Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

When Jonah Hill's "Allen Gregory" debuts on Fox this fall, there'll be another gay father on primetime TV to rival Cameron and Mitchell (Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson) of "Modern Family."

French Stewart voices that character, Richard — Allen Gregory's dad — and he admits that Richard is often irritating. But then, "Allen Gregory" is an animated show. It will be sandwiched between "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." So it comes with certain expectations.

"I've been wanting to play a gay dad for a while now, ironically," says Stewart, who rose to fame on late-'90s sitcom "3rd Rock from the Sun." "I lived in West Hollywood for 15 years, and I just feel like it's my community. It's my people. My wife and I are a part of the community. It was just sort of this great flavor, and I thought, 'I'd really like to play that.'"

But Richard is, as Stewart himself puts it, "selfish, and he's overly obsessed with his son. He's probably not a very good father." He has a life partner, Jeremy (Nat Faxon), and an adopted Cambodian "trophy daughter," in addition to the preternaturally mature, brilliant and spoiled Allen, who was born via surrogate. They live in a tastefully appointed loft.

"He's a bulldog who will inflict his way on everyone around him and make them do exactly what he wants them to do," Stewart says. "He's the motor, and he's sort of pushing his plan across. The bad thing about it is, it's usually a really bad plan. He's really egomaniacal, so he's a bit of a mixed bag. He's really fun to play."

Considering the scarcity of gay fathers on TV, Richard is sort of carrying the mantle for an entire group. Does that worry Stewart at all?

"No," he says.

"I think that as a community, they've got a really good sense of humor. And I think if they recognize truth in a character that they'll be cool with it. If not, they'll let me know. I'm sure of that." Stewart laughs. "I also think Richard's got a humanity to him ... Every now and then, he'll have a soft spot that is just enough to peek inside of him."

MAN OF MANY HATS: Luke Wilson is getting ready to direct his own script as well as star in "Juarez 9." It's a $5 million picture about a baseball player who gets let go from the minor leagues and then heads to Mexico to play for a team that, as it turns out, has an owner who's the leader of a drug cartel. They're ordered to lose, but Luke's character is there to win! It sounds like it could be a winner, indeed.

CASTING CORNER: With an Aug. 26 start date set for "Argo" — the Ben Affleck-directed, George Clooney-produced sci-fi political-satire hostage thriller — some very colorful casting has been under way for subsidiary characters. For instance, casting forces on the film are looking for a Persian model, age 18-30, with a 32-to-34-inch bust and a 27-inch waist to wear a specific costume with castles on the chest. (Natural breasts only!)

Also needed, according to casting notices, are a little person, actors with character faces, "star troopers, male and female," a "space lord villain" and assorted other sci-fi extras.

A September production start is looming and preproduction is revving up on Steven Soderbergh's "Magic Mike," the movie inspired by Channing Tatum's adventures as a teenage male stripper. Alex Pettyfer is playing the young guy, and Channing himself is playing his older mentor. Subsidiary roles of other strippers, party girls, club employees and the like are being cast. Production is planned for Los Angeles and Tampa, Fla.

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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