Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

NFL Notables Parade Through Spike's Raunchy 'Blue Mountain State'/Former 'Lost' Kid Sterling Beaumon Takes on Psycho Killer Role, Bullies

Another parade of real-life famous sports personalities will be appearing on Spike's "Blue Mountain State" raunch fest in Season 2, which gets under way tomorrow night (10/20) — including players from "the Bengals, the Jets, the Broncos ... We have Brian Bosworth, Bill Parcells..." reports the series' Darin Brooks. Also, from the wrestling world, "We have Stacy Keibler and Chuck Liddell. We're reaching out to the women a little bit."

Brooks acknowledges, "By the time you're done filming, you should probably be ashamed of yourself. I should be ashamed of myself. My mother is a little bit. To be honest, a lot of my friends Facebook me and say: 'I can't believe you're doing this.' Some of the scenes from last year are just obscene."

However, he adds with a laugh, "It's fun, it's TV, you've got half-naked guys and girls running around."

This season has Denise Richards as the ex-wife of Ed Marinaro's coach character. At one point, handsome Brooks winds up with her — he in his underwear, she in a cheerleading outfit.

"She was really game. We had a great time. You get a little nervous, a little self-conscious, with 40 people watching you, but it's all good," he says.

The former "Days of Our Lives" cast member points out that "With comedy, you have a lot more leeway, and it's a different experience than with drama. When it's very dramatic and passionate, you're opening up that part of yourself and relaying it through the camera ... With this, the more dramatic we make it, the more funny it will be."

YOUNG AND SCARY: Sterling Beaumon — young Ben Linus to "Lost" fans — returns to the tube tomorrow (10/20) in "Criminal Minds" as a seriously disturbing character.

"The writer described him as a budding psychopath who is a serial killer. That right there — from the word 'psychopath,' I was hooked, and I thought, 'I've got to do this character,'" says the 15-year-old actor, who has definitely matured since viewers saw him last. His character appears to be an ingratiatingly appealing high school kid, but, notes Sterling, "You can see, all his emotions are put on, they're acted, because he really has no emotion. It's completely different from anything I've done."

He also notes, "I guess the writer had been a huge fan of 'Lost' and had also seen me on 'The Cleaner,' so from what I'm told, she wrote this role with me in mind, which was great."

Mare Winningham plays the kind-hearted mom who gives Sterling's character a place to stay, much to her later regret.

He recounts, "One day, we were filming in the middle of the desert in California, and we were literally just roasting. People were passing out right and left. Fortunately, I didn't. It was one of the longest scenes we had, with long lines, and there were lines being changed on the spot," he recounts. "I had a car scene with the fabulous Mare Winningham, and you can see the beads of sweat on her forehead."

Meanwhile, the currently hot issue of bullying has a personal meaning for Bauman, who has experienced such treatment himself — and has written a song about it for his second album, which he's currently recording.

"I went to a school for — actually, it was only a few weeks because I had to go do 'Lost,' but it was right when 'Mostly Ghostly' had come out and, you know, all the girls thought that was so cool, and the guys didn't like that, especially when there was a little bit of jealousy there. They decided to be jerks. You know, people are cruel," says Beaumon. Their bullying escalated to such a level he's uncomfortable talking about specifics. "I don't want to get into it," he says, but it got bad.

"The song is about how cruel people can be, and not to take it to heart, just shake it off — because there's obviously something that you have that they want. Fortunately, I am a really strong person and can take that. If it had happened to someone else and they weren't as strong as me, there could be one less person on this earth today."

SERIES GO ROUND: If things had gone a little differently, it could have been Craig T. Nelson as the December half of "Modern Family's" May-December couple with Sofia Vergara, rather than Ed O'Neill — a fact O'Neill volunteers.

"Yeah, they came to me, 'Modern Family,' early on," affirms Nelson. "I was very touched by that. We had a long discussion, and things didn't work out." Instead, he went on to star in NBC's "Parenthood."

As far as he is concerned, "Parenthood" is "the best job I've ever had. I shoot three days a week, not that long. A couple of times, you're there 12 hours in a day, but that's rare. It's very comfortable."

The NBC dramedy marks the third time Nelson has worked with Bonnie Bedelia, who plays his wife on the series. "They had a tough time casting that role. She came in when we were actually into starting the pilot," he recounts. And he couldn't have been more pleased.

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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