Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

People who think of actor/comedian Jay Mohr as caustic and angry probably haven't talked to him lately. "I was bananas for a long time. I'm not proud of who I was. It was a result of unhappiness," admits "Ghost Whisperer's" resident guest star, who wed gorgeous "Las Vegas" actress Nikki Cox in December.

"Through her eyes, I feel like I'm becoming the guy I always wished I was," he says.

He also says, "I have a lot of fun with the crew on the set, joking around, but at home it's different, quiet. There's no shouting." And Nikki posted a magazine clipping that sums up their outlook. "It says, 'Be Kind.'"

Mohr tells us that these days, for him there's "no more gossip, no more negative speaking … I have a mental picture of walking in the light. If you're putting negativity out there, you're polluting your own light, and who wants to do that?"

Meanwhile, his professional life is full. There's "Ghost Whisperer" — on which his college professor/skeptic character is being heavily featured in coming weeks, with a couple of surprise twists. "We're shooting the last episode for this season, then we'll wait to hear whether we're going to come back," he says. He definitely hopes so. Among other things, he enjoys bringing his young son from his first marriage to the set. For another, he finds Jennifer Love Hewitt "so nice that you find yourself waiting for the other shoe to drop."

And he has "Lonely Street," the big-screen comedy on which he serves as a producer as well as star — it involves Elvis Presley and the murder of a tabloid reporter — which boasts a cast including Robert Patrick, Joe Mantegna, Ernie Hudson, Paul Rodriguez and … Nikki Cox. "We're down to clearance issues for the music," says Jay, "and just trying to tighten it up before unleashing it on the world."

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: With the finale episode of the first season of ABC Family's "Lincoln Heights" airing tonight (4/2), star Russell Hornsby reports the show is likely to go back into production in June. It's been picked up for at least 10 episodes for season two — amid widespread acclaim for the series about an African-American cop who moves his family back into his old inner-city neighborhood. "I'm overjoyed and I'm proud, and I'm proud of my community, the African-American community, as well as the human public at large," he says.

The actor, who's currently starring in August Wilson's "King Hedley II" in New York, says he drew inspiration for his portrayal in "Lincoln Heights" from "two uncles of mine, Edward and Franklin Redd, a judge and a constable in the Roxbury section of Boston.

They went to school and then chose to come back and serve the community. They are my role models."

REALITY GAVE THEM A ROLE: Rap mogul P. Diddy may not have wanted Taquita Thorn and Kaui Beamer for his all-girl group, Danity Kane, which was formed on "Making the Band 3," but that doesn't mean their fame ride is over. The girls are taking their newfound skills to their own MTV show, "Taquita and Kaui," premiering tonight (4/2). The new show finds the girls pursuing their dreams of stardom in Las Vegas.

"We thought we were going to come here and be all of that, and they showed us otherwise. They put us right in the back," Taquita admits. Kaui chimes in with a laugh, "I was in the back in 'Making the Band 3,' too, so it's not too different."

But they've picked up some valuable lessons along the way. "I know that I had a strong personality, and I was used to doing on-the-spot things," says Taquita. "With Diddy, it was on a whole different level. When he would come around, we knew he was going to do something crazy. But it taught us how to be strong."

BACK FROM ANOTHER WORLD: "Not only were we nervous, we expected it to go horribly wrong," says Brad Sherwood, speaking of his and Colin Mochrie's appearance last week at the White House TV and Radio Correspondents Dinner — during which, among other things, Sherwood induced Karl Rove to get up onstage and rap and dance.

"It's the comedy equivalent of an alien abduction," Sherwood says now. "I had no idea who I was going to pick to come up. It had to be someone recognizable, who was close to the stage, and who might be fun. Karl Rove was one of the more interesting people in the room." If Rove had said no, Sherwood also had his eye on George Stephanopoulos and Wolf Blitzer, by the way.

The two "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" improv artists — who are heavily booked on a comedy concert tour until summer — also got NBC's Brian Williams to join in their bit the other night. "He threatened to kill me three times," says Mochrie. He also admits, "We've done a lot of corporate events where the last thing the audience wants is to see us. They just want to drink and socialize. But we could see right away that these people were ready to have fun. This was the media, who, of course, are very responsible and lovely to performers." Hm. Do we detect a hint of sarcasm?

(With reports by Stephanie DuBois and 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 2007 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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