Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Enough already! blasts Tim Allen of the Tiger Woods scandal.

The comic is referring to the endless media coverage of the story that started with the golfing champ's crashing his car near his home in the middle of the night to allegations that he has been involved in numerous extramarital affairs.

"This is a horror," declares Allen. "This is a family in deep pain. I have very good friends who can't stop talking about the story, going over detail after detail. But I feel, who am I to judge? It's just the human way, I suppose, to build people up and then tear them down."

Allen found himself in danger of the latter situation when, some 20 years after he served 28 months in jail for possession of cocaine in the late '70s, someone threatened to make the story public. Allen retaliated by having his publicist tell USA Today about the case, and, once the story was out, says Allen, "That was the end of it."

Ironically, Allen portrays a man fresh out of prison in "Crazy on the Outside," the upcoming movie he self-financed, directed and in which he co-stars with Sigourney Weaver, Ray Liotta, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Kelsey Grammer.

"Like me, my character straightens out his life," says Allen. He goes on to say that the brother-sister comedy went through three studio regimes before he picked it up and that "I've been holding secret screenings around the country," and "it's being very well received." He does concede that getting the picture made meant considerable sacrifices. "Instead of costing $60 million, like one of my major studio films costs, we had to bring it in for under $20 million. And instead of doing a page a day like I did with John Travolta, we had to grind out three or four pages a day to stay within budget."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Benjamin McKenzie tells us it's been frustrating waiting to find out the fate of "Southland," but he feels good about the show's future now that it's found a new home at TNT. "It was obviously unfortunate the way it went down. Shows do get canceled. We didn't see it coming so it was a bit of a shock for all of us," admits McKenzie about NBC greenlighting a second season and then abruptly canceling it.

"It's frustrating when you're in the middle of that. You get angry and impatient because we had to sort of sit around for the last couple of months while they went through the process of selling it. But if the end result of this whole process is that we end up on TNT and we have a home there for years to come, and we can make the show that we want to make that we weren't able to make on NBC, then that's a great outcome," he notes.

TNT will begin airing the entire first season starting Jan. 12 and then they will air six episodes that have already been shot for season two. "TNT needs a little time, obviously, to gear up to promote the show. I'm excited for people to see not only the new version of the pilot, which has additional footage in it, but these new episodes, which I think are some of the best we've done. I think fans of the show will be rewarded for their patience," he says. "Now that we're on cable, we don't have to deliver as big of a number as we did on NBC. If we get that core audience to follow us to TNT, then I think we could be around for a while."

In the meantime, McKenzie plans to take it easy during the Christmas holidays. "I'm just going back home to Austin, Texas, where I'm from, to spend time with my family. I'll eat some good food, get some gifts and just enjoy my time off."

BURNED YULE LOG: Don't feel too bad if your holiday doesn't quite measure up to expectations. It can happen to anyone — even celebrities. Donald Faison admits he and girlfriend Cacee Cobb had a less-than-memorable Christmas last year. "Last Christmas, plans had fallen through for me and my girlfriend. We wound up spending Christmas day at IHOP. That wasn't necessarily the worst Christmas in the world 'cause them pancakes is delicious, but I don't think that's what Cacee had in mind for Christmas."

Jeff Dunham says: "There was one year when I was in college where I went to a party with my parents in Dallas. Tom Landry, who was the coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was at the party so it was one of those Dallas elite, nice parties. I sat there on the couch eating some kind of cooked pecans. Apparently, they didn't agree with me overnight so on Christmas morning, I was in the bathroom throwing up for five hours. It was definitely my worst Christmas and my mom later told me that was her worst Christmas, too."

With reports by 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 2009 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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