With his comedy tour a hot ticket and his "Frank TV" series taping its second season — having outperformed expectations at TBS on its initial limited run — comic impressionist Frank Caliendo is feeling on top these days. He's also feeling relieved to be away from the mean antics often seen on his former place of funny business, Fox's sketch comedy show "MADtv.'"

"When I was at 'MADtv,' we would attack a lot. That's the reason why nobody wanted to do 'MADtv,'" he claims. "They ripped on people for no reason. They were outing Rosie O'Donnell ahead of time. Why, if you are a big actor or actress, would you want to be on a show that's being mean to people?" asks Caliendo, who says he often avoided going too far. "I wouldn't do a lot of stuff they asked me. I would just tell them I didn't feel comfortable with certain things."

As for his own sketch comedy show, returning this fall, Caliendo says they're just trying to have fun and have no intention of hurting anyone. "We try to take the smart route. We're not doing attack pieces."

In fact, Caliendo, who's most known for his dead ringer impersonations of George W. Bush and John Madden, says he has no ill will toward the people he imitates. "I like most of the people I do impersonations of, although John Madden hates me."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: "Entourage" creator/writer/exec producer Doug Ellin has reported he has four more seasons of storylines already in reserve for the Emmy-winning HBO show — but is the cast locked down?

"We're not signed for it, but we want to do it," declares Kevin Connolly, who co-stars in the show based on actor/exec producer Mark Wahlberg's showbiz experiences with Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara. "I'll tell you. I swear to God if you stick that paper in front of me, I will sign on the dotted line for 50 seasons! Anything to make it not go away. I think anybody that wouldn't would have to have their head examined. The worst thing about this show is that someday it will come to an end. It's going to be like the worst day of my life."

Connolly says the troupe — which is halfway through shooting the fifth season of the show that returns in September — "just shot an episode in The Joshua Tree Monument in the desert. Our first episode was in Hawaii, and we're going to do a New York episode, and that's just three out of 12. So just for the locations alone … And one of the other benefits of being on an HBO show is the time commitment is really small. We shoot four months out of the year ... It's so ideal." Not to mention the plethora of hot babes encountered by this entourage weekly. Rough job!

He adds, "Ultimately we'd like to do eight years of the show. That would be where everybody would feel like 'We did it,' you know, because we're not like a network. Eight years for us is just about 100 episodes" — enough needed for syndication — "and that's five years on a regular network."

IDOL THOUGHTS: Teenage actress Meaghan Jette Martin figures that once "Camp Rock" debuts tonight (6/20), "Everybody's going to hate me. It's sad, but it's OK," laughs the vivacious blond, who portrays the junior diva/rich daughter of a rock star — and nemesis of Demi Lovato's character — in the highly anticipated Disney Channel original movie starring the Jonas Brothers. "She's really mean, pretty terrible. Her mom is very neglectful so you learn throughout the movie why she's mean."

Martin is also the object of 'tween envy, of course, having worked in close proximity to the It Boys of the pop music scene. As for her take on the Jo Bros.? "They definitely are very different from each other. Joe is the crazy, hilarious one as everybody knows. He's not shy about letting people know that. He's so much fun to be around. You can be incredibly down and so sad, and the minute Joe's around, he will make you happy.

"Nick is always there to comfort you, but he's more the serious one, he's very sensitive, and the funny thing is whenever he has too much caffeine or sugar, he won't stop talking. It's really cute.

"Then Kevin is like such a gentleman. Every night he would walk each and every one of us to our homeroom when we were filming 'Camp Rock,'" she says of herself and her other femme castmates, "'cause he wanted to make sure we were safe. They're really great guys. And none of us are making it up, they really are great guys."

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: Clint Eastwood is deep into casting of "Gran Torino," the drama that director Clint got movie star Clint out of retirement to make. You may recall Eastwood's statements that he couldn't imagine going out on a better note than with "Million Dollar Baby," and how he turned down Paul Haggis, who was interested in Clint's acting services for "In the Valley of Elah." Anyway, the new film starts shooting next month in Michigan. Among the subsidiary characters still to be cast is Clint's son. The feature has the 78-year-old legend playing a bitter old man, a Korean War vet, who can't get along with his children or neighbors — but becomes the friend and protector of a Hmong family in his neighborhood. His prized 1973 car gives the film its title.

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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