Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Lisa Rinna, host for the TV Guide Channel, has made news as of late for posing for Playboy at the age of 45 in their May issue, and her hubby Harry Hamlin tells us he stands by his woman in her decision.

"I've seen the photographs, and they're beautiful," Harry wants us to know. He reminds, "This is not the first time she has posed for Playboy. The first time she posed when she was seven months pregnant with our first daughter. Lisa was so proud of her body when she was pregnant and the womanhood of that. She really wanted to go there and share that with people," Hamlin recalls.

"They came back to her 10 years later, saying, 'You're 45, and you've had two kids, but your body is still in amazing shape. What do you think about doing it again?' and she agreed. For me, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. For her, it's very meaningful, so I'm there to support her in anything she wants to do. She does work hard to look the way she looks, so that makes me a lucky guy."

In the meantime, Hamlin has been busy with his own projects, including a role on CBS's upcoming midseason replacement "Harper's Island," which premieres in April. "I'm guessing this could be CBS's attempt to counterprogram 'Lost,' even though they're not in the same time slot. It's similar in that it takes place on an island and weird things happen, so it kind of has the same allure as a show like 'Lost,'" he says of the murder mystery show. "It's an interesting show because as it goes on, more and more people disappear, and you never know who's going next or who the culprit is. Plus, there are a lot of surprises. You'll never be able to predict what's going to happen next."

WHY IS IT: When Hilary Swank failed to thank then-husband Chad Lowe in her Oscar acceptance speech, the omission caused a media uproar. But when Sean Penn thanks his "circle of longtime support" including best friend Sato Masuzawa (his assistant), but fails to thank wife Robin Wright Penn — or, for that matter, mention Harvey Milk – in his "Milk" Best Actor acceptance speech, the omission goes all but unnoticed.

When Angelina Jolie told the BBC last fall that she was going to slowly wind down her movie career in order to spend time with her children, she was quoted all over the world in Angelina to Retire stories.

But now that she's making the spy thriller "Salt," and still has a To Do list that includes going to Russia to play Catherine the Great in Randall Wallace's "The Mercenary: Love and Honor" — not to mention still being expected to star in "Atlas Shrugged," scripted by Wallace — few notice she doesn't seem to be winding it down. Maybe it's so slow it's imperceptible.

UNEXPECTED: Ryan Murphy has made quite a name for himself by pushing the envelope on his show "Nip/Tuck" — which is why it's surprising that he would sweeten things up a bit with the upcoming musical comedy "Glee."

"Totally. You're like, 'What? Ryan's doing a show about a high school glee club?'" acknowledges Jessalyn Gilsig, star of the forthcoming Fox show. "I knew he'd done 'Popular,' so it's not his first teen comedy, but this particular show is really sweet and very heartfelt," adds Jessalyn, who also played Gina Russo on "Nip/Tuck."

"One of the things about 'Nip/Tuck,' I know it has very shocking subject matter, but it's really preoccupied in dealing with the sense of trying to belong, and that's such a high school thing," she notes.

However, as she points out, a talented writer is a talented writer. "I feel like people will watch this and say, 'Oh, this is what he does.' He's just very good that way. It's sort of like a novelist who writes something set in Ireland, and then does something set in Italy, but you'd swear that person was Irish or Italian based on the book." While the show has not been given an exact premiere date, it is expected to snag the post-"American Idol" timeslot in the spring.

"We're just starting the first episode after the pilot right now. We're really excited," she says. "It's a very strange time obviously. To say I'm grateful to have this job is probably an understatement. Everyone's just glad to be working, and Ryan has such a clear vision that we're excited to go deeper into it."

With reports by 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.

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