Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"Modern Family" won Shelley Long new fans and reminded old ones of how good she can be when she guested on the ABC hit as Ed O'Neill's delightfully spiteful ex-wife. The one-time "Cheers" lead tells us, "I'd be thrilled to go back. I really enjoyed it." But she doesn't know whether that will happen.

"The way the business is nowadays, they don't call you up and say, 'We want to put you on the show next season.' If there is anything said that could be construed as a contract, then they're obligated to pay you," she says. "So they don't call until the last minute, when they're very sure."

Meanwhile, she's certainly not sitting around. Long has a dramatic role coming up Saturday (1/23), when her Hallmark Channel movie, "Ice Dreams," debuts. She plays the mother of a former Olympic hopeful (Jessica Cauffiel) facing up to her traumatic past in the made-for-TV film.

Although "Ice Dreams" is a story revolving around competitive figure skating, on a deeper level, it has to do with mother-daughter relationships, expectations, disappointment and resentment. "I certainly brought a wealth of experience to it," notes Long, whose daughter, Juliana, is 24. "I thought it was a really good investigation of that relationship that really rings true. I had a feel for the dynamics of it and when it worked well and when it didn't, at least in our story."

Long is irritated by the frequency with which mother characters are put in a villainous light in TV and films. She asks, "Why is mother the first one to be considered wrong? One of the things that's been said to me about this struggle between mothers and daughters is, the daughter feels so close to the mother, she thinks she can lash out. Maybe that's a little bit of applied psychology. This reverts back to the kind of feeling they have when they're teens, how daughters can feel that their mothers can't do anything right. Of course, mothers can do things right if there can be a calm, healthy exchange." So there.

STAYING POWER: Famous drag queen RuPaul says that after 28 years of dressing in women's clothes, he's thankful he's still got it! One thing he's also got is a hit show on his hands — "RuPaul's Drag Race," which premieres for a second season on Logo Feb. 1.

"Still being able to be around, I can't even begin to tell you how much that means.

Being in this business, which is probably the toughest in the world, to still be able to pay my mortgage and have a hit on my hands after all these years is really fulfilling. On a personal level, I cannot tell you how proud and grateful I am to still be able to do what I love to do," says RuPaul, who also has a book coming out: "Workin' It! RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Style."

While his show was quite popular last season, he says, "You ain't seen nothin' yet! … That first season was just a warm-up. It was just an appetizer compared to what you're going to be seeing this season. We've gone all out. Our production value was better. We had a bigger studio and better lighting," he tells us of his ultimate drag queen competition. "They're doing advertising and everything. The first season, we didn't have any advertising. We didn't have anything. It was all word of mouth and blogs and stuff like that."

Most importantly, though, there's going to be a lot of drama! "These (expletives) are ruthless. The first season, the kids knew they were representing an art form that has been absent for many years so they came on as diplomats. They knew they had to represent for the world so they were very cordial. This time around, these kids had the luxury of seeing the show and they came in here to win."

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS: Tracey Ullman celebrated her Big 5-0 birthday Dec. 30 with a family trip to Jamaica. She tells us, "It used to be a cool birthday. I went so long thinking, 'Oh, it's winter, it's at the holidays ...' And then I found out, 'Oh, Tiger Woods has my birthday. That's kind of cool.'" Now, not so much.

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: Richard Schiff, who returns to series TV with Fox's soon-due "Past Life" drama as a researcher specializing in reincarnation, tells us it was "a combination of the material and life choices" that led to his signing on for the show.

"I'd been out of the country quite a bit. I did a one-man show on the West End in London — one of the hardest and most rewarding, phenomenal experiences of my acting career. And I'd done three movies in London. What TV does is offer you a job where you can see your family. Although this shoots in Atlanta, it's not like working eight shows a week or being on location across the ocean. I was able to come back and have a semi-normal life."

He also notes that "Past Life" doesn't require him to be on set every day. "I probably saw my family less on 'The West Wing' than on this show."

With reports by Emily-Fortune 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.

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