Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Navy SEAL turned TV personality Richard "Mack" Machowicz admits he had a skeptical first response when told the third season of Spike TV's popular "Deadliest Warrior" would include the show's first fantasy match-up — "Zombies vs. Vampires."

"I thought, 'Oh, my gosh. Are we jumping the shark here?'" recounts the former "Future Weapons" host, who takes over as "Deadliest Warrior" frontman with the new season premiere Wednesday (11/20). "But I live to learn, and I do read the message board, I do read the fan pages, and I think people are interested in trying something different with the show. When Spike said, 'Let's have some fun with it,' I thought, 'Why not?'"

The show's producers enlisted experts in fantasy lore to put together the match. Machowicz adds, however, "I think the shows that most resonate with me are the historical match-ups, like Ghengis Kahn and Hannibal, or Washington and Napoleon."

The series that creates "What If?" battles between famous warriors who actually never met — utilizing experts on their strategy and weapons, with ballistics tests and other data fed through computers — is a multi-platform hit. Not only has it spawned video games (Mack is proud to be a character), but it's also the basis of a feature film in the works at Paramount, with Shawn Levy ("Night at the Museum") attached to direct. (Mack is wide open to the prospect of involvement with that.)

The new season also marks the first appearance of a female "Deadliest Warrior" contender. Will there be yelps of protest about that from Spike's mainly guy viewership? Machowicz answers, "People underestimate the power a woman can bring to the battlefield. Look at Joan of Arc, what she brought as a leader in terms of flat-out aggressiveness. Psychologically, she was absolutely committed, absolutely certain God had given her this mission. When people believe they're absolutely right, watch out."

Machowicz says he took on the job of "Deadliest Warrior" host for several reasons, one being that "it's a great show." He notes, "We had gotten out of the Discovery contract and were looking at new deals with Discovery, History and Spike to do more producing and other things, too.

Of all the negotiations, all the deals on the table, Spike's was the best, an executive producing, developing and hosting deal. They were the most enthusiastic." Yes, he does have other shows in the works with Spike, he says, but it's too early to talk about them.

HELLO, AGAIN: Sounds like some actors will be getting a chance to take swipes at those pesky reality-show personalities who've poached so much of their airtime in the past decade or so in a soon-to-shoot feature called "Your 15 Minutes Are Up." It's a dark comedy about a reality show called "Make Me a Star" in which a contestant — omigosh — dies right at the start. The contender's untimely demise is followed by some lethal accidents involving other contestants, and while everyone is wondering what's going on, the ratings go through the roof!

The movie, described as "a tongue-in-cheek exploration of reality shows and the crazy people who inhabit them," is being directed by none other than Tootie, er, make that Kim Fields, former child star of "The Facts of Life" and grownup star of "Living Single" fame, who in recent years has stayed busy behind the cameras, directing the sitcoms "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns," "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" and BET's "Let's Stay Together."

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: With Disney's new and highly anticipated "The Muppets" due in November, the movie team is going back to the cameras in about a week, for a week, to add a new sequence involving Jason Segel's character as a boy. Casting forces on the movie have been lining up three juvenile actors to play the young version of Segel's character — at age 6, age 9 and age 13. Segel and Nick Stoller, the writer-director team behind "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," wrote the new "Muppets" flick's script with the kind of TLC only true Muppets aficionados could bring to the enterprise.

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: Moms and daughters who are BFFs are the centerpiece of a new major cable network reality show currently being cast. It's being talked as a documentary series about mothers and daughters who have super-close relationships, and how they juggle their jobs, bosses, boyfriends and husbands. They want daughters, say casting notices, who "give mom advice on dating, marriage and fashion." In that order?

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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