takes Noone back to pop music's British Invasion of the mid-1960s, when he and his band mates sold some 60 million records and had a heck of a good time. Seeing the movies again, he says he's impressed with "how naively optimistic everybody was in those days. It was a wonderful time, you know. Nothing really mattered. We were in show business, and nobody ever asked us about politics. Probably not one person in the band even knew who the American president was," admits Noone, who was all of 15 when he became "Herman."

"We were kids. We knew good songs for a movie. That was our thing, or sitting around talking about girls. We may have been selling millions of records, but we still behaved like teenage boys."

He recalls MGM brass recoiling at the news that he and his chums "could be seen riding around Benedict Canyon on motorcycles. They wanted us in bed at 8 o'clock, so we could be ready on the set at 8 in the morning. But normally, we'd be up till 5 — and then still get to the set by 8. The things you can do at that age," he says with a laugh.

"We were never malicious," adds Noone, who still plays 100 concert dates in the U.S. and another 100 in the U.K. every year. "We took it all in like a dream sequence."

THE BIG-SCREEN SCENE: Nickelodeon It Girl Victoria Justice will be spending part of the summer in Cleveland — where she's due to shoot her first feature starring role in the big-screen "Fun Size." The feature has the "Zoey 101" and "Victorious" actress-singer playing a 17-year-old who can't wait to leave the confines of her home and get to NYU, where she's been accepted. However, there's a Halloween night and an unruly 8-year-old to deal with first, and things go very wrong.

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 2011 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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