Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Former "The Parkers" star Mo'Nique went to prison to do a comedy show — and says she found the experience more profoundly affecting than she could have imagined.

"Don't misunderstand me. Most people who are in prison should be. But some who are there are not bad people. They just got caught in a bad situation," notes the performer, who visited The Ohio Reformatory for Women to do her show — and to film "I Coulda Been Your Cellmate," which is being released on DVD Tuesday (4/3). She says she was touched to see inmates who had babies in prison, and others who went through a Mother's Day during production "with no visitors — none."

"When you hear their stories, it allows you to quit being judgmental," adds Mo'Nique, who has a beloved aunt who did time. "You can see that through it all, they could smile. It was incredible. One young lady was in for 145 years. We were able to laugh at that. I said, 'When they told you 145 years, did you say, "Huh?!" Did you say, "Wait a minute"? If the judge said that to me, it would be my last day," declares Mo'Nique. The woman, who had been convicted on multiple counts of murder "told me, 'Please don't have any pity for me. I am supposed to be here, but if by talking to you I can help change it for one other person, I'll do it.'

"As much as I thought I was going in there to do something for those women, they did so much for me," says the comedian.

Mo'Nique has a full agenda. Her VH1 "Charm School" reality show is due to premiere April 15. (It revolves around etiquette training for 13 former "Flavor of Love" contestants.) And she has another "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance" zaftig ladies' pageant coming up later this spring. But she makes clear her trip to do a comedy show in prison won't be her last. "I will definitely do more."

ON THE PERSONAL SIDE: A&E's Sunday (4/1)-debuting "Sons of Hollywood" is already garnering much media attention, what with an episode in which it's said that Paris Hilton lost her virginity to Randy Spelling. The show might never have been finished, however, if Randy had followed his urge to stop the cameras after the death of his father, Aaron Spelling, last summer.

"When something like that happens, the last thing you want to think about is 'Wow, how is the show going to go on?' but that was a reality — no pun intended," says Spelling, who co-produced the show in which he stars with Sean Stewart and David Weintraub.

"It was always a choice, but being one of the producers and cast members of the show, it was like, 'I have to go on with this. I can't let everyone down.' And in some weird way, maybe someone can resonate with that or learn something from it."

That decision made, Spelling says, "It was such an incredibly hard and stressful summer to have to deal with that and have a camera thrust in your face. Then I also shot a movie while I was doing the reality show as well, so everything combined felt like a lot. I'm really happy I got through it … it was really a test of strength and faith."

On the one hand, he says doing the show "was somewhat cathartic only because it was a distraction. But what happens with that is you do get distracted, so I really didn't have a chance to grieve. Then you're kind of like thrust into this altered sense of reality because you know this thing just happened, but there's so much other stuff going on. It was tough when everything slowed down and the camera stopped. I remember trying to go away for a few days and relax and get my head straight, and my mind just would not shut off. I didn't know how to relax."

INSIDE ASIDE: With the third season of the Sci-Fi Channel's Peabody Award-winning "Battlestar Galactica" now a wrap, Mary McDonnell says she's happy just to relax this hiatus. "I love playing President Roslyn," notes the actress. "She's forced me to confront some really very deep things in myself I certainly wouldn't have on my own — like, 'What would it take for me to make the choice to kill and still be able to go on?' I understand better the complexities of politics and the military … moment to moment to respond with aggression or respond with openness is a constant choice in life. How do our world leaders go to sleep at night?" How indeed.

GOING FORMAL: Interesting that both Patrick Dempsey and Katherine Heigl of "Grey's Anatomy" are trading in their scrubs for wedding finery over hiatus. She's due to make the big-screen comedy "27 Dresses," playing a compulsive bridesmaid, beginning May 10 in Rhode Island, while he's lined up for a first-of-May production start on "Made of Honor," the romantic comedy in which he's such a good friend of the bride-to-be (Michelle Monaghan), she asks him to be her maid of honor. Trouble is — you guessed it — he's in love with her himself.

(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 2006 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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