Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Don't be surprised if MTV's "The Buried Life" quartet takes off for foreign countries in coming months — now that the show has garnered a devoted following in North America. "We actually experimented with it a little bit this year," reports ringleader Ben Nemtin. "On next week's show (11/1), we escape from a deserted island. We have to survive, and we have no survival training. We actually build a raft to get off the island. It's one of my favorite episodes. It's always best when we're out of our element."

Tonight's (10/25) show features the guys stealing a lock of Robert Pattinson's hair — on a dare from fans. The four 20-something friends, who set off in a purple bus with their bucket lists and a camera four years ago, have already accomplished feats including playing basketball with Barack Obama and asking dream girl Taylor Swift on a date.

Nemtin — who has a dream girl of his own, girlfriend Whitney Port of "The City" — reveals that items that have been rejected include Going Into Space and Smoking Cigars with Fidel Castro. "We tried to get MTV to go for it. We're Canadians; we could go to Cuba," Nemtin points out. "But we'd have to get a different crew."

"The Buried Life's" humanitarian bent sets the show apart, with each episode also showing the guys — Nemtin, Dave Lingwood and Jonnie and Duncan Penn — helping other people achieve something they want to do in life. They also hope to inspire others to make their own life lists, a topic Nemtin loves to talk about on college campuses and in community spots where they interact with young people.

GIVE US YOUR TACKIEST: Do "Jersey Shore's" depictions of sex, violence and vaginal discomfort make you wince? Do Lady Gaga's missing pants make you shudder? Are you as annoyed as the Parents Television Council about CBS implying a swear word as part of the title of the hit William Shatner series "$##! My Dad Says"? Well, get ready to tell us about it.

It's that time of year again, when we ask readers to select the entertainment celebrities most deserving of our annual Beck/Smith Tacky Taste Awards. We're up to our hairlines in tackiness this year, so we're especially glad that it's you who'll determine the Tackiest of 2010, not us.

This is, after all, the year of Mel Gibson's vicious rants at ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, the year of Brett Favre's sideline sexcapades, the year of yet more legal problems for Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Charlie Sheen. Tell us who your choice is for Tackiest celeb and why — by sending your e-mails to stacy@becksmithhollywood.com, or by writing us in care of Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., St. 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. The winners, if you can call them that, will be announced Thanksgiving week.

HARD WOMEN: Look out for this one. HBO is getting ready to bring us a new anthology series called "Femme Fatales" that promises to blend classic noir with modern flair and established names with fresh talents — and they have writer-producers from "Castle" and "NCIS" on board to do it.

Casting continues on Susanna Lo's "Manson Girls," which looks like it really is, at last, going into production in February. This is the project that, a few years back, looked like a Lindsay Lohan starrer to be made by Matthew Bright. We all know what happened to Lohan. Bright exited the project, and it languished for a while until Lo came in as writer-director and Thora Birch, Heather Matarazzo, Nikki Blonsky and Erin Kelly were cast.

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 2010 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM