The Hollywood Exclusive - Column by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

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The Hollywood Exclusive: Pam Grier's Forthcoming Memoirs Promise To Be Memorable/Demi Lovato on Dealing With The Rumor Mill

Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

Pam Grier is finding time between "The L Word" camera calls to continue work on the memoirs for which she has a March deadline. What a book it's bound to be -- including not only her life as the Blaxploitation movie queen of "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown" renown, but lesser known chapters such as her journey into Islam when she was dating "Lewis Alcindor. He was converting his last year at UCLA," she recalls of the basketball legend best known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Her time with Richard Pryor also produced unique experiences. Grier recalls an exploit she's recently been going over with writer Andrea Kagan, in which Pryor had been given a small horse he named Ginger by producer Burt Sugarman. One morning, she found Pryor "standing outside weeping in his bathrobe. Ginger had been attacked by a pack of wild dogs and was hemorrhaging to death. We didn't have a horse trailer. I said, 'We'll put her in the back seat of my car and get her to the vet.'"

That car was a yellow Jaguar XL6, and somehow they got the horse into it and headed out for the 405 freeway in the San Fernando Valley. "The horse's tail was out one side of the Jaguar. People were following us. The back was dragging, and sparks were flying out the back," she says. Everyone at the veterinarian's knew what was coming, and a disbelieving crowd awaited the Jag. In the end, Ginger was saved.

Grier's tome will no doubt also cover her work with animal rescue, getting a ranch of her own in Colorado -- an achievement indeed, for a horse-crazy girl who was denied admission into riding academies as a child because she's African-American -- her "Jackie Brown" resurgence, and her deep spirituality and faith.

Besides filming the final "L Word" season, Grier has the Hallmark Channel movie "Ladies of the House" coming up Oct. 18, with Donna Mills, Florence Henderson, Richard Roundtree and Lance Henricksen. It has the three women taking on the challenge of renovating a house for charity, only to find that their own lives are in need of renovation as well.

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DOWNSIDE OF FAME: Disney darling Demi Lovato, who is best friends with Selena Gomez, made headlines this year for their YouTube feud with Miley Cyrus and Mandy Jiroux, but the young star tells us she's trying to stay out of that rumor mill for now. "I just like to focus on what's important. You just ignore what people say because there are rumors that fly around about everybody," notes Lovato about dealing with the pressures of being a public persona. "When the rumors are about you, you can't do anything but say, 'Whatever.'"

Lovato certainly has plenty of other things to focus on, like her budding career. "It's been a really crazy year. It started off shooting a movie with Selena called 'Princess Protection Program.' Then 'Camp Rock' aired, and then I went on tour with the Jonas Brothers as part of my new album, which comes out Sept. 23. I'm really excited about it because it's my first album," she says of the project entitled "Don't Forget." As for working with the popular Jonas Brothers, Lovato tells us, "They're awesome. They're some of my really close friends, so it was refreshing to go on tour with people you know so well."

While her priority remains music for the time being, it won't be long before we'll be seeing her on TV once again. "I'm about to start a television show called 'Welcome to Holliwood,' which is a Disney Channel sitcom. It should air sometime next year. For now, though, I'm just focused on my album."

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RIDDLE ME THIS: Brian Austin Green is aware of comments riddling the Internet about his supposed intention to go after the role of The Riddler in the next Batman movie. "Never again am I going to answer a simple question like that. MTV asked me what I'd like to do if I was in a Batman movie. I said, 'The Riddler.' Then suddenly there are reports that I'm actively pursuing the character. Every actor hopes they get to do something of that nature, but it's nothing that I'm pursuing or think I stand a chance of pursuing. And besides, I'm doing something I'm really happy with," he says, referring to his role on "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

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MOONLIGHTING: "Wipeout" host John Henson reports he recently filmed another guest shot as the TV reporter on "My Name is Earl." His real-life girlfriend, Jill Benjamin, also happens to do a recurring small role on the Jason Lee NBC series as the nurse. "I like to think that the reporter goes out with the nurse in Camden County," says Henson. "I think we're both crossing our fingers that we're both in the same episode sometime. "Earl" returns Sept. 25.

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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 Creators Syndicate Inc.

This news arrived on: 09/12/2008

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