Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

With the "Sex and the City" feature in the can for May 30 release and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" en route back to production post-writers' strike, Chris Noth expects to be turning his attention back to the project he calls "my next big thing" — a prospective AMC miniseries bringing to light the lives and daring actions of Vietnam War photojournalists.

His interest was sparked, he says, back in 2001, when he visited Vietnam and Cambodia on the invitation of singer Nanci Griffith, who's been involved with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's work in clearing landmines and establishing hospitals.

"We went into Saigon and found this little museum with an exhibition of photojournalists killed in the war. It was so profoundly moving — these guys and their lives — incredibly fascinating," says Chris. "Larry Burrows, Sean Flynn … Dickey Chapelle, a female photojournalist who died … "

John Milius is aboard the project as writer, he reports.

The busy actor also has upcoming the indie thriller "Frame of Mind," in which he plays a college professor who learns of a heretofore unknown piece of film of the John F. Kennedy assassination that "puts a whole new slant on it."

"Frame of Mind" also features Tara Wilson, Noth's long-time girlfriend and the mother of his son, Orion Christopher Noth, born last month.

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Emmy-winning writer/producer Marshall Herskovitz promises the avid fans of his and partner Ed Zwick's Internet series, "Quarterlife," that the show will retain everything they've come to love about it when it premieres as an hour long series on NBC Feb. 26.

"Some people were worried it would change, but it's the same show," says Herskovitz of the series about six twentysomething characters coming of age in the digital generation. "We have to shorten it a little bit, take out some of the language because of legal requirements, but we're only going to do that to the shows we have to." And he promises, "Quarterlife," which airs on the Web in eight-minute segments, "will always premiere on the Internet, so they'll get to see it first and see the unedited version.

We'll probably change the format by which we show it on the Internet — have it more times a week or longer installments."

Herskovitz says he's put all other projects on a back burner for "Quarterlife," which moves to its regular day and time March 2. "I'm really committed to this," he says. "I just feel this is such a compelling experience right now. It's been so thrilling for us I cannot tell you. It's the most exciting project I've worked on in so many years. I feel as an artist that I've broken through to something new and let go of certain inhibitions or things that held me back in the past."

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: Morgan Freeman, William H. Macy and Christopher Walken are comedy magic together, reports Marcia Gay Harden, who worked with the trio on the recently wrapped big-screen "The Lonely Maiden." She plays Walken's wife in the heist movie involving three museum security guards, which "is really going to be fun. And my character — oh, my God! I love her! She's a hairdresser from Queens with coral nails. I love her hair and makeup — the arched brows, the jewels. The people in makeup and wardrobe in no small way help in the creation of character."

BIG HAIRY DEAL: Paul Dano showed versatility between his roles as the unspeaking brother in "Little Miss Sunshine" and the turn-of-the-last-century teen evangelist in "There Will Be Blood." And he'll show all the more with "Where the Wild Things Are." Dano, along with Forest Whitaker, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener and others are bringing to life the beloved Maurice Sendak children's classic under the direction of Spike Jonze. "It's live action," Dano says. "The actors who played the Wild Things filmed for months, fleshing out the scenes, improvising scripts. Then the suit performers — performers in these big puppet suit things — worked off what we did."

To Dano's thinking, Jonze couldn't be more perfect for the task. "He's the guy to do it. He has amazingly childlike qualities to him — and he's a lot of fun." "Where the Wild Things Are" is going to take awhile. Its planned release isn't until next year.

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 2008 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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