Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Jeff Foxworthy has a full dance card of TV and movie gigs of late — not only as a recurring investor on "Shark Tank" and as host of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" but also with his role in the big-screen sports comedy "Crackerjack" and his voice work in the forthcoming movie "The Smurfs." But don't get the idea he's aiming to veer away from stand-up comedy.

"Oh, my God, I wouldn't ever want to do that," says the nice guy funnyman, who is currently on the road with Blue Collar Comedy cohorts Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy.

"Twenty-seven years into doing comedy, we're filling up arenas, and I'm having as much fun as I've ever had. I've always said that laughter is like the relief valve that keeps the boiler from exploding. In a big room, it's infectious. If, for a couple of hours, we can make people not worry about stuff and have a shared experience, well, it doesn't get much better than that."

According to Jeff, his "Crackerjack" part as an announcer, widely touted as his first live-action acting role, is a small one. "I'm trying to help a couple of guys from my church out," he says, by appearing in the movie and providing input. "It's kind of cool. ... I always have a heart for the underdog."

Regarding this summer's "Smurfs" movie — in which he'll be heard along with a cast including Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Katy Perry, Alan Cumming, Hank Azaria, Jonathan Winters and George Lopez — Foxworthy says, "I don't know if my mustache will be blue or not. They're going to put a mustache on my character."

Foxworthy is the first to admit he's not the kind of guy who leaps to mind when "Shark Tank" entrepreneurs are discussed. When he's on the ABC show, he says, it reminds him of "the old 'Sesame Street' song: 'One of these things is not like the others.'"

His involvement came about because Mark Burnett produces both "Shark Tank" and "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" One day, he says, Burnett told him, "You know what you would be great on? You should do 'Shark Tank.'" He recounts, "I said, 'Are you kidding me? Those guys are worth a billion dollars!'" But Burnett convinced Foxworthy he has the business savvy.

And he is very different for "Shark Tank." "On day one, I came in and they said, 'Now do your tough-guy face,'" he tells us with a laugh. "But I'm much more of a goldfish than a shark. Seeing the contestants come in with their ideas takes me back 25 years, when I had the idea for a 'Redneck' book but didn't know how to advance it. It's a very sympathetic place for me. I think, 'Look over here. I know you're nervous. I'll make you relax.'"

BAD GIRLS: With Mark Harmon about to take a busman's holiday from "NCIS" — as star and producer of USA Network's movie "Certain Prey" — now the big question is, Who'll be cast as the two femmes fatales making his life oh so interesting in the adaptation of John Sandford's book? One is a successful attorney who, alas, is also mentally and emotionally out of kilter and hires a hit woman to do away with the wife of a man with whom she's infatuated. And the other is the hit woman. The two bad ladies bond in this splashy potboiler. Harmon, as Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport, will wind up shooting a woman before it's all through.

If all goes as USA Network hopes, this will be only the first "Prey" picture for Harmon — part of his deal when he re-upped for two more years of "NCIS" back in February. The network has rights to all 20 of the novels in Sandford's "Prey" series.

SERIOUSLY?: Casting is under way for "Love Doctor," which may sound like a romantic comedy but is actually a reality show described as "a competition docu series featuring couples whose relationships are on the rocks." What's wanted now is a host who qualifies as an expert in relationship counseling, someone who "has a sassy comic side but can revert back to a serious state as situations call for it." Could be male or female. That's right; we said it's a competition.

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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