Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard is in talks about a movie deal for his well-received autobiography with Michael Arkush, "The Big Fight: My Life in and out of the Ring." Asked whom he wants to play him, the former champ doesn't miss a beat: "Brad Pitt."

But seriously, he tells us, "It's not a boxing movie, per se. It's really life; boxing is the backdrop. It's a fight outside the ring."

Telling his story — complete with revelations of sexual abuse by a prominent Olympic boxing coach and another older man involved in the sport — has already had an amazingly strong impact, considering the book just came out in June.

"I didn't think it would be as cathartic as it has been, as really therapeutic as it's been to get this out, to get rid of this toxic poison in my system," he says.

And not just for Leonard himself. He says he has been approached many times while on book tour by fans who tell him that they too have felt the shame of sexual abuse.

"Being a guy, a dude, a fighter, a black man, it's totally against all of our rules, our codes," he says. "I've had all kinds of guys come up — in business suits, in jeans, in incredible shape, with beer bellies, with tattoos — they hug me and share tears. They say, 'Man, you know, I was one of those guys. Thank you.'"

In fact, Leonard says in recent days he's been asked to do two speaking engagements on the subject of child sexual abuse.

"At first I held back," he admits. "I said, 'No, no. I'm not going to become the poster child for this.' Then I thought again. Whether poster child or not, so be it." And he's accepted the dates.

Writing about his infidelity in his first marriage, his drinking and drugs, has also been healing. Leonard reveals that his first wife, Juanita, showed up at his recent book signing in Atlanta "and we went out for dinner afterward ... When I saw her, I couldn't believe she actually did show up ... We did a lot of smiling. At some point we both felt at peace, at rest. I didn't appreciate it until I went back to the hotel and thought about what just transpired. We went through divorce proceedings that were quite adversarial," recalls Leonard, who has been married to his second wife, Bernadette, since 1993.

MEANWHILE: Leonard's next career move couldn't be much further from the personal drama and high emotion of his book release. He's the fight choreographer on Hugh Jackman's October-debuting feature "Real Steel" - a near-future tale in which boxing matches are fought by robots.

"That was big! That was huge!" he exclaims in delight. "Meeting Hugh, working with the cast and producer Sean Levy — I loved it. If I know anything, I know how to choreograph a fight."

As for whether the film could precipitate robot boxing matches in the real world, "With the technology moving the way it is, you're damn right it could happen," says Leonard. He laughs, "and I'd get a great return."

SIGNS O' THE TIMES: As the annual summer TV Critics Association press tour rolls on this week, some interesting themes are emerging. For instance, both NBC and ABC have dramas coming up involving dark fairy tales — ABC's "Once Upon a Time," and NBC's "Grimm."

The latter boasts producers including David Greenwalt ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Sean Hayes (as in Jack from "Will & Grace," who also produces "Hot in Cleveland").

"Grimm" a crime-procedural crossed with grim takes on some of those scary folklore tales penned by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm back in the early 1800s. How about a big, bad wolf that looks human, and does human things like Pilates classes, and who is fattening up a child he abducted in order to eat her up? Go ahead and take a moment to digest that one.

Anyway, what accounts for this wave of disturbing fantasy on the small screen? Greenwalt told press, maybe it's that people are attracted to "dark themes in a dark time."

Well, maybe. They're attracted to other times as well, evidently, as several series this year are either set in bygone days, or they're revamps of shows from bygone days: NBC's "Playboy Club," ABC's "Pan Am" and "Charlie's Angels" and NBC's "Prime Suspect," to name four.

The new "Prime Suspect," as you may have heard, has the prodigiously talented Maria Bello as Jane Timoney, who picks up the hard-charging ways of police detective Jane Tennison, formerly played on British telly by the great Helen Mirren. Things have changed a lot since Mirren began playing the role in 1991. So today's Jane — in New York City — will still deal with sexism, but it will be different.

"Sexism isn't gone. It's more subtle and insidious in the modern world," noted creator-executive producer Alexandra Cunningham. She also said that while visiting New York detective squads, she found that many are male-only.

Jane will still smoke and drink too. But rather than the extreme chain smoking of Mirren's incarnation, Bello's Jane will be constantly trying to quit. (Bello, a smoker herself, said she can empathize.) As for the drinking, Cunningham pointed out that it's no longer groundbreaking to show a woman alcoholic on TV like it was 20 years ago when Mirren did it. So this Jane will drink, but it won't become the storyline-driving issue it became in the old "Prime Suspect."

MONEY MAN: Not everything is gloomy in the economy. For instance, certain shows about the economy are in great shape, thanks to viewers and listeners striving to make sense of it all.

Things are definitely booming for Bob "Sully" Sullivan of "The Big Biz Show," carried on CBS, Armed Forces Radio and TheBigBizShow.com. He and his on-air partner, Russ Stolnack ("Russ T Nailz"), have just moved into a new radio/video studio built especially for them.

He's seen on interstitials on Fox News. And he has another show on the way, based on the trademarked, revealing seven questions about money that he's been asking famous folks for years.

He feels his strengths lie in making it easier for listeners to grasp complex financial issues, while at the same time avoiding the voice of doom.

"I'm an investment-banker, day-trader, venture-capital type," he says of his earlier career. "If you can make this all really understandable for Joe Six Pack — and let's face it, most of us are Joe Six Pack — suddenly you've got an audience of people who don't normally listen to business."

Undeniably, there are a lot of alarmists in the media, making the current, scary economic times even scarier. Notes Sullivan, "They're out there to get people to turn on their TV or sell papers, so for some, the more sensational the better. But people are going to work every day, and they're scared. I want to give a real picture in plain English, make it understandable and add a little levity. I like to be the voice of reason. When it's bad, it's bad — but there are things you can do to mitigate it."

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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