Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Timothy Hutton was glad to hear the news that Roman Polanski's "Ghost Writer" will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February — despite the fact Polanski remains under house arrest in Switzerland awaiting extradition to the U.S. on his 1977 conviction for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. But Hutton wasn't surprised.

The embattled director continued to supervise post-production work on his latest movie when he was imprisoned near Zurich, as well as when he was allowed to return to his Swiss chalet.

"I knew looping and sound work had been done with the different actors and it was on track to come out next year," Hutton says. "I don't know the details of how the film has been worked on, but I'm sure that he's involved with every aspect of it, every detail."

Hutton plays an American lawyer representing the British prime minister in the feature. The adaptation of Robert Harris' novel, it's about a writer recruited to help a disgraced PM (said to be a thinly veiled Tony Blair) produce his memoirs against the backdrop of a possible indictment at the international criminal court. Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor play the prime minister and the writer, respectively.

"I think it's going to be a really terrific film," Hutton says.

Hutton was, of course, stunned when Polanski was arrested last September. "I mean, yeah, it was just a few months before we were all working on the film," he notes. As for his feelings on the matter? "All I care to say about it is that I had a really great experience working on the film."

Hutton is due to return to the cameras for Season 3 production of his terrific TNT "Leverage" series in March. The show, in which he plays the mastermind of a group of tech-savvy con artists who employ their skills to bring down bad guys, returns to the lineup Jan. 13. Right now, he's home in New York. For Christmas, "I'm going to be with my family and the kids," says Hutton, the father of sons ages 8 and 22. "The cousins are coming up to my house in upstate New York, and we're hoping to get up to one of the local ski areas. A couple of the kids have never skied."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Jana Kramer tells us she loves her gig as the newest bad girl, Alex, on the CW's "One Tree Hill," but adjusting to life in North Carolina hasn't been as easy.

She's especially missing being with her boyfriend, Johnathon Schaech, whom she met when the two filmed "Prom Night" together.

"It's totally a different world out here in Wilmington. I was like, 'Where's the town?' And they said, 'This is the town.' I'm like, 'It's only five blocks!' I fly back to L.A. when I can to spend time with my boyfriend. It's hard, though. I'm so tired of being in an airplane," she says. "My boyfriend was just in the country Georgia so that was really difficult because he was gone for three months. Now that he's back in L.A., it's a lot easier."

Luckily, the cast has become like a second family to Kramer. "I was really nervous when I first came on board because everybody's been on this show for seven years now. I was worried in particular about Sophia (Bush) because you never know how girls are and this being primarily her show, but she was extremely welcoming. Sophia, Lisa and I hang out all the time. Everybody's pretty close because you kind of have to be since most of our friends are in L.A."

Now Kramer just hopes the long-running show has a little more steam left in it. "We just keep crossing our fingers. Hopefully it sticks around a couple of more years because I just got on the show. It'd be nice to have something steady and to have more time to explore the character, but I've learned to never get your hopes up in this business because things change so quickly."

INDUSTRY BITS: The Russell Brand-Jonah Hill "Get Him to the Greek" shot last summer, but they're adding new material to the feature expected in June, with production to commence mid-January. Among the parts being cast are a newscaster and two beautiful and sexy girls, one of who will be required to go topless. "Greek" has Brand reprising his Aldous Hill, wayward rock legend, role from "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" with Jonah Hill as the record company intern charged with getting him to show up to perform his own comeback concert.

Casting is under way for a pilot presentation for a new reality-style TV drama called "Nowhere Home," following the lives of four runaway teenagers — three girls and a guy, ages 13 to 18. Let us hope the producers don't choose to glamorize their lives.

With reports by Emily-Fortune 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.

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