"Cold Case" star Kathryn Morris reports that with the series having returned to production last week, "everyone is under the gun — the writers, the cast, the crew – but it's an excitement everyone welcomes."

Exemplifying the experiences of many actors and others whose lives were disrupted by the 22-week-long Writers Guild of America strike, she says, "We all got held back from talking to each other for so long. Then the gates were open, and people were like, 'I love you!'" she says with a laugh. "It was like a great family reunion, a celebration. We're getting back to doing what everyone came out to Hollywood to do in the first place."

The show returns to the air with five new episodes, beginning March 30 with a story involving the murder of a deaf teenage boy. To make airdate deadlines, "We're doing a set of double-up episodes — shooting four in the time we normally would do three. We can do it — our crew is amazing," adds the actress.

When "Cold Case" was shuttered last fall due to the strike, Morris feared that the crew of the 5-year-old series would be broken up. But now she tells us, "Fortunately, we were able to maintain the core. Merri Howard, our incredible line producer, was like a mother hen and kept in contact with all the department heads of the crew."

Morris notes, "People had personal things occur in their lives where if the strike had gone on any longer, there would have been very serious financial damage. However, people also had more time to spend with their kids, with a dying parent — to attend to family matters in this window of time. So there was some good in it."

Morris herself went on an international promotional trip for "Cold Case." "That was a nice journey and fun. And I got to spend time with my family and do normal things."

REEL TO REAL: Former "8 Simple Rules" daughter Amy Davidson says the experience of playing a teen runaway in Lifetime Movie Network's "The Capture of the Green River Killer" spurred her into action.

"The whole experience was amazing, but I felt incomplete," says Davidson, whose character turns to prostitution out of desperation — and winds up in the grips of a serial killer — in the miniseries airing March 30-31.

"I'd just finished doing this miniseries, but I thought, 'I'm not done yet.' So I looked up some organizations for kids, and I found one local here in L.A., Children of the Night.

Its founder, Dr. Lois Lee, is one of the strongest, most phenomenal women, and I love her. I've been going over there and volunteering with the girls, trying to find out how I can be even more involved."

Davidson says the "Green River Killer" script, based on the book by David Reichert about the true story of the 20-year hunt for the most notorious serial killer in U.S. history, "was one of those page turners. I kept saying 'Are you kidding? Oh my God, 10 girls dead, three missing … 15 girls dead, nine missing!' It's disturbing in the fact that it's a true story, but on the flip side, it's a story that needs to be told. I narrate the story as well, and I can't even tell you how honored I am to be a part of it. The whole time we were filming, everyone knew it was a special project."

She adds, "Even though it was such heavy, heavy subject matter, we all had fun. Tom Cavanaugh plays David Reichert, the detective who was on the case for 20 years, and Sharon Lawrence plays such a nasty mom and is so brilliant at it. I think everyone just really found their A game."

THE INDUSTRY EYE: Olympia Dukakis and Haley Joel Osment are getting ready to conceal their intelligence for "The Adventures of the Dunderheads," in which they'll play a backwoods grandma and grandson on the lam after he accidentally kills a friend. Aiming for Canada, they make a left turn instead of a right and wind up in Mexico instead.

Speaking of Canada, in one of the country's lesser moments, producers came up with the 1981 slasher pic "My Bloody Valentine," notorious for having had nine minutes of pure gore edited out of it at the insistence of the MPAA. Well, now there's a remake about to go into production. The story line is the same: A serial killer is on the loose on Valentine's night. Clearly, someone's thinking of this as an alternative Valentine's Day movie option for bitter, angry exes looking for something to do.

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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