Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Talk about bursting into stardom! With Willow Smith's extremely catchy "Whip My Hair" video burning up the Internet this week, it's safe to say mama saw it coming. Back at the beginning of the summer, Jada Pinkett Smith tipped us off that Willow had a music project on the way that was really going to be something.

"Willow is explosive, she's all energy," Jada explains. "She's like her father in that way — very extroverted. She deals with the public like Will does, but her creative sensibilities are very much like mine. Very unconventional."

Indeed. Willow's already being hailed a style maker, what with such eye-catching fashion flourishes as the chrome band she sports around her ear and what look like lip and eyelid piercings. (No, no, no!) Willow's radio comment about being interested in working with Lady Gaga has been picked up by outlets all around the world.

You may recall that when the Smiths were in China for the making of son Jaden's "Karate Kid" film, Willow fell in love with the culture to the extent that she took up Mandarin — and continued learning the language back in Los Angeles so she could speak it better when the family returned to China for the movie's premiere.

Hard to believe she doesn't even turn 10 until Halloween.

HEAR HER HOWL: Speaking of Halloween, here's a unique approach to overcoming the insecurity and popularity issues that plague many a teenage girl: Find your inner werewolf. At least, that's kind of what happens to Victoria Justice's character in "The Boy Who Cried Werewolf." The Nickelodeon movie, also starring Brooke Shields (doing an homage to "Young Frankenstein's" Frau Blucher), debuts Saturday, Oct. 23.

"I thought my character in the movie was relatable to a lot of girls — she doesn't have a lot of friends, the popular hot jock doesn't notice her," said the beautiful 17-year-old star of Nickelodeon's "Victorious" series. However, as she is coping with that certain problem that starts to overcome her after her exposure to wolf blood, "She starts gaining inner confidence in herself. She realizes beauty is more than skin deep, it comes from within. You have to feel good about yourself."

Victoria admits she wasn't so sure about handling the werewolf aspect of the role, however.

"I was really excited to do the role. It had so much action that was like nothing I'd ever done before. Luckily, I wasn't always in the transformation stages. I didn't always have to be in the prosthetics."

When she did have to get fully wolfed-out, "It took about three hours, I would say. You just have to sit there and not talk. I would put on my iPod and try to go to sleep. Getting to walk out of there in hair and makeup was really awesome."

Now Victoria's getting ready to start filming Monday, Oct. 25, on the second season of her music-filled sitcom that's set in a performing arts high school. "I think we're all really excited for the second season. We learned a lot of things from the first season, got to know each other really well, got used to comedic timing. The later episodes were some of the best ones. I'd be the first to say the first season left a lot of room to grow."

She reports there will be even more music in the second season of the show than in the first. Personally, "I think it would be really cool to see her break up with a guy or something, to see that softer side — real emotions. I think even though it's a Nickelodeon show, people would respond to that realness."

SWEET VINDICATION: It's a good bet that Jay Leno is loving the press surrounding Bill Carter's soon-to-be-released "The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy." The New York Times scribe who chronicled the Leno-David Letterman battle for "The Tonight Show" in 1989 to great acclaim (and an HBO movie) now dishes the details of "The Jay Leno Show" debacle. Conan O'Brien and team come off as a supercilious bunch, to say the least. NBC bosses look like bumblers. And Leno is depicted as a guy understandably bemused by the fact that he brought the network years of ratings victories only to be handed a pink slip. Wonder what Jimmy Kimmel and other comics who've been using Leno as a punch line punching bag will have to say — if anything. The book comes out on Nov. 4.

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: Greg Grunberg says that the idea of his bringing back the ultra-colorful Harry Mudd character from the original "Star Trek" series in one of his longtime pal J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" movies is just that — an idea. "There's been no serious talk about it. I'd do anything they want me to," adds the former "Heroes" star. Mudd definitely has an appeal: "He wears crazy hats, an earring. He has beautiful women around him all the time."

With reports by Emily-Fortune 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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