Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"This American Life," the Showtime series, may be cutting back from six episodes this year to several specials. The sticking point is not its success — the Emmy-winning show, like its public radio counterpart, has an avid following. It's finding enough material, according to host and exec producer Ira Glass, who notes that TV stories are "much harder" to find than audio tales.

"We need stories with real drama, things unfolding, something at stake and characters we can relate to —' ideally, with people doing something that has a visual component to it. It's incredibly important to have something interesting to look at."

It's enough to make Glass understand shows that stage their finer moments. "Doing this makes me sympathetic to those reality show programmers and respectful of the dramatic cunning involved in making those shows happen," says the public radio mainstay.

Glass and his team came up with gems last season, like their trek with a young Iraqi refugee on a road trip across the United States, and the saga of two bottom-rung boxers, lifelong friends, who each needed to win their scheduled match at all costs — as can be seen on the season 2 DVD coming out Jan. 20

"This American Life" has also become a hothouse of film development. The radio show already spawned the big screen "Unaccompanied Minors." Now there are so many potential films growing out of their singular stories, the "This American Life" team has staff devoted solely to movie work, in conjunction with entities including DreamWorks and Fox Searchlight. Glass tells us that among many prospects, there is, for instance, a buddy comedy based on contributor John Hodgman's encounter with Cuervo Man, a "professional party catalyst" who led revelers on a Cuervo Nation Caribbean holiday with a plunger stuck to his bald head — and turned out to be a teetotaling Ivy League graduate. That one's being penned by a "Daily Show" writer now. There's also a spy romance thriller, says Glass.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Lil Mama, who recently collaborated with Chris Brown and T-Pain for the hit song "Shawty Get Loose," has quickly become one of the hottest additions to hip-hop, but the young rapper tells us she is still struggling to get respect.

"It's definitely a struggle with the respect in the rap game as a female. Lil Mama, myself, I have changed the rap game. I came in the game as a strong lyricist, bringing confidence and a lot of personality. It influenced men to step their game up and come harder.

It influenced companies to want to put out younger, female acts. Lil Mama does not get respect for that, but it doesn't start with my projects or my career. It has been before me with women in Hollywood as far as rap music, acting, writing, producing or whatever," notes the 19-year-old. "Women just don't get the same respect as men. However, I am a very strong woman, so I will get my respect."

One place where she is most definitely respected is at MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew," where she is a judge alongside Shane Sparks and J.C. Chasez. With the dance show returning tonight (1/15) for a third season, Lil Mama tells us she expects to see a whole new level of competition. "The show definitely set a standard, so the level of competition gets better every time we do it. I haven't been able to see the crews yet, but I've heard they're really, really cool. There's a lot of versatility," she says. "I think the crews are taking themselves more seriously than ever before. There are so many crews who have already made their mark that the ones coming in definitely have to come harder than the season before."

SO YOU WANNA BE A MOVIE STAR?: With his "Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia" movie newly in DVD release, WWE SmackDown's Mr. Kennedy (nee Kenneth Anderson) tells us he wants to do more movie work — but "first and foremost I'm an entertainer, a wrestler. There's so much stuff I want to accomplish in this business."

Besides, he discovered some of the drawbacks of filming in his movie debut. "To me, the hardest part about it was doing multiple takes. I like to be spontaneous. I've become very used to doing improv, which is what we have to do in our business all the time. Doing the movie, there were a lot of takes of very physical scenes. In one, I'm carrying the guy through the jungle with 30-40 pounds of extra weight on, going through these potholes and vines, slipping on leaves and mud, over and over and over again. It was really humid in the rainforest, and that and the long hours — it took some pushing to get through it." Tim Matheson directed the action flick, and costars along with Keith David.

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW: Wayne Knight, whose vast array of roles spans from "Seinfeld" to the movie "Punisher: War Zone," reports he's "writing a couple of projects, one inspired by a period of time I worked as a private investigator in New York, the other just about my experiences being an actor." The latter is called "Send in the Fat Indian," which Knight recalls from his first acting job, a soda pop commercial. He was asked to wear buckskins, and sat outside the soundstage awaiting his turn on camera when he heard the director call out for him.

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.

COPYRIGHT 2008 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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