Lea Thompson Surprised by Size of 'Switched At Birth' Success/Ryan Dunn Showed Caring Side on Game Show Appearance by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith on Creators.com

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Lea Thompson Surprised by Size of 'Switched At Birth' Success/Ryan Dunn Showed Caring Side on Game Show Appearance

Lea Thompson, just wrapping the first 10-episode season of her hit ABC Family Channel series "Switched at Birth," reports she's going to get in some quality rest and relaxation time before diving back into work.

"My daughters and I are going to rush off to Europe. I've been planning it for hours and hours," says Lea, whose 20-year-old daughter, Madeline, just graduated with honors from The New School in New York. "We're going to Spain, France and England. We're really excited," she says.

It's been an intense stretch of work for Lea over the past couple of years. She's done a string of big- and small-screen movies — including a role in Clint Eastwood's forthcoming "J. Edgar" starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and her own Hallmark Channel Original Movie "The Cabin," a romantic comedy coming up on July 30.

And then there's "Switched at Birth," with its record-breaking premiere and subsequent high ratings. "We were really surprised by how well it did," she admits. Despite what could have been a campy or cheesy premise — rich and poor teenage girls discover they were given to the wrong parents when they were born — Lea stresses, "It's not pandering. There's a class struggle. There's a racial struggle. There's a struggle with a child who has a disability, who is deaf — and people are really signing onto the show. People have to think a little bit more than they might have expected." And they must like it. Fancy that.

About the finale segment they're just finishing now — she says it's a cliffhanger.

MEANWHILE: Lea also has her "Mayor Cupcake" comedy coming out on DVD next month. She executive produced the romp, in which she plays a homemaker who becomes the mayor of her small town. "It really is cute. My daughter Maddie gets to sing in it, a song from 'The Breakfast Club,' actually." The scene became an unplanned tribute to late "Breakfast Club" creator John Hughes, she says. Lea's leading man is none other than "Breakfast Club" alumnus Judd Nelson.

She and her husband, director Howard Deutch, met on another Hughes movie, "Some Kind of Wonderful." The day Maddie had to sing the song, Hughes had just died, "and we were all crying," she recounts. Lea's 16-year-old daughter, Zoey, is in the movie, as well.

ANOTHER FACET: Among the friends of "Jackass" star Ryan Dunn reeling over news of his death in an automobile accident Monday is celebrity chef and "Minute to Win It" host Guy Fieri. It was Guy, a longtime pal of Dunn's, who suggested his recent guest appearance on "Minute to Win It" to the show's producers. Dunn played on behalf of the Teammates for Kids Foundation, which raises funds for children's charities. Guy was particularly glad to let people know that there was a caring, stand-up kind of person behind Dunn's crude and wild "Jackass" persona.

"Let me tell you something. Here's one of the things that everyone should understand. It's always hard for people to separate who celebrities are and what they really do from the kind of images they have," Fieri said, speaking of the guest appearance. "Ryan is a great dude. I have great respect for him and Steve-O as artists, and as performers, but now it's quadrupled for them as people."

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: Casting is underway for "Bomb Girls," a miniseries set in 1942 Toronto. As Canada's men were heading off to WWII, like their counterparts in the U.S., women left home and became factory workers for the first time, turning out munitions, among other things. From different social strata and walks of life, the women discover an unexpected camaraderie. Key characters in the saga include a minister's daughter who has run away from home and a wealthy, rebellious beauty.

Casting is also going on for live-action actors in a new media production called "Time Traveler," which involves (per casting notices) "choose your adventure technology" that allows the user to select an experience in the past, present or future. The size of the script must be staggering.

Will the pie making ever stop? An end-of-June production start has been set for "American Pie 4: American Reunion," with shooting to take place in Atlanta.

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 2011 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM