Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz is chalking up 2007 as an outstanding year for lots of reasons. He candidly tells us, "On a personal level, this year I've allowed myself to find happiness. In some bizarre way, I've always felt guilty about being happy before. But now, to me, it's a big deal, and I'm letting myself be OK with being happy — happy in an honest, genuine way, not a medicated way, which is good."

Wentz's past emotional travails have been highly chronicled, including his 2005 hospitalization after an overdose of the anxiety medication Atavan and the subsequent Fall Out Boy song "7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen)." These days, he sounds quite happy in his relationship with girlfriend Ashlee Simpson. And he certainly seems happy in his professional life — what with Fall Out Boy achieving No. 1 chart status with its fourth album, "Infinity on High," among his successes this year.

He's also grateful to have had opportunities to grow in new ways. "On a grander level than me, I guess my biggest achievement this year was going to Uganda and seeing the plight of people in a vastly different place than my own, getting a different perspective," says the 28-year-old talent, whose band has a philanthropic bent. As for what is ahead, "I'm really interested in acting," says Pete, who acted in high school and cameoed as himself in recent installments of TBS's two-minute microseries "lovebites." "I don't want to be 'the dude in the band' forever. I'm thinking of maybe doing dark, small roles in independent movies. I'm not thinking of getting a million dollars a picture on a big budget movie, just low-key things just for myself. I've never really had a chance to play a character outside myself or the heartthrob guy. I probably have a desire to be someone besides who I am, kind of. We'll see how that goes, but don't expect me to be trying to get an Oscar."

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: Even with "The Simpsons" shut down due to the writers' strike, Yeardly Smith (a.k.a. the voice of Lisa Simpson) certainly isn't sitting idly. "I wrote a novel, actually, that's going to be pushed in winter 2009 by Harper-Collins," she tells us.

She's just wrapping up rewrites. And then, "I'm executive producer on an independent film, 'Waiting for Ophelia,' which we're going to take to festivals. One thing about 'The Simpsons' is it's afforded me the luxury of choice, of being able to try new things," she adds.

And she's still happy to be a participant in "The Simpsons" — including "The Simpsons Movie," which was just released on DVD. "I love Lisa. She's just one of my favorite characters of all time. The great thing about Lisa is that not a great many things work out for her, but she's still full of resilience and optimism. We've managed to retain that. I think she's become a little bit wiser through time, but I also think that part of the appeal of the show is that certain character arcs remain consistent. People enjoy seeing new things, but they also want the familiarity."

THE INSIDE TRACK: Rick Springfield, who's made a success of releasing his records independently — including his latest, "Christmas With You" — notes, "It's fun for me to record without a record company barking down my neck. The Internet is a great tool. I have my own company, my own recording studio." Transitioning to online song sales, "you definitely lose revenue, but that's the way things are," he adds. "It's like Prohibition, which could never work — now that everyone's got the Internet and the technology, it's never going to work to tell people not to use it. The record companies are freaking out because the old model is dead. You have to make it work with a new model."

BENCH WARMER: Judge Alex Ferrer has enjoyed a boom in the popularity of his "Judge Alex" syndicated show this past season, with a whopping 25 percent audience growth. Yet, the Cuban-born, Floridian legal eagle makes it clear: "I don't want to get pigeonholed into small-claims cases, which are the guts of the show. I get asked about a lot of things — celebrity cases, Drew Peterson, O.J. — that I'm more than happy to talk about on Fox News, CNN, Court TV. I appreciate the variety. I also still teach judges at judicial conferences all the time. I wrote a bench book on closing arguments. I try to keep abreast of what's going on."

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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