Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Larry the Cable Guy Wants To Show Off Good Americans/'Ghost Hunters International's' Kris Williams Compares Haunts

Larry the Cable Guy understands that he isn't an obvious fit for his latest television home. In fact, declares the Blue Collar Comedy stalwart, "When I tell people I'm going to be on the History Channel, it's like Charlie Sheen saying he's doing commercials for eHarmony.com."

Well, it's not THAT bad a fit. Larry's "Only in America," debuting Feb. 8, has him traversing the nation, lending his comedic presence to an exploration of the history behind assorted Americana. (E.g.: What government action led to NASCAR? Prohibition.) Along the way, he found himself jumping a frog in Calaveras County, being pulled behind a boat in a lawn chair mounted on water skis and being rolled around inside a barrel by a bull in a rodeo ring.

Larry tells us he wanted to do more than discover the history behind some of our all-American stuff and nonsense. He recounts that when he met with History Channel brass about the prospective show, he told them, "I want to show the people themselves — the good Americans out there."

In his act, he talks about feeling great since he quit watching the news, which "only covers the bad aspects of daily life. It makes you think kids are all bad, people are all bad. The great majority of Americans are just trying to get along, working together, eating together — red, black, yellow, green, it doesn't matter. We're a melting pot. That's what makes this such a great culture. So that's what I did: showed as many people as I could in big towns and small towns."

Not to mention the USS Nimitz and the Marines doing a storm-the-beach exercise.

"It was really cool. When you think of all these people who are doing things like that, who are in charge of keeping us safe — they're all 18, 19 years old, and they're so good at what they do and so disciplined. It restores your faith in youth to see these young men and women."

Meanwhile, Larry is in the middle of a long string of concert dates with cohorts Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall. And he has Pixar's "Cars 2" coming out this June, with his popular rusty tow truck, Mater, in a much-expanded role from the first movie.

"It is a big part for him. 'Cars 2' is an action movie — a 180-degree turnaround from the other one," says the man whose children refer to the character as Daddy Mater. "I just saw a three-minute clip the other day, and it had four or five good belly laughs in it. I just couldn't stop laughing. It's really cool that Mater is the focal point."

As for his feelings about this great run of work? "I've got mixed feelings about it," he admits. "I love doing all these projects, but on the other hand, I wish I had a week at home now and then to hang with the kids.

And while I'm on the road, I do get tired."

But there's no rest stop in sight for ol' Mater.

"Tomorrow, I have voiceovers to do; the next day, promotions. The day after Super Bowl Sunday, I head to Orlando, Florida, to start shooting 'Tooth Fairy 2.' At least I'll be in one spot for a while."

CHANCE OF A GHOST: As the newest member of Syfy's "Ghost Hunters International" team, Kris Williams is among the few paranormal investigators qualified to answer the question of whether stories of hauntings are alike or different in North America and other parts of the world.

She says, "There is a difference in that there is so much history overseas." With the domestic version of "Ghost Hunters," "The 1700s seemed old. But, well, for example, we walked into a castle in Germany and asked how old it was, and they very matter-of-factly said it was built in 1190. Also, you hear more stories of torture." Ew.

Williams says the team has been exploring stories of hauntings that date back to World War II and World War I as well. Next Wednesday's (2/2) show has the team "at a fort in Serbia that dates back to the late 1600s, but there was a settlement at the same location that goes back thousands of years. There were some battles. There was an execution wall where they'd line up prisoners. It was creepy. People felt like they were being watched. There were lights and apparitions."

The pretty 29-year-old admits, "If you'd have told me six or seven years ago that I would be traveling around the world looking for ghosts for a living, I'd never have believed it. It's a lot of fun. I've always been a history nerd, so this touches my interests in history, travel and the paranormal."

But, doesn't she get — you know — scared? Williams laughs. "I grew up in a house that was active, and it wasn't unusual to have conversations about it at the dinner table when I was young. I grew up a bit of a tomboy. I'm not that easy to shake."

Her first ghostly encounter was when she was 4, she tells us. "My mother told me the story of how I came downstairs and told them I was talking to my great-grandmother, who I was close to, and that she was smiling. And I asked, 'Why is she saying goodbye?' That was how they found out she had died."

LIKE SHE SAID: Congratulations, Oscar nominees, and an extra nod to "The Fighter's" Melissa Leo, who told us last year, "I'm a mythbuster. I will be 50 in September. I live in the United States of America, and things have never been better for me." Far from finding jobs drying up, as has so often happened to actresses of a certain age in the past, Leo said, "I'm getting more and more varied and better work." That recent work has included her highly regarded HBO series, "Treme," and the cable channel's forthcoming remake of "Mildred Pierce" with Kate Winslet. And Leo's formidable, fierce Alice, mother of two boxers in "The Fighter," of course.

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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