Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Sexy Carla Gugino has just headed to Philadelphia to begin starring stints in the big-screen "Our Lady of Victory" with David Boreanaz and Ellen Burstyn — hoping that the feature helps fill a need.

"Today I don't think we have a lot of good women role models for young girls," says notes the actress. She believes Cathy Rush, who she will be playing in the movie, is one. In the 1970s, Rush coached the girls basketball team at the Catholic Immaculata College to three consecutive national championships — and gave the players a new way of thinking about themselves.

"They'd been taught to be humble, that girls are the lesser sex. She told them, 'Girls, it's OK to apply yourself, to believe in yourself, to play to win.' I think this story has a lot to say about something I think is very important, the equality of dreams," adds Carla.

Boreanaz plays her NBA referee husband, and Burstyn the school's mother superior.

"Our Lady of Victory" continues the pace of back-to-back projects Gugino's been keeping up for a year and a half. In fact, her current stint as a lusty agent on HBO's "Entourage" overlapped her shooting schedules for "Night at the Museum" and Mark Rydell's new "Even Money" feature with Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, Forrest Whitaker, Ray Liotta and Nick Cannon — in which Carla gives a terrific performance as a woman agonizingly in love with a bookie. She also squeezed in the forthcoming "American Gangster" with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.

"I really felt so blessed to be able to do them all in a relatively short amount of time," she tells us. "It's so cool to bounce back and forth and play all these different characters — which I could do, because they're all supporting parts. I felt like I was in a repertory theater."

With "Our Lady of Victory," however, the film rests squarely on her shoulders.

ON A NEW TRACK: "I think I almost had a nervous breakdown somewhere in the middle of it," says former KISS drummer/vocalist Peter Criss — aka "The Catman" — of solo producing his own album for the first time. "I was wearing a lot of hats," says Criss, who sang, played drums and wrote most of the material for his new SilverCat Records/Sony/Red CD, "All for One," hitting stores July 24.

"I'd never dared to sit in the producer's chair, and I wasn't going to because I didn't think I could.

The album was two and a half years in the making, and Criss says he'll be forever grateful to the musicians who contributed, including "Late Night with David Letterman's" Grammy-award-winning bandleader Paul Shaffer and bassist Will Lee. "Just when I was ready to commit myself to Bellevue, I'd get a call from Paul Shaffer saying, 'I love those drums, love what you're doing.'"

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: "Kyle XY" cutie Matt Dallas reports that when the ABC Family Channel show returns for its second season June 11, "All the questions from last year are answered in the first episode. We're not going to string you out like 'Lost.'" Those familiar with the show know that Dallas's character, Kyle XY, was discovered in the woods with no belly button and no memory of a prior history at all in the first season. "Why he doesn't have a belly button, why he's capable of doing what he's capable of … will all be answered," promises Dallas, then adds, "But then we bring up some new questions to be answered." Of course!

He says more and more of his character's superhuman abilities will be revealed this season as well. To that end, "They've got me doing all kinds of training, like taking guitar lessons and rock climbing, which was fun." And, "There are a lot more stunts this year, and they're actually letting me do a little bit more. One day they had me attached to cables, making these crazy leaps and jumps and falls. I love that kind of stuff."

A CHANGE OF SCENERY: Teen heartthrob Devon Werkheiser says his latest telepic, "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide to Field Trips, Permission Slips, Signs and Weasels," is "insane. It's my favorite 'Ned' ever because it was the most fun to shoot. It's the first time we leave James K. Polk to go out of the school, so we got to shoot on location. We were at (Southern California's) the Descanso Gardens, and it was amazing, really cool shooting there."

Werkheiser, who plays the popular tipster in Nickelodeon's sitcom "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide," notes that the new telepic, airing June 8, serves as the series' season finale. And what a finale it is. "It's our first field trip, there are art thieves, Cookie tries to be a superhero wearing nothing but a grass skirt." And, he says, fans of the show will finally find out if Ned's heart belongs to his longtime best friend, Moze (Lindsey Shaw) or his longtime crush, Suzie (Christian Serratos).

(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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