Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Sly and the family Stallone will be heading down to Mexico for a week's vacation right after Christmas, and his wife, Jennifer Flavin-Stallone, doesn't mind admitting she can hardly wait. 

"It's a much-needed break. He's been working night and day. He wrote the film, directed it and obviously starred," she says, referring to Stallone's Jan. 25-debuting, fourth "Rambo" feature. "He just finished editing a couple weeks ago and went into looping. He hasn't had a day off."

And neither has Jennifer, who's been taking her Serious Skin Care line of beauty treatments and cosmetics to a whole new level this fall. She smiles about the fact that comparatively few people know of her business success — though she's now "approaching a billion dollars in sales." 

Besides its Web site, www.seriousskincare.com, the company has signed up thousands of sales consultants across the country since Oct. 23. "We're very high tech, high touch. We talk to consultants through live Internet access. We have webcasts from my home, my family room — teaching consultants and customers about new products, detailing business plans. We have chemists in and other guest speakers," Jennifer reports. "We have fabulous products, a very good track record. We know who makes the best supplements, juices, green teas and so forth."

Sylvester has his own line within the line, by the way — called S-Force. Of course.

"I couldn't do it without his complete support," says Jennifer. She also says, "I can't say I don't get a little overwhelmed once in a while. I'm truly a hands-on mom. We're both hands-on parents" — with their daughters, ages 5, 9 and 11. "Sly takes the kids to school, or I do. I'm a room mom. … We don't have nannies. We put the kids to bed at night, and one of us is home with them when they get home from school."

TAKING A BIG SISTER ROLE: Jessica Simpson took her "Major Movie Star" costar Olesya Rulin under wing during filming of the upcoming comedy last summer in Louisiana. "She helped me a lot to get used to doing red carpets — I did my first one while we were filming," recounts the Moscow-born actress, known to "High School Musical" fans as composer-pianist Kelsi Nielsen. Simpson "gave me some bronzer she uses personally. She said, 'This will work great. Just slather it on, and you'll look nice and bronze.' She told me to smile and have confidence. She said, 'No matter how you're posed, and no matter what you're doing, if you have confidence, it's going to shine through all your pictures.' That hit me."

Olesya plays the "best friend and biggest fan" of Jessica's movie star character in the "Major" feature.

"We join the Army. It's hilarious. I think people will love it. We had to respond to mortar fire and wade through swamps. We're all doing it for real, too, no stunt people. We were dirty and hot — we shot outside Shreveport in the summer. I lost six pounds," says the petite, 20-year-old rising talent, who is also a model and trained ballerina. "It was fun, though. We had such a great cast and positive attitude. We were imitating real Army soldiers, so we were like, 'Let's do it! Raaah!'"

Olesya, who went on to the film "Flying By" with Billy Ray Cyrus, and who has "High School Musical 3" to film in March, wants us to know that Simpson "is phenomenal" in the big-screen comedy. "I love her, I honestly do. She's one of the most genuine people I've met, not only in Los Angeles but throughout the world."

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: Speaking of "High School Musical" actresses, Kaycee Stroh tells us she's been touched by the response to her pretty, zaftig character, Martha, in the Disney Channel movies. "I've had wonderful enthusiasm from all kinds of people — male, female, old and young. I've had a lot of parents thanking me for being a good example for their little girls, and showing that not everyone has to be a size 2 to be beautiful," she says. As far as her return in next year's third "HSM" installment, she muses, "I would love for Martha to have a little more turmoil in her family life. I think that with being the smart girl who secretly wants to be a hip-hop diva, her parents might be, like, 'We want you to go to college — no dancing.' I think there's more of the character to be explored. I love Martha — the intelligent side and the side that wants to be a funky, soulful sister."

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT: "State of Mind" regular Devon Gummersall admits that as the Lifetime series starring Lili Taylor as a psychiatrist proceeded, the lines began to blur between himself and his character. "One of the best parts of doing a TV show is that the writers start to understand your work and your personality," he notes. "They get to know you on a deeper level, note those idiosyncrasies, and it really starts to show up in the script in subtle ways." With its first season's airings completed and the writers' strike throwing production into limbo, there's no telling when "State of Mind" will return to the tube.

With reports by Stephanie DuBois and 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 2007 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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