Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Julia Ormond Applauds Claire Danes' Bravery, On and Off Camera/'Glee's' Romy Rosemont Would Like To Become Kurt's Mom

Julia Ormond is up for Emmy honors for HBO's "Temple Grandin" movie —but it almost sounds as if she's more interested in Claire Danes' "Temple Grandin" Emmy recognition than her own.

Danes put herself through a transformation — complete with curly red short hair, awkward physicality and an odd vocal cadence — to play the famous autistic author and cattle expert. Ormond, who plays her mother, Eustacia, stresses, "I'm not sure if people understand how out on a limb she went on her own. She took a bold stance of acting on the set. We were all acting normal, looking at her like, 'What's wrong with her?' That took guts and smarts," she says of Danes' decision not to emotionally connect with her fellow actors — either on or off camera.

Adds Ormond, "When I watch the film, despite having played Eustacia, I just want to leap into the celluloid and hug her."

Ormond says her own biggest challenge in making the highly acclaimed movie was "struggling with the uncertainty that I was representing parents of autistic children fairly. I've had a few people who've intersected with my life who have autistic children, and I know it's hard, very hard."

She had read Eustacia Grandin's book, but didn't meet her real-life alter ego until the movie's premiere. "Her whole wisdom was that she had to be able to do things for herself," notes the actress. Meeting the strong, tough-minded woman "was terrifying and wonderful at the same time. She was wonderfully sweet and supportive."

Ormond has completed two features since "Temple Grandin": "Albatross," which she calls "a quirky little British independent film," and "The Tambourine Man."

"I play a verbally abusive mom in the first one, and I play a music therapist in the other one," she reports. Based on a real-life case written about by neurologist and best-selling author Oliver Sacks, "Tambourine Man" is "about a boy who leaves his family at age 17, in the '60s, at such a turbulent point in American culture, when there is a divide between the father and son. The son is discovered at age 30, not having been in touch with his parents all that time, with his memory erased — all the way back until the point he was 17 — because of a brain tumor. It's a terrific story with a kind of poetical balance to it. It's being edited now."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Among the dramas to be played out in upcoming episodes of "Glee" is that of the relationship between Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Finn (Cory Monteith) — who made derogatory remarks about gay teens last season, rebuffing Kurt's crush on him.

So what's ahead for Finn and his widowed mom, Carole (Romy Rosemont), who now share the house of Kurt and his widowed dad (Mike O'Malley)?

Rosemont tells us she's also dying to find out what series creator Ryan Murphy has up his sleeve. "It seems like Finn and Kurt have worked things out; now it's time for the parents to work their stuff out. I'm sure it will be really interesting. One of the things I love so much about the show is that they tackle such difficult issues," she says.

As for herself, "I would love for Kurt to have a potential mother."

Rosemont is in the tricky position of putting herself out there for other work assignments while staying ready and free whenever she gets the "Glee" call. "I really like being part of this family, and I'm going to show up to dinner whenever I'm invited. You hope there aren't conflicts, or that if there are, people will accommodate and work things out. That's the life of a character actor: You kind of go on a wing and a prayer hoping things fall into place."

WOMAN OF MANY MEDIA: Busy Hollywood stuntwoman Jwaundace Candece isn't sitting around waiting to hear whether or not she's landed the assignment of doubling for Rihanna in the pop superstar's first big movie acting role, in "Battleship" — currently in preproduction in Hawaii. No, this one-of-a-kind woman, who holds a master's degree in psychology, is teaching an online class in the subject for the University of Phoenix while caring for her 7-month-old son, Bryce — while managing her burgeoning SingleMomToBe.com website.

One of a handful of top African-American stuntwomen in the business, Candece has doubled for Oscar winners Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson and Mo'Nique, in addition to such names as Tyra Banks and Queen Latifah. She was recently lit on fire for a sequence in Sam Worthington's forthcoming "The Fields." And she's had baby Bryce on set, sporting an outfit emblazoned "Stunt Runt."

The idea of launching a site where those embarking upon parenthood sans mates could meet and support one another online came to Candece because of her own experience. It's growing exponentially. Now, "There are even men on there, which did surprise me," she admits. "Men are going through what the mothers are going through, taking care of a child by themselves. I saw a guy put up a blog the other day, talking about being the sole custodian of his child, how hard it is, about his struggles with the mom."

In fact, there's a lot of stereotype-busting at SingleMomToBe.com. As Candece points out, there's a widespread perception that "successful women only become single mothers by choice. But successful women find themselves somehow ending up being single parents just like less successful women."

It certainly happened to her, and Candece has taken the poignant and sometimes funny story of her pregnancy and made a book out of it — an e-book, available on her website. Obviously, she's also an entrepreneur.

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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