Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"Operation Repo's" Lou Pizarro is parlaying his reality-show fame and fortune into a slew of TV and film projects as a producer, director and star. Already in the can is his indie feature "Operation Repo: The Movie," and according to Lou, a distribution deal is in place for next year.

Now he has a big-screen comedy set to start shooting in August, "Lou Goes Back to Boot Camp," at the former Marine's old stamping grounds — Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. "I'm the star and it's insane. I start off in Afghanistan, out there doing standup comedy for the troops. Stuff happens, I lose my memory..." And the comic winds up becoming a grunt all over again. "It has a lot of parodies of films like 'Full Metal Jacket,'" Lou reveals. The part about performing for the troops is quite true to life, since Pizarro has taken his comedy out to the military numerous times.

Also, with his truTV "Operation Repo" airing via the Armed Forces Network, "I get so much love from those guys, so much respect. I get phone calls from Afghanistan — I give guys my number and tell them to keep in touch, and they do." U.S. English-language viewers were introduced to "Operation Repo" in 2008, but the show's Spanish-language precursor has been a hit longer. Lou (http://www.facebook.com/loupizarro) has done more than 500 episodes, and they're syndicated globally.

His other productions include the first Spanish-language tattoo-themed reality show and the first Spanish-language bounty hunter reality show. "Now I'm attacking the mainstream English market," he declares. TruTV has several more of Lou's shows in the pipeline, "but they don't want me to talk about them yet."

With all that going on, he's probably not doing any more repossession work in real life, right? "Only the higher-end stuff," says Pizarro, a one-man PR machine for the $1 billion repossession industry — which, he wants us to know, makes it possible for average Americans to finance cars because without it, nobody could afford the staggering interest rates. He's out to change the old repo man stereotypes, he says. "You have to be educated and a thinker — smarter than the next guy," in addition to having nerve.

By "higher end," he means repossession of things like yachts and private jets. Lou tantalizes us with hints of celebrities and politicians whose expensive stuff has been taken back due to failure to make payments. He says he can't name names for legal reasons, dash it all. "You could do a completely different repo show — hint, hint.

Maybe 747 jumbo jets, cruise liners, interesting things like that. Yes, it takes a lot of work, but it's done all the time. You know, older 747s and 757s are leased to different countries, and then they don't pay. The companies have to have someone go and get 'em back." Sounds like a movie.

THE SOUND OF RELIEF: Songstress Rondi Charleston sets off on a club tour next week that will take her to Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, Atlanta "and a few other places," she says. Her tour also includes stops at a number of Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang camps for seriously ill children, as well as hospitals along the way. She plays L.A.'s Catalina Jazz Club on June 30, for instance, and the next day will perform at the Painted Turtle Camp.

Charleston has been neighbors with Joanne Woodward and the late Paul Newman in Westport, Conn., for years. "They've had a big influence on me when it comes to how to live a good life. They're my role models," she explains. "What I try to bring to the kids is a moment of relief of their pain and suffering. Music really can uplift the spirit and the body, as well. Recent neuroscience shows the connection between music and the brain is very powerful. It can help restore speech to people with Parkinson's, lift people out of depression, calm and help organize thoughts for people who have Alzheimer's."

The contemporary jazz singer, who has won rhapsodic praise from The New York Times, Downbeat and an array of other publications, was formerly a network news producer for Diane Sawyer's "Prime Time Live" and other shows. Now, with her Motema "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" album, she's being extolled as a songwriter with great storytelling gifts, as well as a plush voice. One example: "Land of Galilee," which tells of a true incident of harmony in the Middle East. Small wonder her work is en route to being used in a film, details of which will come later.

IN ANOTHER LIFE: Speaking of fabulous female jazz singers, casting is underway now for Melinda, "a dazzling '40s jazz singer with an incredible voice" in Harry Connick Jr.'s Broadway revival of "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." Interesting. If you've been following plans for this new version of the 1965 musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane (which, of course, begat the 1970 Barbra Streisand film), you know big changes have been made. Instead of a woman who has ESP and is a reincarnated spirit, now the central character is a man — a male Barbra? — who was a female jazz singer in a past life. (Harry is playing his/her psychiatrist, Dr. Bruckner.) The show is being produced by Tom Hulce, with a fall debut planned.

HE'LL BE THE JUDGE: Cedric the Entertainer is trying his hand at a new untitled courtroom comedy, with a pilot soon to be shot. It has the King of Comedy as a judge in that unique land of the crazy, the weird and the entertaining: Hollywood.

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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