Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"American Idol" breakout star David Archuleta will be launching his first solo tour at the end of February, and he admits he's anxious. "Hopefully, I'll be ready, but I can't help being nervous about it. It's a really big step, and you wonder whether anyone will come out to see the shows, what songs to perform and all," says the 18-year-old cutie.

There's little doubt the teen idol, who's racked up several hits and done the "American Idols" tour already, will prove a draw. He has a vast fan following, and has gotten used to crazy fan encounters.

Last week near his Utah home, for instance, "I was running on an indoor track and this girls' sports team spotted me, and they started running with me and screaming. About 20 girls," he tells us. He tried to tune them out. "I had my headphones on."

The fans will get to see lots more Archuleta Feb. 7 — guesting as himself on Nickelodeon's "iCarly," and hosting the channel's romance-themed night with "iCarly" star Miranda Cosgrove.

"That was fun," he says of doing the episode. "I don't usually get to do work things with kids around my age, and that was great."

He did ask for a change in the script that has him competing on a reality show. "I was supposed to say I hated this other person, but I don't really hate anyone. Since I was playing myself, I didn't want people to think I'd hate somebody," he says. "That's really not me. So we watered it down a little bit — 'I don't really like that person' — and it was fine."

As far as whether he'd like to try acting in the future, Archuleta says, "This wasn't really acting, but it did give me a little taste of how it would be. I was surprised by how much I liked it and how much fun I had."

A ROMANTIC: Gena Rowlands, who starred with beloved on-again/off-again couple Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in "The Notebook," admits she wishes their relationship would end up working out. "I loved doing that movie.

Weren't they wonderful?" says Rowlands of her co-stars, who met on the set of the film directed by her son Nick Cassavetes. "It's none of my business, but I was sad, too," she tells us of hearing about their original break up before getting back together last summer only to break up again in November. "What they had onscreen, it was real life for a while. Maybe they'll get back together."

BACK FROM NOWHERE: Ted Levine admits he was "kind of stunned" when his critically praised "Wonderland" series failed to get a pickup elsewhere after being axed by ABC two episodes into its first (and only) season. He was also surprised when the show re-emerged as a DirecTV offering, beginning last week. "It took nine years," he notes.

The very tough show, which takes viewers into the cases of psychiatrists at Bellevue Hospital — led by Levine's Dr. Robert Banger — drew complaints about how it depicted patients when it debuted in 2000. Levine feels it was ahead of its time, both in terms of its edgy material and its hand-held, documentary-style camera work, "which is now, of course, everywhere." Also, notes the actor of "Monk" and "Silence of the Lambs" fame, "ABC was the wrong place to put it. … The content did not make it easy to go to commercial: 'Here's the lady with the syringe in her belly. We'll be right back.'"

Levine says he's always felt proud of "Wonderland" despite its quick demise. "I've done roles I would not have cast myself in," he admits. "But with this role, I said, 'Yes, that part is for me.' My parents were both physicians, and I grew up around a lot of mental illness. I know the territory."

BEATING THE RUSH: It's not even February, and here we have a Christmas movie in preproduction, with secondary roles being cast. It's a sequel to Jenny McCarthy's 2006 "Santa Baby," for ABC Family. The ever-effervescent pinup-cum-mommy will again play the successful businesswoman daughter of Santa Claus. She's busy trying to push through a merger when the jolly fat guy goes into a late-in-life crisis and takes off, and … ho ho ho. Wouldn't want to give anything away.

With reports by 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 2008 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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