Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Tommy Lee Jones isn't sure what he's going to be doing Sunday night, but he won't be sitting around feeling sad that he's not at the Golden Globes awards show that isn't happening. That's in spite of the fact that "No Country for Old Men," in which he stars, is up for multiple honors, including best dramatic feature film.

The Coen Bros.' tense and bloody adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy book has already amassed armloads of critics' awards, Screen Actors Guild Award nominations (including one for Jones), and Oscar buzz.

However, says Jones, "the effect of the Writers Guild strike on the awards season is not anything I'm actually going to notice. It's not as big an event in my life as it is yours, no offense."

The star who's been described as an "extra-on'ry" Texan is proud of the film, of course, and gives Joel and Ethan Coen props for being "well read, very bright, good company, and they're funny. They had the requisite respect for the material. They can read — if you're going to presume to turn one of Cormac's books into a movie, you have to know how to read."

Indeed, Jones, who collaborated on a screenplay of McCarthy's "Blood Meridian," says he'd like to work with the Coens again, and adds, "I do need a job."

Well, not that much. Besides having the big-screen adaptation of James Lee Burke's surreal detective novel, "In the Electric Mist," in the can, the Academy Award-winning actor-writer-director tells us, "I own the motion picture rights to Ernest Hemingway's last book, 'Islands in the Stream.' It was made into a bad movie in the '70s, but there's a good movie in that book, and that's the one I want to make. Bill Whitman and I have written a rather beautiful screenplay. I'm not too old to play Thomas Harris. We do have other cast, yes. I have some commitments from some very fine actors, but I prefer not to name them at this stage. I don't want to beat the drum and exploit their names. I know how that feels."

HAIR TODAY… : "I'm going to cut my hair," reveals Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz. "I've had this mullet for so long, people can't believe it," admits the hot recording star. "It's like, 'God, he's got a mullet?!' I'm looking forward to cutting it — hopefully it'll be something nobody sees coming." We'll be on the lookout.

GETTING DOWN: Transforming herself from "a total Wonder Bread white girl" into a fully urbanized African American wannabe in "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" proved a memorable experience in itself for actress Erin Cummings.

She admits that after she won the role of Sally in the Martin Lawrence starrer that opens today (Jan. 11), director Malcolm Lee caught her off guard when he first asked her to improvise for a scene. "Here I was working with Martin Lawrence, Cedric the Entertainer, Mo'Nique, James Earl Jones — all these people who bring new, fresh wonderful ideas to the table. And I'm this Shakespearean actress who's never done improv except for a brief stint at The Groundlings. I went off with my tail between my legs."

And then she went to work, fast. She went to an "online chat room where black people were writing about urban slang they found the most annoying, and I went back to Affion (Crockett), who plays my boyfriend in the movie, and asked for his help: 'Tell me, what does it mean to be a 'ride or die bitch'? And if I were to get 'crunk,' does that mean I'm angry, or excited?'"

Erin also befriended her hairstylist on the shoot (for which she sported corn rows, an Afro, a deep tan, fake lips, and a fake backside that "had a life of its own," she says). "She took me to Blockbuster and we got practically every movie that had an African American cast on the cover for me to watch.'"

Erin's immersion paid off. She was able to improv lines like, "Where all my sisters at? Can I get some dat?" She reports that "Malcolm was all smiles. I felt I had redeemed myself. I thought, 'Oh, good. I'm not going to get fired.'"

BEST OF TIMES … : "The Riches" regular Todd Stashwick says the last couple of months have been the best of times and the worst of times — between his newborn daughter and the writers strike. "I did have a new baby, so it's great to have this time to be with my family," says Stashwick, who plays Dale Malloy, the vicious, psychotic cousin of Eddie Izzard's character in the FX show about a family of con artists who take over a rich family's identity. "But I'm ready to get back to work and get a fair deal. And I'm in absolute support of my writers. These guys are the unsung heroes."

"The Riches" troupe only "shot half of our second season before we ran out of scripts," says Stashwick. "The show was possibly going to premiere in June, but now, with the schedules being all tossed up in the air, who knows?" He adds, "If people want their 'Riches' fix, Season One just came out on DVD and there are webisodes currently airing. Just go to www.fx.com."

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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