Hilary Duff vs. Haylie Duff?

Given that Haylie Duff began performing before her little sister Hilary, plenty of people expect her to be envious of her sibling's fame and fortune. Haylie insists it ain't so -- that she's always been thrilled about Hilary's successes.
 
"Sometimes I feel like people look at me and assume that I was like sitting at home crying about it every day because it wasn't me," admits Haylie. "But I wasn't raised in a family that was ever competitive with each other. It was like a natural thing to automatically support her and be there for her. There was a lot of hard stuff that went on with that, too, so I needed to be there for her as much as she needed to be there for me."
 
Haylie is finally coming into her own with several new movies and a recurring role on "7th Heaven," as a pregnant college student.
 
"I did not sleep the night before I started. I was so nervous, just walking onto a set where everyone's been together for so many years," she says during a setside chat. "But I've felt so welcomed here. I've been on some sets where I didn't feel that way. Here, I'm excited to come to work every day."
 
MEANWHILE:

Hilary and Haylie have teamed up for the movie "Material Girls" and the animated flick "Foodfight!" But don't be mistaken, they're still their own persons, reminds Haylie. "I know we're a lot alike, but I don't think people realize how different we are. Because we do work together so much, I think everybody clumps us together sometimes," she notes. "We like to get together and work on stuff, but then we like to go do other things, too. It's a really good, happy medium."
 
FASHION-ABLE:

Jessica Walter -- a richly deserving Best Supporting Actress Emmy nominee for her work as the self-absorbed matriarch Lucille Bluth on Fox's "Arrested Development -- says she doesn't know yet what she'll wear to the Emmys next month. She will, however, go for the glamour. She notes that last year, when the show won five Emmys, including Outstanding Comedy, "I got dissed on television by people saying I wasn't dressed up enough. I wore a powder blue Anne Klein pantsuit with beading on the collar that was made for me, and it was beautiful, but I was attacked." Joan Rivers was nice, she says, but others not so, including "three people sitting on stools on the E! Entertainment channel -- I don't know their names."
 
As for reaction to her nomination, she says she got three calls from castmates congratulating her. But it's a cast of nine. "Interesting, isn't it?" she says dryly. Which ones didn't call? "I'm not going to tell you. They're a little slow on the telephone dial, but a very good group."
  
THE WRITE WAY:

Denise Nicholas is just about to take off on a national promotion tour on behalf of "Freshwater Road" -- her coming-of-age story about an 18-year-old girl in 1964's Freedom Summer -- the project to which she has devoted herself for the past several years. The book marks a long journey for the one-time "In the Heat of the Night" leading lady, who as a teen toured with the Free Southern Theater at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. "I was a witness to what was going on," she notes -- from protests to violence, to having a Louisiana cop put a gun to her head as she registered voters. The actress put her memories to work in the soon-due novel, and says she was also inspired by her sister, who was killed as a young woman in New York in a case that's never been solved.
  
Denise had such esteem for the story she wanted to tell, her efforts toward writing it as well as she possibly could ranged from revisiting the narrative's settings in Mississippi -- to getting herself accepted into a rigorous writers' workshop presided over by "White Oleander" author Janet Fitch. Fitch is now among those offering kudos on the book's jacket. So is Sidney Poitier.
 
VIEW FROM ABROAD:

Urbane world traveler/actor Michael York is getting ready to launch his book "Are My Blinkers Showing? -- Adventures in the Art of Filmmaking in Russia," which will have him out on a book tour in October. He says that the title was inspired by an item of men's clothing listed among necessities at a luxury hotel in Moscow. York vividly recalls being in the city at the height of the Cold War -- and found a far different scene there when he recently returned to make the thriller "Moscow Heat." Meanwhile, York will be seen next month on PBS's "The Hobart Shakespeareans" along with Ian McKellen -- as the two master Shakespeareans interact with inner-city fifth graders who are performing the Bard under the guidance of superlative L.A. teacher Rafe Esquith.

(With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster)

The Beck/Smith syndicated newspaper column includes exclusive in-depth, behind-the-scenes reports on the stars, on the business of television and movie-making, and on the recording, publishing and media beats.

©2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.