Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Hot 'Entourage' Season Ahead, Adrian Grenier Blase About Ratings/Miley Cyrus Latest Disney Darling To Go from Virginal to Vixenish

Adrian Grenier is happy with all the positive reviews so far for the new season of his "Entourage," which has been widely applauded as back in top form after one of its lesser seasons. As for reports that the show opened with a 25 percent ratings drop from last year, well, they don't even seem to be a blip on his radar.

"I don't really think about it. You know, the new media and new technology has changed everything, including how people end up coming to watch a show," he points out. "I know a lot of guys who TiVo it. People wait to for it to come out in a format they can watch. This show in particular is a very communal show — groups of 20 or 30 people get together and watch it. So whatever ratings you mention, they're going to be inaccurate."

"Entourage" has a lot of changes in store for Vince this season. "He really comes out of his shell, his protective womb. I think it was an inevitable turn," says Grenier. "He feels like he's losing his support system, and he has to, for the first time, step out and take care of himself. He doesn't initially want to take that responsibility. He rebels a little against having to be independent. It's a growing-up and coming-of-age story of sorts. At the end of the day, he has to grow."

Grenier says that show creator Doug Ellin "talks to me about the depths I'm willing to go with the character. I'm fine with it. I'm a team player. I want to do everything I can to make the best show possible."

THE BIG-SCREEN SCENE: With all the talk about whether or not "Red Dawn" will indeed be released in November as planned — considering MGM's financial woes and possible sale — reshoots are quietly going forward on the film. Casting was recently done for additional Chinese military characters in the remake of John Milius' 1984 feature about a ragtag band of teens who stave off a communist invasion of the U.S. However, Josh Hutcherson tells us the reshoots are "much less than I've done for a lot of other films." Also still to be done is a soundtrack for the new "Dawn."

WRITE ON: America's queen of suspense, worldwide best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark, will share secrets of her craft with guests aboard the Silversea's elegant Silver Whisper cruise ship next January and early February.

Clark, whose books have sold over 100 million copies in the U.S. alone, will give insights about her writing in lectures and a Q&A session, as the ship glides from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Valparaiso, Chile. Exciting news for those who are fans of suspense, or simply appreciate a terrific story.

VIRGINAL TO VIXENISH: As Miley Cyrus contemplates her disappointing "Can't Be Tamed" album sales and absorbs response to her latest stream of "Let Me Prove to You I'm a Grown-up" antics — lap dancing with a director, vamping it up in tarty outfits on stage — we can't help but compare her journey to those of so many Disney darlings before her.

What is it about crashing a good-girl image to smithereens that makes it so inviting?

Of course, Britney Spears leaps to mind. Cyrus has made it clear she's a huge fan of the 28-year-old superstar whose rollercoaster life has provided careers for tabloid writers and bloggers and paparazzi since 1999, when the former Mousketeer caused a stir with a Rolling Stone magazine cover in which she appeared lying on her bed clad in shorts, bra and open top. The American Family Association called for a boycott of stores selling her albums — shades of Cyrus' Vanity Fair Lolita-esque photo brouhaha.

Christina Aguilera, Spears' fellow former Mouseketeer, traded in her girl-next-door wholesomeness for piercings, a neck tattoo and a string of raunchy songs and videos.

Older audience members remember original Mousketeer Doreen Tracey, who posed for the men's magazine Gallery wearing her Mousketeer ears and not much else, and who came out with a book, "Confessions of a Mouseketeer."

Sadly, there is the train wreck that is once-promising Disney movie star Lindsay Lohan.

Somehow, "Princess Diaries" star Anne Hathaway managed to transition to adulthood in such a deft and sophisticated way, her audience accepted her doing nudity in movies and handling exceptionally gritty material — as in her Oscar-nominated turn in "Rachel Getting Married" — with little turmoil.

Which is more than can be said for Hathaway's onscreen grandma, the Queen of Genovia herself, the great Julie Andrews. Globally adored after successes including "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music," she was delighted when her husband, Blake Edwards, put her in his 1981 satire "S.O.B." as a goody-goody actress who makes a musical that flops and is then re-shot as a pornographic film.

"Mary Poppins Goes Topless," screamed headlines. It created a furor at the time, but was eventually granted grudging acceptance. Sure, she did it — but we'd rather watch the movies that have our Andrews practically perfect in every way.

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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