Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Henry Jaglom is looking forward to unveiling a heretofore unseen Noah Wyle when his "Queen of the Lot" hits screens, beginning in October.

Says the esteemed indie filmmaker, "He totally breaks that 'ER' image. He shows enormous depth and has a quality about him like those old movie stars — Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda — a kind of earnestness and charm."

Speaking of his leading lady, Tanna Frederick, Jaglom adds that Wyle also "sparks with Tanna to an amazing degree. She's really met her match here."

That sparking ignited tabloid reports that had the "Queen of the Lot" couple continuing their burning passion off camera, particularly as Wyle and his wife of 11 years separated last year. However, Jaglom is quick to say, "They made that up. Nobody was more surprised than Noah and Tanna to see that. It's kind of a tribute to their chemistry; people would like it to be real."

We erred the other day in indicating that Wyle, as well as some others in the "Queen of the Lot" cast, were playing themselves. He's playing the kind of reporter who covers celebrity scandals, as a matter of fact. Jaglom stresses, "I surrounded Tanna and Noah with such a great supporting cast, I want to be sure they get credit."

That cast includes Peter Bogdanovich, playing a "down-on-his-luck director" who is a member of the multi-generational Hollywood family at the heart of the movie. The matriarch is played by Kathryn Crosby, aka Kathryn Grant, aka Bing Crosby's widow. Mary Crosby is playing the daughter. Dennis Christopher of "Breaking Away" also has a role.

"It's a backstage look at the breakdown of the Hollywood studio system through this family." And Frederick's starlet character, Margie — who now goes by Maggie — is "a young woman trying to figure out a way to reconstitute it," Jaglom says.

"Queen of the Lot" is the sequel to Jaglom's 2007 "Hollywood Dreams," which has acquired a cult following thanks to Frederick's fearless performance and Jaglom's way with Hollywood insider content. Don't be surprised if there's a third Maggie film. First, though, he's making the movie version of his play "Just 45 Minutes From Broadway" — shooting now — with Frederick starring and Mary Crosby also in the cast.

MIXED 'BLOOD': Does Lindsey Haun know the future of her "True Blood" character, Hadley Stackhouse?

"I do, but I can't tell you.

It's so frustrating — all my friends are fans of the show, and they want to know, but I can't say anything," admits the beautiful blond actress-singer-songwriter, whose character lives in the vampire world as the lover of vampire queen Sophie-Anne (Evan Rachel Wood).

Haun certainly has a full plate of activities to focus her attention upon while awaiting reveals on the popular HBO show. Her labor-of-love album "The Haun Solo Project" is coming out Aug. 14. She'll be heading out on tour in support of it with her Haun Solo Project group, beginning with concerts in L.A. and New York.

"After I left my old label, I wasn't even sure if I'd do music again. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't want to be a pop star — not Taylor Swift, not Britney Spears," she says, though she felt the pressure of such expectations from outside parties.

She goes on, "I'd gone through a big breakup, and I wound up going to my dad's cabin in Utah. I wasn't planning on writing, but I ended up writing an album. The drummer in my hard rock band said, 'We have to do something with this. We can't just let it lie. It's something you have to share with the world. I'm not going to let you not do anything with it.'"

Haun, who is a performer in monthly residency at the Cat Club on Sunset Boulevard in L.A., got nudges from other friends and colleagues as well. She eventually asked her father — guitarist Jimmy Haun — to produce the album because "there was no one I wanted to work with more. He's a composer, a musician. I've grown up around the studio watching him record. He's taught me a lot. It turned out to be a wonderful bonding experience."

INDUSTRY EYE: "Drive" is finally heading into production in mid-late September with Ryan Gosling behind the wheel — after years of stops, starts and stalls through development and a detour when it appeared the James Sallis mystery adaptation would have Hugh Jackman as lead.

Casting of a few subsidiary characters (a Latino couple, their young son) is being finalized for the new noir crime thriller that has Gosling as a movie stunt driver who gets an adrenaline rush by serving as wheel man in a string of robberies.

DEJA VU AND DEJA TWO: Casting is under way for "Painting in the Rain," an indie film about a guy who is given the opportunity to live his relationship again and again until he gets it right. Um. They already got it right, in a movie called "Groundhog Day."

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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