Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Veteran actress Kathleen Turner has had a well-publicized battle with rheumatoid arthritis for years, which led her to a difficult bout with drinking and very much affected her acting career. Thanks to advances in medicine, not only is Turner's career getting back on track, but also she tells us her health is considerably better.

"The medications have completely changed. It used to be all these steroids and chemotherapy. Now there's been a lot more research in the last eight years. I'm off all of those poisons. They truly are poisons," notes Turner, who has been spending much of her career as of late on Broadway.

"What the new stuff does is keep me in remission. Now what I'm dealing with is trying to fix or correct some of the damage from before these medications because that was considerable. Hopefully I'll stay in remission with the new stuff because it's hard mentally. You're like, 'Can I have one day without pain, please?' I'm definitely a thousand times better," says a grateful Turner. "I'm having a full knee replacement next month. I'm not looking forward to that, but it has to be done if I want to keep acting, and I will certainly keep acting."

Turner has actually been turning heads with a recurring guest role on Showtime's "Californication" alongside David Duchovny. "The character was a great deal of fun, though quite shocking. I would describe her as a nymphomaniacal, sociopathic agent. She's pretty out there," says the actress, who was quite impressed with the quality of cable television. "There's no network command that you have to follow, which is always nice as an actor. But all of the decisions I make are based on the script and the quality of the material. I just thought this was most intriguing. Frankly, I like to be funny, too, and certainly this gave me that opportunity."

BUILDING UP: Ty Pennington admits that with Season 7 of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" under way, the rest of his life is now pretty much on hold.

"It's not the easiest job in the world, trust me. I'm never home. The hours are horrible," reminds the ever-energetic designer.

However, he's not complaining. "My job is an awesome job," he says, adding with a laugh, "I've had my palms read and they say I have a very long life, so it's OK. I think as long as we can continue, we should, you know? It's a miracle that we can still find builders who want to do the show."

Pennington is enjoying this season's addition of celebrity guests — with upcoming appearances by Xzibit, Clint Black, Tyler Perry, Mary J. Blige, Trace Adkins, Ashley Tisdale and Kellie Pickler. "Honestly, I didn't know what to expect because this show is about long hours and getting dirty, but they've been great," he says. "Part of the fun of it is that they absolutely are a fish out of water. They had no idea about how much work goes on — the laying out of the worksite, the trucks that bring in the gravel — the amount of choreography that goes into all that. On TV, you don't see that much detail. So when we show these guys, it's like, 'No, really — this is how it has to happen.'" Ty says the stars have gotten tearful over the families and the stories seen on "EM:HE" as much as the rest of the design/building team members, which is to say, a lot.

MOONLIGHTING BECOMES HIM: Joe Mantegna's Taste Chicago Italian restaurant in Burbank, Calif., has been providing food for his "Criminal Minds" series team on special occasions, and the star tells us the eatery, run by his wife, Arlene, has branched out into shuttling over goodies for other shows as well. Craig Ferguson is among the notables who've sent out for Mantegna's pizzas.

HELLO AGAIN: Lee Majors goes before the cameras this month, starring — along with Randy Travis and others — in "Jerusalem Countdown," filming in Michigan. This is not to be confused with "Countdown: Jerusalem," a movie recently released on DVD, which has an apocalyptic theme. But it is a likely offshoot of controversial pastor/author John Hagee's book, "Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World," in which Hagee interprets the Bible to predict that Russia and the Islamic states will invade Israel, launching a chain of events that leads to Armageddon. They probably don't have the budget to include that.

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.

COPYRIGHT 2009 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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