Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Sarah Silverman, who's been busy shooting the third season of "The Sarah Silverman Program" for Comedy Central, is not known for holding her tongue, but the comedian tells us she never sets out to be controversial. Her opinions just happen to be strong, which sometimes gets her in trouble.

"It never was a goal (to push the envelope), but it is interesting because I've had to deconstruct what I do just by virtue of promoting it. It makes me have to think about what I do. I just have to keep doing stuff that I think is funny and just let that be my guide," Silverman notes.

"After a while, if people come to expect an element of surprise or expect something to be taboo or if society starts getting more liberal comedically, then where does that leave me? Where is my element of surprise that I can offer? But I don't want to have to go, 'More, more, more!' Hopefully I'm growing and changing as a person and my sense of humor is always true to that, and not some character I established in 2004 or something. I don't ever want to be the '80s comic that has to keep doing 'the voice' or whatever it is," Silverman adds. "I let the comedy change organically. I'll always either be or not be other people's cup of tea. But to guide yourself by second-guessing what you do for an audience that is faceless I don't think would end up being fruitful."

For now, Silverman is just concentrating on her show and hoping that fans continue to tune in when the third season airs, in 2010. "We never know if we have life beyond this. We don't know if we're going to get picked for scripts or anything, and we probably won't know for a while," she observes. She does know that she loves the show. "We are a family," she says. "I would probably do it for as long as they'll have us."

FEELING THE ENERGY: Blair Brown reports that shooting on this season's "Fringe" shows is "going really well," particularly for her. That's in spite of the fact that the J.J. Abrams sci-fi series is challenging for her logisticswise. "I was not all that excited about going to Vancouver to work. I live here in New York. So I'm commuting. It's a rather long commute," she understates. The Tony-winning actress, who rose to fame as the title star of TV's "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd," also notes that the cast members get their scripts about three days before they shoot. "So I never know if I'll be here two weeks from Monday," she says. "So I can't even do a reading.

That's the hardest thing, not feeling part of the theater. It's a headache, but," she adds with a smile, "it's a high-grade headache. Besides, I thrive on chaos. Otherwise I probably wouldn't be in this business."

The plus is that she enjoys the show and her character, Nina Sharp, the CEO of Massive Dynamic, which is the science and technology research firm at the heart of "Fringe." "Is she a force for good, a force for evil — or for less good? Is she a good person or not a very good person?" Even Brown doesn't know for sure.

VOICE OF AN ANGEL: Irish singer and harpist Orla Fallon of Celtic Woman fame will be savoring a bit of time at home with her husband before returning to the United States in October for a blitz of appearances. "I'm a real home bird. That's the hard part, being away. I'm like Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz,'" says the blue-eyed, red-haired beauty, who regularly goes up into Ireland's Wicklow Mountains to draw inspiration and to scrutinize her recordings. "All you see is hills, trees and heathers for miles and miles — and usually a few deer," she says.

Fallon recorded her new album, "Distant Shore," in studio "with the band for a real-life energetic feeling" rather than their doing tracks separately. "That was one of the things I really wanted to do; I wanted to do it the old-fashioned way because so much of what you hear today is plastic-y and overproduced. I wanted something more earthy and organic, for people to be able to hear the quivers of the emotions in the voice."

Her ethereal voice also will be heard on a forthcoming single of the oldie "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Soon she'll be dividing her time between appearances on PBS stations in conjunction with Jim Brickman's "Beautiful World" PBS pledge drive special, on which she guest stars, and Barnes & Noble stores. Then she'll set out on the "Beautiful World" Christmas tour, which starts in November.

NUMBERS GAME: Technology is growing faster every day, and television needs to keep up, says Brian Austin Green, who starred in the now-canceled "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" on Fox. Though the show opened with very high ratings, its numbers never improved, or did they? "Television has completely changed. It's not like it was 10 years ago," Green notes. "Nielsen ratings are archaic. I've never in my lifetime met someone who has a Nielsen box," he says. "They still haven't figured out how to accurately track people watching online or using a TiVo. Then there are all these rules with DVR. (For example) if you don't watch it within three days, then it doesn't count. It's weird."

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.

COPYRIGHT 2009 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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