Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Sean Astin is pulling for his "The Final Season" feature that opens tomorrow (Oct. 12) to do well enough "for people to feel good about investing in family entertainment movies. The money for this film is Iowa money — literally, like going door-to-door raising money, local people's money, not shareholder's money," he says.

For Astin, who was approached due to the success of his 1993 feel-good sports picture "Rudy" and the "Midwest following I have from that," taking on "The Final Season" was an easy decision. "It took me about four minutes after meeting my wife, Christine, before I asked permission to marry her. This movie was almost as fast. They weren't even finished telling me the story when I knew I wanted to do it," he says of the high school baseball tale drawn from the real life story of underdog coach Kent Stock and his team in its last season as a small town entity — before being merged into a larger high school district.

"It wasn't always easy, and it wasn't always fun. The movie was made on a schedule that wasn't like what you have on a big-budget studio movie, but everyone was committed to telling the story, and everyone knew where the money came from. It's great that the Yari Group and Sony are using their machinery to put the movie out there, but even the distribution money was locally raised. The people in Iowa were amazing."

MEANWHILE: The "Lord of the Rings" actor tells us he just returned from England, where he made the adaptation of Terry Pratchett's "The Colour of Magic" for Sky TV with a cast that includes Tim Curry and Christopher Lee. Astin tells us the plan is to air the magical fantastical production here on Fox. Pratchett's Discworld book series has sold more than 60 million copies throughout the English-speaking world, from the United Kingdom to New Zealand, so far, and is picking up steam in the United States. "It's like 'Lord of the Rings' meets 'Harry Potter' meets Monty Python," says Astin. He plays the character Twoflowers, Discworld's first tourist. "I show up with the big, flowered shirt and my camera, and when I pull the lever on my camera, there's a one-inch-tall picture imp in there, drawing the pictures real fast."

ON THE PERSONAL SIDE: Former Miss USA Tara Conner happily reports she's had some closure around the abuse she intimated was behind her downward spiral into drugs and partying that almost got her dethroned last year.

"I've had resolutions in pretty much all the areas that were secrets and troubles of mine," says Conner, who hinted to "Today's" Matt Lauer in February that her issues stemmed from some childhood abuse with someone she'd recently confronted.

At the time, Conner said, "I will not deny that I have witnessed some abuse, but out of respect for my family ... it's something I would like to speak with my family about first. Later on, maybe I'll feel more comfortable about speaking on these topics, but right now not so much."

Now, she says, "I laid my heart out to the world with my recovery and that part," referring to her stint in rehab last December. "But having that little piece to keep private really helped. It was something I was able to just work out for Tara."

She reports she'll be sharing more of her trials and tribulations in a book she's writing. "It's a nice little documentary of my life," says Conner, who's currently offering the benefit of her hindsight to 2007's reigning beauty queens, Miss Universe Riyo Mori, Miss USA Rachel Smith and Miss Teen USA Katie Blair, in MTV's new reality series "Pageant Place," which chronicles what happens to a beauty queen after the win. She says her book will definitely "delve into some of the things people do want to know about, but it's also a motivational piece. There are a lot of people who are in my shoes, so if anything can come out of this good, hot mess I made, then I'm all for it."

DON'T TOUCH WHAT DIAL?: With the sweeping changes in how viewers see TV shows nowadays, Jimmy Kimmel is well aware that "a lot of people watch our show on the Internet. In a way, it's good because it spreads the show around, but in a way, it's bad because people know if something great happens, it'll get on the Internet. They don't have to be sure to sit there and watch the show. There's nothing you can do about it," he shrugs, "just take the good with the bad."

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: "Back to You's" Josh Gad spent part of his summer working with Christina Applegate and "The Office's" Rainn Wilson in the comedy "The Rocker" — a movie that he claims will be a big hit with audiences. "It's a good, old-fashioned family comedy that is just a home run," says Gad of the movie, which stars Rainn as a washed-up drummer who gets a second chance in his nephew's rock band. "It will be Rainn's first foray into film, and I think the audiences are just going to embrace him in a way that is really incredible."

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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