Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Now that the cat's out of the bag that Patricia Wettig's Holly Harper character on "Brothers & Sisters" will be suffering a loss of memory in the new season, Wettig lets down and talks about the arc.

"It's really fascinating to play, I'll tell you. I'm enjoying it. I'm not much of a businessperson myself, so it's hard to find the business part of Holly," she tells us. "That didn't come easily to me. But I'm actually having a great time playing this."

In other "Brothers & Sisters" news, Wettig's daughter, Roxy Olin, has been back in L.A. from her New York base for a while, and Wettig has been savoring some togetherness time.

Does this mean the return of Roxy's "Brothers & Sisters" character, Michelle — who was once expected to be the surrogate for Kevin and Scotty's (Matthew Rhys and Luke Macfarlane) baby? We left off where that wasn't going to work out and they might adopt.

"She's going to be on it. I can say that. I don't exactly how they're going to incorporate it yet," answers Wettig.

The Wettig-Olin family imprimatur is, of course, all over the acclaimed ABC drama that launches its fifth season Sunday (9/26). Wettig stars, husband Ken Olin executive produces, son Cliff is a writer on the show and Roxy appears on it. In New York, however, Roxy is one of the fashion PR foot soldiers of Kelly Cutrone, palling around with Whitney Port on MTV's "The City."

The reality/drama dual career is an unusual arrangement, to say the least — especially since so many actors consider reality TV the enemy.

"I know. I think at first, people were going, 'Wait a minute — you can't let your daughter do a reality show,'" says Wettig. "You know what — why not? We're in a time where there is a crossover. Roxy is having a great time doing that show and she's also a talented actress. I like 'The City.' I like to watch it. Ken is on it with her. It's fun to watch them doing a scene together."

Any chance that Wettig will also show up on the series?

"Oh, I said to Roxy, 'I doubt it,' but I wouldn't say that 100 percent. I think I'm too much the actress; I'm always playing these parts. And I'm too busy right now."

Indeed.

GRASSROOTS APPROACH: Interior design king Nate Berkus' self-titled daytime show debuted less than two weeks ago, but he tells us, "Truthfully, I've already learned so much about myself, doing this show.

I have not the longest attention span in the world, and I've learned that the format of a daily syndicated talk show works well with my energy."

He's certainly been putting all that energy to use. While preparing to launch the show, Berkus went "around the country on a listening tour and talked to viewers about what they were inspired by, what they would like to see on TV. A lot of coffee, a lot of banana bread and a lot of talk later, I had a lot of segment ideas collected."

How did he and his team pick out their listening tour participants? "We talked to mommy bloggers, design bloggers — we'd come into a town and connect with a blogger or a friend of a friend, invite people to someone's home and just talk about our different ideas. It was fun. And helpful," he says.

The trek took him from North Carolina to California and, of course, his longtime base, Chicago. Now the Oprah protege is based in New York.

He points out, "We don't want it to be throwaway TV, but to give people something for the hour a day they're giving me. If we can inspire people with ideas about ways to change their space and enhance their lives, to discover their own style — that's what I'm going for."

Celebs are also along for the ride, of course, with Julianne Moore, Dolly Parton and Elizabeth Edwards having already been among Berkus' guests.

FRANKLY SPEAKING: First, they brought us the saga of right-to-die Dr. Jack Kevorkian with Al Pacino's "You Don't Know Jack," and now HBO's "Too Big to Fail" movie — about the 2008 federal bailout — is moving along through preproduction. Do these people know how to have a good time or what? With William Hurt set to play Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, and Billy Crudup as Tim Geithner, subsidiary casting continues. Among the roles still to be filled is that of Barney Frank. Who could play the contentious congressman? Tracey Ullman does a bang-up imitation.

MOVIE MASTERS: It appears it's time for a re-appreciation of the founders of the movie biz, what with TCM preparing to launch its seven-part documentary "Moguls & Movie Stars" Nov. 1 — and BBC 2 getting ready to shoot its own three-part doc on the early days of the film industry. The Brits are casting now for their "The Birth of Hollywood," rounding up actors to play such old Hollywood figures as D.W. Griffith (as a young man and as a boy), Sid Grauman and Adolph Zukor and silent-film queens Viola Dana and Alice Lake.

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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