Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Last Thursday's "ER" turned out to be a shocker for viewers when Dr. Weaver (Laura Innes) bid adieu to the action after nearly 12 years with the show. Innes stresses that as far as she's concerned, there will be no returning.

"They didn't kill me off, so in some senses they could bring me back, but that's not going to happen. The departure came out of the blue for the audience, but I knew last year that it was time to move on, that the character had run her course. When we discussed it, I told them I didn't want my character to die, I wanted her to have a happy departure." And so the good doctor is moving on to become a medical correspondent for a local station.

Innes has already made some impressive strides as far as career movement — having achieved the reputation as a television director of note after being at the helm of such shows as "West Wing" and "ER" (for which she earned an Emmy nod) — and with a segment of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" upcoming.

She says she's been getting loads of offers, for both directing and acting. Of the latter, she notes, "I keep getting asked to play another version of Dr. Weaver, and I'm just not interested in that."

What she is interested in is having more time for family — her actor/husband David Brisbin, their 16-year-old son, Cal, and their 5-year-old Chinese daughter, Mia, who was adopted at the age of 1.

Much of the family's time, Innes says, revolves around the group with whom they traveled to China to secure adoptions. "We're quite close to the group," she says, "and see 10 of them about every other week. And then there are constant activities such as Chinese New Year, and the Chinese lessons Mia is taking. We somehow had no idea it would be so involved, but we all enjoy it."

Having even more time to share such activities with her family is, she says, "going to be my exciting new gig."

GETTING TOUGHER: Jamie Foxx, riding high with "Dreamgirls" this awards season, on top of his 2005 Oscar win for "Ray," shows off yet another facet of his dramatic acting capabilities in his forthcoming "The Kingdom." That's the word from Brooke Langton, who's currently starring in Disney's "Primeval." She tells us, "He was very serious with this character … It's him playing a real military guy. It's more like what he did in 'Collateral.' He's amazing.

He is an incredibly giving actor." She plays the distraught wife of Foxx's best friend in "The Kingdom," and, "he played this, 'We will get revenge' kind of guy," says the actress. Music, comedy, retribution … Is there anything the man can't do?

The April release movie, which is about a team of U.S. government agents who are sent to investigate the bombing of an American facility in the Middle East, also stars Jennifer Garner and Chris Cooper.

IT'S HER PASSION: "Cristina's Court" Judge Cristina Perez says she's not just kicking back till her Fox show begins taping again in the spring. "Law is my passion. I'm obsessed with it," says Perez, who shares a law practice with her attorney husband as well. "Even when I'm not taping, I still have to be around it. I wouldn't associate or do work that is related to the show, but I do a lot of helping people with legal issues, work for nonprofit organizations and do special events and programs. I like to model myself after my dad — a man who's worked in this country for 45 years and still works — and keep busy. He taught me the more you exercise your mind the healthier you are."

And that's just the type of lesson Perez included from her Colombian parents in her Simon & Schuster book "Living By Los Dichos," published in English and Spanish. "'Los Dichos' are very colorful sayings in the Latin community that touch on the basic things in life," she explains, "and the book is a celebration of my culture and the good things my parents taught me. Growing up in America I always felt weird having a second language. My parents interwove our culture with everything we learned in America. They said, 'You're an American citizen, but at the same time don't forget you have a little from somewhere else, too.' And the key to my success has been to use both cultures. It's really about embracing your identity."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Looks like "The Real World" has finally found a way to redeem itself, as it has this year's cast working as Outward Bound guides in Denver. "It's one of these things that I will hopefully look back on the rest of my life and think of it as a real source of strength," says cast member Brooke LaBarbera, who had the hardest time adapting to life in the wilderness. "In the future I want to possibly do another Outward Bound course because I think it puts your life into perspective and reminds you to never take anything for granted. You don't realize how much you have until you're surviving in the wilderness."

(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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