As Dougray Scott and his wife, Claire Forlani, are nearing their one-year anniversary in June, the star of "Ever After," "Enigma" and "Desperate Housewives" fame tells us they've been trying to avoid the pitfalls so often faced by Hollywood couples.

"It takes a lot of planning, but you have to do that if you want to see each other. If one person is working, you want to go and spend time with them on set. There's a lot of time spent getting on planes and flying to see the other," says the Scottish actor, who has 10-year-old twins, a son and a daughter, with his ex-wife, casting director Sarah Trevis. Scott divides his time between Los Angeles and London. He adds, "We've handled it well so far. I'm having a great time. I'm very content."

Scott certainly is racking up the frequent flyer miles as he recently wrapped the movie "New Town Killers" in Scotland. In it, he plays a psychopath killer who terrorizes unsuspecting youth. Now he's filming a movie in Australia currently titled "The Diplomat."

His most recent project for RHI Entertainment, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," airing May 17 on ION television, gave the actor a chance to step in the shoes of one of literature's most infamous characters. "This story is set in modern times, but it's also a different look at the classic tale. It shows how modern society reacts to someone with two different personalities."

Of course being the one to portray the two different personalities was no easy feat. "It was a challenge to find the different characters that were believable within this doctor, who is a normal guy, but because of dabbling with this flower found in the Amazon created this alter ego," notes Scott. "When Hyde is unleashed, though, it's very fun to play someone like that. You get to strut around and enjoy his freedom, as it were."

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: You might think that 11 slasher movies, a series and vast quantities of merchandising materials is enough "Friday the 13th." We sure do. But Hollywood never argues with success, and to prove it, we have the remake of, yes, "Friday the 13th." It's shooting now with the beauteous Amanda Righetti, who admits she prefers classic-style horror pictures "like 'The Shining' and 'Psycho'" to modern-day gore fests, but "once in a while I get dragged out to see one."

"I was kind of shocked that they were going to remake it considering there've been so many sequels to it," she admits. "But I was really excited that Marcus Nispel, who did the (2003) 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is directing."

So what will be different in the new version?

"I have to word this properly to figure out what I can say," she answers. "I can say the technology now really lends itself to a lot of CGI work and such, so in terms of the horror aspect, much more visually stimulating."

It's pretty stimulating for the 25-year-old "K-Ville" and "Reunion" actress, too. "We're doing a lot of night shooting. Last night I stayed up all night. Your body gets really confused, sleeping during the day. It's pretty physically demanding." The new "Friday the 13th" opens Friday, the 13th, of February 2009.

THE INDIE EYE; "My Boys" regular Kyle Howard reports his character in the upcoming indie film "Made for Each Other" is a complete switch up from the calm, cool, collected, independently wealthy sports writer he plays on his TBS series. "It was real fun for me. I play this really disgusting guy that wears cut-off jean shorts and has a terrible moustache," says Howard, who shot the big-screen comedy with his buddies Chris Masterson, Bijou Phillips, Danny Masterson and Patrick Warburton during his hiatus.

The actor — who plays PJ Franklin's (Jordana Spiro) on-again, off-again crush on "My Boys" returning for its second season June 12 — says "Made For Each Other" is "about this recently married guy (Chris Masterson) who cheats on his wife (Phillips). Then his friends convince him the only way for him to not feel bad about this anymore is for him to get her to cheat on him. So he spends the rest of the movie trying to get his wife to cheat on him."

CALIENTE: Sandra Bullock and Robert Duvall are Hollywood's king and queen of salsa — according to the man known throughout the Latin world as the King of Salsa, Mexico's Sirak Baloyan. They're "two of the world's most skillful and passionate aficionados," he declares Baloyan also cites Andy Garcia as a salsa bongo virtuoso.

Sirak's been called the Quincy Jones of Latin music ... composing for and producing the recordings of most of the Spanish-speaking world's leading artists of not only salsa but also tango, bossa nova and bolero. Salsa is his special favorite, and he says the invasion has begun.

This past Oscar night his irresistible music got a Hollywood boost. Baloyan performed at a charity viewing dinner that Billboard Magazine and Children Uniting Nations threw at the Beverly Hilton to raise money for CUN's mentor program for foster children — and had the crowd up dancing, including many of the star dancers of ABC's "Dancing With The Stars." By the time the evening was over, two network execs were talking to him about a Superstars of Salsa series.

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.