Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Wrestling icon Stone Cold Steve Austin says his ultimate goal is to be far more than just another former wrestler-cum-action star.

"I would love to do movies like Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood — good movies with good stories," says Austin, who makes his feature film debut in "The Condemned" opening Friday (4/27). "I have a real open mind to anything that presents itself. Maybe down the road I'd love to do a comedy thing, but only when the time's right." For now, he says "The Condemned" "is a great movie for me to start off in. It's something my fan base would love to see me in, and I'd love to make 30 more action movies as long as I'm having fun making them and people are having fun watching them."

In "The Condemned," Austin plays a death-row prisoner in a Central American prison who is sold by corrupt officials to a TV producer. The producer is putting on an illegal reality game show in which the contestants fight to the death. He says, "I was very prepared when I rolled into 'The Condemned,' both from the fighting aspect and the acting aspect. I hired an acting coach to help me. It was a wonderful experience, and I will keep working with the same guy."

He adds the shoot might not have been as physically challenging as wrestling, but "it was a pretty hard-core action movie with a lot of fight scenes. We shot it in Australia, and a lot of the river beds and rocks we were fighting on were slippery. We had to wear shoes lined with moleskins because you never knew if you were going to bust your tail … you fall on that and it was not going to be pretty. By the time we finished two days of shooting the scene where I'm fighting with the Russian guy on the side of the cliff, my back was cut to ribbons. But it was so much fun, just a blast."

GRINNING AND BARING IT: An installment of Eric McCormack's "Lovespring International" — in which the cast members merrily doff much of their clothing — never quite made it to the vast United States audience, but just aired in Canada amid comments about American censorship. However, "It wasn't the American censors so much as it was the Lifetime censors," clarifies Wendy McLendon-Covey, one of the stars of the show in addition to her gig as Deputy Clementine Johnson on Comedy Central's notorious "Reno 911."

"They looked at it and said, 'This is not a Lifetime thing.' The episode had to do with drug muling … It got a little dicey, but it was really, really funny," she says.

"It was definitely not a Lifetime situation. They were probably right not to put it on. They'd have alienated a lot of their audience. But you can download it on iTunes," reports the Groundlings-bred talent.

"'Lovespring' might come back, but on a different network," she adds. "They're still pitching ideas to keep the cast together for other things."

Meanwhile, by phone somewhere "out in the boonies," Wendy tells us that production on season five of "Reno 911" should be a wrap today (4/24). "I can't even tell you where I am right now, but I can see horses. We're doing an episode where we make friends with our Mexican brothers and sisters in our community that will be very fun — a lot of awkward Spanish." She also notes, "We have a lot of really great guest stars this season — Diedrich Bader, Christina Applegate, Dan Castellaneta. People want to come play with us, everyone's calling our casting director to get in. And the rest of the cast — we're such nerds we all get excited to come to work."

CASTING CORNER: "Desperate Housewives" casting forces have been on the lookout for an actress to portray the 50-something trailer trash mother of Edie (Nicolette Sheridan). Seeing that the character is deceased, her presence will be restricted to a dream sequence - in which she has lots of negative things to say to her daughter.

VH1 has been looking for a beautiful and sassy model type to pair up with Ben Stein for the network's planned "America's Most Smartest Model" reality show. Despite the snarky title, there could be a real competition in it, since there are plenty of beauties with brains in the business. Cindy Crawford — an A student and high school valedictorian who studied chemical engineering at Northwestern University on a full academic scholarship before segueing into supermodel success — is just one who comes to mind.

(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 2006 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.