Drew, Nick Lachey to Reunite 98 Degrees?

Drew Lachey is a big hit on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," but if you thought his days with 98 Degrees were over, think again.
 
Drew says, "it's definitely a possibility" when asked if he and his brother, Nick, will join forces again with their fellow boy banders. "We haven't ruled it out. It's just a matter of the music industry being ready for pop music again. It's not quite in that phase right now. Music is cyclical, so we have to wait til it comes back around and gauge where our hearts are at that time."
 
In the meantime, Lachey's main focus is on ballroom dancing. "Right now I'm doing about 25 to 30 hours a week of rehearsal," he tells us. "It's definitely very taxing."
 
Despite the show's enormous success in season one, Lachey admits he was a little hesitant to sign on. "I was reluctant just because I didn't want to hear my friends make fun of me. But honestly, they've all been very supportive. They're some of the biggest fans of the show now. They call me right after I get done performing and leave messages on my phone, letting me know how I did."
 
And one never knows who in the industry might be watching.
 
"I'd be foolish not to hope that more opportunities came out of this," he notes, "but at the same time, that wasn't my goal when signing up."
 
MEANWHILE:

Lachey has even bigger things in store. "My wife is pregnant, so I'm trying to enjoy as much of her pregnancy as possible and be around for her." So is he nervous about his first baby? "Absolutely," he says with a laugh. "It's just the fear of the unexpected."
 
TOUGH LOVE:

"Desperate Housewives" hunk Ricardo Chavira is taken aback to find out that not all fans of the show appreciate his character's turn to the light.
 
The actor plays Carlos Solis, the husband of the philandering Gabrielle (Eva Longoria). Since Carlos found religion after getting out of prison, Chavira says he's heard from fans who've said, "'We liked you better when you were meaner. We don't like this new Carlos.' I'm like, 'God, y'all are like a--holes.' That was weird."
 
The handsome Chavira says the fishbowl his life has become as a result of being on the multi-award-winning hit show doesn't really suit his temperament. "I don't go out in public too much because I don't like the attention," he says. "It's not me. It's not my style." However, he adds, "I still find a way to get out and enjoy myself. When I will go out, I got a baseball hat or something, and I dress nothing like the character, which is great, so people don't recognize me. And a moving target is kind of hard to hit, so I just keep on moving." The father of a 3-year-old son, he says, "I have certain rules. When I am with my boy or with my family, I don't take pictures, I don't do autographs, and I just ask people to respect that. If I'm by myself, I'm fair game."
 
THE VIDEOLAND VIEW:

"Saturday Night Live" star Seth Myers, who's among the cast of Paul Weitz's April release "American Dreamz" movie -- in which the U.S. president winds up competing on an amateur singing show -- says he's amazed Weitz pulled it off. "It's so hard to do a satire film. With 'SNL' as a weekly, and 'The Daily Show,' we have the opportunity to make the most of what's going on, but in order to do satire in a feature, you have to have things that stay just as ridiculous for five years, like George Bush and 'American Idol.'" Well, then.
 
Myers' "See This Movie" just opened over the weekend -- with him and John Cho as a pair of moviemaker wannabes who manage to stir interest in their independent feature at a film festival, despite the fact it doesn't exist. Paul and Chris Weitz served as executive producers on that comedy, then asked Seth to come aboard "Dreamz," playing Mandy Moore's agent, who is "just kind of an idiot."
 
BARING ALL:

Up-and-coming actor Chris Johnson says UPN's "South Beach" is giving him a different kind of exposure than the expected. "These writers love messing with me," he says before telling of a nude scene he had to shoot on the beach. "It was the hardest scene for me to film because I've never been naked in front of a camera before. Before the scene, they had given me like a skin-colored thong. I had never gotten tan in my lower extremities in my life so it looked like I was wearing a beige bathing suit. Finally I was like, 'Just give me the sock!' So I had to wear a sock in front of like 60 people," he recounts. "It's funny because when girls have to do it, it's a closed set, but when I had to do it, everybody was hanging out laughing at me." Johnson certainly enjoyed himself on set, though, and says he learned a lot from co-star Vanessa Williams. "I was in acting class with her brother Chris out here in L.A., so I knew a lot about her through stories from him. When I met her, it made things easier," he adds. But if there was one co-star he was in awe of, it was Giancarlo Esposito. "During a scene I'd be watching him, thinking, 'Wow, that guy's amazing.' Then I'd remember, 'Oh, man, I have a line.'"

(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.