Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Comedian Kathy Griffin reports she'll be heading to Mexico in April for the launch of a girls' school — "like Oprah," she says, referring to Oprah Winfrey and her famous Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

What does Kathy aim to do? "I thought it would be a good way to get press in Mexico. I can pass along the morals and values that are important to me in my life and get my name in the Puerto Vallarta newspaper," she deadpans.

But seriously, folks. It's real. "Steve Wozniak is supplying all the equipment. When he heard about it, he came in on it, which makes it special and wonderful," Kathy says. "If nothing else, they'll get some Apple computers." Griffin and the billionaire Apple Computer cofounder have been dating since last summer.

But first, the "My Life on the D-List" star, who has a way of alternately infuriating the public (as in her "this is my god now" Emmy acceptance speech) and endearing herself (as in her many charity and USO gigs), has a crammed agenda of work. This past week she was in Las Vegas to shoot her March 16 "World's Funniest Commercials: Hilarious Liaisons" special for TBS. How did she fit the show in between shooting the fourth season installments of her Bravo "D-List" series?

"I was supposed to be off from 'D-List' for a week," she explains. She adds, "The commercials really are hilarious — there are European ones that are naughty and sexy. And I got to stay on an extra night and see Bette Midler perform."

This time around, the "Funniest Commercials" focus is on relationships, and where better, asks Kathy, than Las Vegas, "the marriage capital and the divorce capital of the world"?

The special, with a guest appearance by Penn Gillette, has Kathy and crew hitting such hallowed grounds as the chapel where Britney Spears and her 55-hour first husband, Jason Alexander, said their vows. Notes the funny lady, "Love is in bloom here, as long as you're passing the bag."

OSCAR AFTERMATH: Hal Holbrook may not have won the Oscar for his work in "Into the Wild," but the respected 83-year-old actor is taking away with him the knowledge that people were genuinely moved by his performance and the movie.

He claims that's as good, if not better, than any award. "What I keep in mind is what people say when they stop me in the street now. I was in the Century City Mall, and one woman stopped me and said the most beautiful thing to me about what this meant to her. You can't buy that," he notes. "If we can reach people, make them feel, make them think — that's really what actors hope for. If you're lucky enough to get a role like this one that Sean (Penn) gave me, then you can do that."

COMING AROUND AGAIN: Musical theater great Shirley Jones tells us she's more than glad to be revisiting "The Music Man," playing Mama Paroo in the 50th anniversary production being put on in Hartford, Conn., in April. The show completes a set for the actress.

Jones, you'll recall, played beautiful Marian the Librarian in the 1962 film of the Meredith Willson classic — and the stage stint will mark the third time she's revisited one of her early successes to play an older character than she did the first time around. "I played Aunt Eller in 'Oklahoma!' and Cousin Nettie in 'Carousel' and now this. I will have done all of them on stage," she notes. "It's going to be a huge thing, in a big, beautiful theater."

In another bit of symmetry: Jones was pregnant with son Patrick Cassidy when the movie was made — the late Robert Preston even felt him kick when Preston and Jones filmed their embrace-on-the-footbridge scene — and now it's going to be Patrick starring as fast-talking con man "Professor" Harold Hill.

Shirley, by the way, has also finished filming the hosting of seven hours of an upcoming PBS series about the great American musical.

PERMANENTLY PRESSED: Al Franken, who was a writer for "Saturday Night Live" for 15 years, tells us he got so used to the pressure of writing for a live comedy show that he still carries that with him today. "I work well under pressure any way now," claims Franken. "It's like that nightmare you have of going to an exam in college and not having done any reading — I get it less and less as I get older. But I still have it every once in a while."

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 2008 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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