Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Virginia Madsen is taking a new turn, professionally speaking. Madsen, who already pulled off the magic act of reigniting her career with her Oscar-nominated performance in 2004's "Sideways," is now adding producer to her credits. She has a big-screen feature in the casting stages, three more in development and a documentary being edited.

She's starring in the feature drama as well as producing it. It's called "Creve Coeur," as in the town in Missouri, and "I would say it's along the lines of 'American Beauty' meets 'Juno,' without the teen pregnancy," she tells us. "So the girl has to be the best of the best. It's going to be one hell of a role for a young actress."

She's found casting "really, really difficult for me. I know what they're going through auditioning. I wish the film was about all of them."

Madsen credits Philippe Caland, for whom she made the new "Ripple Effect," for getting her started as a producer. "I've known him for more than 20 years," she says of the auteur filmmaker of "Hollywood Buddha" fame. When he asked her to join the cast of "Ripple Effect" — which also stars Forest Whitaker and Minnie Driver — she was instantly interested.

"Ripple Effect," which Variety deemed "a New Age comic book with some highly original moments," is opening in select theaters nationwide this month and next. It has Caland as a fashion designer who believes he has to clear the bad karma he created in his past in order to stop having bad luck.

"Philippe offered me the chance to put on a producer's hat and see how that felt" with "Ripple Effect," she says. "He said, 'It's time for you to start exploring this.' I'm very lucky to have a friend like that." She discovered, "I liked being the boss."

The movie also involved doing improvisational acting, of which Madsen was wary. "It's a fine line you walk with improv; sometimes it just sounds like bad writing. And I'm not well-versed in improv. It was out of my comfort zone. That's one reason it was a risk worth taking."

NEW DIGS: "Digging for the Truth" star Josh Bernstein, admits leaving the History Channel wasn't an easy decision, but he tells us he made the right move by going to the Discovery Channel for his new show, "Into the Unknown." "It was tough. Obviously because of the competitive nature of these two networks I didn't announce my going there right away.

Out of respect for the series, I wanted to give the show a chance to succeed without me," he says. The show was canceled the season after he left. "As much as I love digging and history, I felt like the series itself had a shelf life only because everything had to be archaeology. There aren't endless stories in the archaeology arena. I felt like at a certain point I had to walk away. Discovery was willing to offer me a much broader palate. It was past, it was present, it was future, and the network was more diverse. I felt like I had a future here."

Bernstein believes his new show, which premieres today (8/18), will offer fans a much more diverse show as well. "It represents all of the best aspects of television. It's ambitious, it's exploratory, it's educational, it's entertaining," he claims. "It's going to be fun and serious at times. There are some tense moments when I'm exploring the darkest rituals of a tribe or I might be in a highly classified room at NASA looking for life on Mars. It's everything you would want in a series that epitomizes Discovery and its brand." Luckily for the viewer, the host, who's been featured in People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue, ain't too bad to look at either!

SPEAKING OF HUNKS: In the Hallmark Channel's "For the Love of Grace" romantic movie that premieres Saturday (8/30), Mark Consuelos plays a firefighter whose relationship with a workaholic writer (Chandra West) leads to the creation of a firehouse cookbook. Hallmark has put together a real collection of recipes from firehouse cooks across the land for the occasion with a donation going to the National Fallen Firefighters Association. So how does Consuelos himself stack up as a cook? "I grill," answers the actor, a.k.a. Kelly Ripa's hunky hubby. "I'm a griller. Anything a caveman could cook, I can. It's almost idiot proof."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: The "Samantha Who" troupe already has five episodes of the new season in the can, which takes some pressure off the team on the Christina Applegate series. "We shot them early because the network was afraid of another strike," notes Jean Smart. As far as what's ahead for her character, Christina's not-so-nice mama, she says, "Regina is now selling real estate, which is fine with me as long as I don't have to wear a blazer in every scene." The Emmy nominee notes, "We do get to keep doing flashbacks. It's funny — it's the exact opposite of '24,' when all the story was compressed into one day. The challenge was to remember that everything was happening in one day. An argument was 10 minutes ago. It was like jumping on a speeding train. With this, the challenge is remembering where in a span of years different things happened."

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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