Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Acclaimed "Pan's Labyrinth" filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has just set off for Budapest to "zero in on the beginning of principal photography" for "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" — the big screen sequel to his surprise hit 2004 comic book adaptation. That's the word from Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman, who doesn't mind noting that while people all over Hollywood are angling to work with It Filmmaker del Toro, "I'm the one who's got him."

Perlman, meanwhile, is busy working out to get back into that super suit of his for a production start around the end of May. "I'm already in the gym six days a week," he notes with a smile. And what does his workout consist of? "The pushups, the sit-ups, the stationary bike. Then, of course, there's the lifting of the pizza." Does he have a trainer? "I have a trainer, and I'm almost housebroken," he quips.

Still, he admits, "Voiceover is a welcome relief" when it comes to his role in the "Hellboy" animated TV shows.

Perlman feels that del Toro's still on the creative hot streak he exhibited on "Pan's Labyrinth." And that makes the actor, "as Frank Loesser once said, a most happy fella."

The new film will have "an epic quality," says Perlman, even as it "continues to explore all the things that are great about this character — a superhero who is such an underachiever and such an adolescent."

Perlman's playful demeanor shifts at mention of the fact that despite four Oscar wins for the "Pan's Labyrinth" team, the movie lost out on best foreign film. "I felt he was robbed. Guillermo's movie was flawless from beginning to end and didn't look like anything you'd ever seen before. He set a new bar." But losing the award "didn't cast a pall on everything," adds Ron, who was part of the del Toro party Oscar night. "He's got a whole lot more masterpieces coming down the pike."

ON A FAST TRACK: The deal has just been set, and the astonishing story of NASCAR driver Kelly Sutton is now on its way to Lifetime Television.

Sutton is remarkable not only as one of the few female successes on the circuit, but because she's defied seemingly insurmountable miseries — domestic abuse, the death of a child, and even multiple sclerosis. She went from being told by doctors that she would never get out of her wheelchair to roaring around tracks at 180 mph. Father-son filmmaking team Lee and Shane Stanley, who brought us last year's terrific "Gridiron Gang" feature starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, will write and produce the saga.

MORE POWER: Matt Towery's "Powerchicks: How Women Will Dominate America" did well when it was released in 1998, continuing to sell for a good five years. Now it looks like there's a new life for the tome — which gave the stories of how real women rose to positions of might in a variety of fields. We hear it's being prepped as a major network series with some very interesting names involved, including that of producer Brittany Lovett, whose credits include "Last Comic Standing" for NBC and Fox's forthcoming "The Cure." Among the book's subjects is Nancy Pelosi, and it actually predicts that she will become the first female Speaker of the House. Not bad! Towery, it seems, had an amiable relationship with Madam Speaker back in the day, though they were on politically opposite sides. He was once campaign chairman for Newt Gingrich.

LOOKING GOOD: Sharon Lawrence — who co-stars in Kevin Williamson's mid-season "Hidden Palms" mystery-soap-serial set in Palm Springs, Calif., for the CW — will soon be strutting her fabulous stuff for a cause dear to her heart, Alzheimer's. "We have our big 'A Night at Sardi's' coming up at the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday (3/7)," reports Lawrence. "It's the 15th annual, and we're doing 'Guys and Dolls,' she says of the celebrities performing selected numbers from the beloved musical. "I'm doing a big number in a luscious, vintage costume. They'll be honoring Peter Gallagher, and other performers include Megan Mullally, Eric McCormack, Dick Van Dyke, Rita Wilson and Michael Chiklis." For more info, check out www.alzla.org.

(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 2007 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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