Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Kelly Ripa tells us Regis Philbin's planned return to "Live With Regis & Kelly" Thursday (4/26) isn't coming a moment too soon as far as she is concerned.

"Without Regis, it's a lot of work. He really holds down the majority of the responsibility, so when he's not there, I find myself watching the time cues, and doing all the stuff that I usually don't have to worry about," she notes. "For me, the show is like a party. I just show up in my cocktail dress."

Philbin has been recovering after undergoing triple coronary-bypass surgery.

When asked if the 75-year-old TV icon might see this as a time to start thinking about retirement, Ripa responds, "I hope not. I don't want to speak for him, but he loves to work. To me, this whole thing has probably been torturous for him to have to stay home from work."

Ripa has certainly stayed busy, having recently hosted the TV Land Awards, which air Sunday (4/22). "I kept saying at dress rehearsal, 'I feel so calm.' I thought I'd be really nervous. Then Danny Bonaduce said to me, 'You know when you're going to be nervous is when you fly out here for real, you look out in the audience and you see the faces of all the people you grew up watching.' Sure enough, I saw the cast of 'The Brady Bunch,' 'Roots,' 'Hee Haw,' and 'Taxi,' and I couldn't believe what I was looking at. I was unbelievably starstruck the whole time," says Ripa, whose grand finale is a musical reenactment with the cast of "The Brady Bunch."

"I don't mind telling you, we'll give the 'American Idol' contestants a run for their money."

AND: Maureen McCormick tells us she has started penning her autobiography — which already has a big wanna-see factor attached to it, given her place in the "Brady Bunch" TV firmament, her talk of such behind-the-scenes matters as the crush she used to have on cast mate Eve Plumb, and her recent disclosures about how she overcame cocaine addiction and bulimia. McCormick, who's also being seen on VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club," says her husband of 22 years, Michael Cummings, and their 16-year-old daughter, Natalie, have been 100 percent supportive of her decision to talk about how she came back from her ordeal of drug addiction and eating disorder problems. They all feel her story has a greater purpose.

"I really think that's what we're here for — to share experiences that can help others," she told us at the 8K 5K Walk/Run on behalf of Northridge Hospital's Children's Assault Treatment Services (C.A.T.S.) unit.

Maureen appeared onstage to give the runners and walkers a pep talk before the starting whistle blew.

As far as "Celebrity Fit Club," she says with a laugh, "My daughter made me do it."

LOST IN TRANSLATION: "Notes from the Underbelly" novelist Risa Green says diehard fans of the best seller have let her know they are not pleased with the watered-down heroine in ABC's new series adaptation of the book. "A few people said, 'Oh, I thought she would be meaner,'" says Green of the main character played by Jennifer Westfeldt in the show. In the tome, the heroine is a seriously reluctant mother-to-be, and she explains, "Some people liked the edgy, honest bitchiness of her in the book, but it's easier to do in a book and make somebody likeable because you have 300-400 pages to explain where they're coming from. On TV, if they're not likeable right away, it's not a good thing, so she had to be softened a little bit."

Green adds, however, "The general consensus is the tone of the show is pretty similar to the book. The biggest difference is that the show is narrated by the husband, whereas in the book it's narrated by the main character who's going through the pregnancy. One of the reasons for changing that was hopefully to get men interested in watching the show." The novelist — whose second tome, "Tales from the Crib," was also optioned by "Notes" producers Barry Sonnenfeld and Kim and Eric Tannenbaum ("Two and a Half Men") — says she has no typical writer's Hollywood nightmare tales to tell. "I'm lucky. The Tannenbaums were great. They kept me really in the loop, and I was able to sit down with (series creator) Stacy Traub and really talk to her. Overall it was a much better experience than I thought it would be."

CLASS ACT: With a mid-May production start set in Shreveport, La., final castings are being done on "The Great Debaters" — with the much-desired role of Denzel Washington character's wife yet to be filled. She's to be attractive and bright, natch, and supportive of his mission to coach his debate team to victory — that is, his all African-American debate team, circa 1935, in the saga inspired by the real-life story of Melvin B. Tonson. Tolson was a professor at Wiley College, Texas, whose team became so successful they were able to challenge Harvard in the national debating championship. Oprah Winfrey is among the producers on the feature, which boasts a script worked on by Horton Foote, among others.

(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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