Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Olivia Newton-John is putting her all into promoting health and healing. The multi Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/actress and longtime breast cancer survivor tells us, "I'm building a hospital in Melbourne, Australia. It's a cancer and wellness center, and I hope we'll break ground in about 18 months. We're raising all the money and we're doing some major fund-raising for that."

She adds, "I'm also continuing to work on my breast cancer kit (the Olivia Newton-John LivKit), which is very important. It's a self-examination kit for women to make lumps or shadows on your breasts more easily detectable. It's like a magnifying glass with fingers. My dream is that every woman should receive it as a gift at some point."

Newton-John also continues running her Gaia Retreat and Spa in Australia.

As far as her career, "I'm working on a Christmas CD. I hope to have that out by Thanksgiving. So I'm finishing the Christmas CD and the hospital and being here for my daughter, Chloe," says Newton-John, referring to her offspring who went public about her struggle with anorexia in recent months.

Chloe is a singer in her own right and Newton-John says she'd love to collaborate with her daughter down the line. "I hope one day we will. She's written a song for me before and been on tour with me before. But she's a young girl starting out and has her own wonderful, different kind of music. She has her own CD about to come out and she's on myspace.com/ChloeLattanziofficial. Check her out. She's really talented."

GEARING UP: Comedy Central launches its "American Body Shop" next month, with all involved hoping that it does to shows about cars what "Reno 911!" did for shows about cops. It certainly rolled down a twisty road to get to the tube.

Star Pete Hulne tells us, "The guy who really gets the credit is Sam Greene, a writer and ex-policeman out of Arizona. One day he was hanging out with his buddies in a body shop and they said, 'You know, you should write about this.' So he did write a show about all these eccentric characters who hang around body shops, then he shot a little short with himself in the lead as Sam." Greene pitched his project to "a bunch of network and cable places, and then he sent it to Comedy Central. But instead of going through channels, he sent it through acquisitions. A girl there loved it and took it to Doug Herzog," recounts Hulne, speaking of the Comedy Central chieftain.

And that's how the Chicago-born Hulne, who honed his improv craft at Second City and the Improv Olympic, among other places, wound up being cast as Sam.

Hulne brings his own gearhead proclivities to the show. The red T-Bird he'll be seen with is the actor's own. He tells us, "I used to own a '66 Thunderbird when I was 16. I rebuilt the whole thing. I put a lot of money into it, a thousand bucks a year, and I learned a lot about cars and about the people in that business." It's knowledge he put to good use in landing the lead of "American Body Shop," he points out — so when he made his series deal, he went right out and "bought another '66 T-Bird. I bought it for $600. It was a piece of s—-, pardon my French. But it's fun to work on. I actually got it to work, and I brought it into the show, to the set, to use as my vehicle. My kids love the car." But his wife "hates it. She does not want it named after her. She was glad to see it go, it got oil stains on the driveway."

HYPE ASIDE: "Hannah Montana" regular Mitchel Musso declares his upcoming animated series "Phineas and Ferb" is going to be "the biggest animated Disney show so far." Why does he think that? "Because all the producers are like 'This is going to be the biggest Disney show ever!'" Cute.

Hype aside, "Phineas and Ferb" has been "picked up for like 60 episodes," says Musso. "I've actually seen some of the animation and it's from the creator of 'The Family Guy' and a lot of the comedy comes from some guys from that show." He adds that the animated series is attempting to reach a bit older demographic. "I think it takes it up a step for Disney because it shows a little bit more maturity," says the 16-year-old Musso. "Instead of having a 6 to 12 demographic, it's now 6 to 18 and I think that's what they're trying to do with this show."

AN ERNEST EFFORT: Matthew Bomer, who stars in ABC's "Traveler" series about college grads on the run after being framed for an act of terror, is certainly not sitting around pondering the fate of the action drama. He's getting ready to play Ernest Hemingway in the world premiere of Crispin Whittell's "Villa America" at the Williamstown (Mass.) Theatre Festival in July. He notes that he's been a fan of the writer's for years. "Hemingway was so ahead of his time, and his life was so interesting and greatly tragic. It will be very fun to do."

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 2007 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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