Kiely Williams lets us know as much as she loves her fellow Cheetah Girls — and as much as she enjoyed working with the actresses in Anna Faris's forthcoming "House Bunny" comedy set in a sorority house — she's ready for some co-ed performing gigs.

"I'd love to work with boys, 'cause I'm single, and that seems to be a good way to meet someone," notes the 22-year-old singer/rapper/dancer/actress. She also notes, "I honestly didn't go into 'House Bunny' with the Girl Power things from The Cheetah Girls. I just loved the script."

Williams plays a college girl who is "very quiet, a bit of a brainiac — who's mute for the first half of the movie," in the "Bunny" flick that has Faris as a Playboy Bunny who winds up mentoring a group of less-than-popular, less-than-glamorous girls.

"It was kind of difficult for me because I'm very talkative. I had to express myself with facial expressions and actions," says Kiely. As far as the day-to-day work, "It was an all-girl movie, so there were a lot of feelings and emotions."

"House Bunny" opens Aug. 22 — the same day that the Cheetah's highly anticipated "One World" Disney Channel Original Movie debuts. "I'm going to be going straight from the movie theater home that Friday night to watch 'One World,'" Kiely says with a laugh.

Besides their exotic foray into Bollywood production in India, Kiely and fellow Cheetah Girls Adrienne Bailon and Sabrina Bryan "got to contribute to the soundtrack. We were involved in the writing process. We're really proud of it," she adds. The group's already busy planning their fall tour. Kiely is also heard rapping on the "House Bunny" single "I Know What Boys Like" with cast mate Katharine McPhee.

"This summer is pretty packed up with work. But that's OK," she says. "We like work."

MA FEMME EST FORMIDABLE: Just because Carla Bruni became the First Lady of France in February when she wed Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't mean she should stop being a pop star — make that pop celebrity — right? Or that she's not entitled to sing a song called "You Are My Dope" comparing her lover to Afghan heroin and Colombian cocaine. 'Course not! "It's not that I want to use my husband's power to sell my songs," she explains, in the next issue of Entertainment Weekly, hitting stands tomorrow (8/8). "I just don't believe that women should drop everything. That's something machiste" (macho) "that I cannot bear."

Bruni — remembered for her liaisons with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton more than for her music — released her third album this week. Its title means "As if Nothing Happened," and refers to how she managed to record the album a month after her wedding, under the radar of searing media scrutiny. "The whole situation was frantic," she says of her nuptials. "But we did the album very quietly."

As for the stir caused by that druggy song, the 40-year-old beauty makes it clear to EW that, "It doesn't bother me much. It's actually nice to have people searching for a meaning [in my lyrics]. At least they read them! It's a song about love addiction, when people just go crazy, you know? I know it can be taken in other ways, but in the end, all the songs speak for themselves."

ON THE HOME FRONT: Star of "The Office," Rainn Wilson, is at the peak of his career having just been nominated for his second Emmy, but the actor tells us his family is most important. He says he and his wife Holiday Reinhorn are enjoying all of the adventures that come with having a 4-year-old boy. "The best thing about being a dad is making up games," claims Wilson. "The other day I made up a game with my son Walter called dinosaurs vs. parrots. He won."

A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA: With Michael Bay's "Transformers 2" cranking up production this week in Philadelphia, casting forces on the movie have been recruiting Asian men and women who are tech savvy and can speak Mandarin for special duty on the flick. They'll play computer operators, and they're being asked to improvise their own dialogue in Chinese.

NBC's "The Biggest Loser" is already prepping a season with overweight families getting in shape, but that's not stopping another reality TV pilot from going forward. In preproduction now, the newcomer will involve "an entire overweight family — mom, dad, and one or two overweight teenage children," according to casting notices. We don't know all the details, but do know that the production is expressing a preference for a family that owns their own home.

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 2008 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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