Howie Mandel Trumps 'Deal or No Deal'

"Deal or No Deal" host Howie Mandel wants us to know that his show, which became a sensation when it aired for just one week last December, will be "bigger and better" when it returns Feb. 27. NBC is kicking off the return of the show that creates instant millionaires by airing a full week of "Deal" to conclude on Friday, March 3.
 
Donald Trump, whose "The Apprentice" will be following "Deal or No Deal" when it starts its regular run on Monday, March 6, pops up on the Feb. 27 episode. According to Howie, Trump "showed up, and it was a wonderful surprise. Here are these people and their hearts are about to break out of their chests. These are life-changing decisions they're making. I think every man on the shows we've done so far has been brought to tears, whether from excitement or devastation. Then, out of nowhere, Trump shows up to lend his expertise to help these people. When you're talking finance or money, there's no better person to have in your corner. He was just a joy to work with and said he was a big fan of the show. He watched it the first time around and said it was incredibly addicting."
 
Mandel says the March 3 episode of "Deal" will be a tie-in with NBC's move of its hit show "Las Vegas" to Friday nights. "Molly Sims (who plays Delinda Deline on "Las Vegas") will be on our stage, and I go directly from my show to the Montecito (the fictional casino on the series), where I'm playing myself -- Howie Mandel, the standup comic. It's not much of a stretch. I didn't have to do a lot of research for the character. But it was fun. They work on the most amazing set. It's a full-blown, two-story casino they built in Culver City. I hope they have me back. I would like to play the showroom," he quips.
 
SNAP OUT OF IT:

Sure, we've all seen movies that were described as "hypnotizing," but right now, Marshall Sylver is making a movie, and he really means it. Hypnotist/author/motivational speaker Sylver is currently shooting "Tranced" on the streets of L.A. with Maria Conchita Alonzo, Josie Davis, Meshach Taylor and director David Mickey Evans. Its $3-4 million budget is privately financed by Sylver himself, and he is appearing as himself. He describes his project as "the first interactive movie designed to actually bring to a hypnoidal state the audience members who elect to participate. This will allow them to have virtual experience of the feelings and emotions of the film's lead character. When she is frightened and screams," he claims, "hypnotized members of the audience will feel the same fear and scream. When she experiences passion, so, too, will those members of the audience. This will, of course, also provide a unique moviegoing experience for those audience members who are not hypnotized." No kidding.
 
The story of a woman whose trauma is resolved through hypnosis is based on several of Sylver's actual professional cases.
 
LOW-KEYING IT:

Despite her large sunglasses, shoppers noticed Kirsten Dunst in a pretty blue sundress picking out victuals at a Trader Joe's market off of Laurel Canyon in the San Fernando Valley, then hopping into her tricked-out Prius with heavily tinted windows and speeding away. Hey, at least she's saving the planet in style!
 
Christina Aguilera was seen dining at the Ivy on Robertson in L.A. post-Grammys last week. Guess this newlywed likes things low key now. She was with her husband, Jordan, and some family and friends. She had changed into a tiny white dress -- so tiny, she occasionally gave herself some (ahem!) unintentional exposure topside.
 
"Sex and the City's" Willie Garson birthday partied a pal with some friends the other day at Zeke's BBQ Smokehouse in Hollywood.
 
REAL TO REEL:

"Crossing Jordan's" Steve Valentine reports the troupe recently wrapped an episode with "the storyline that's my favorite so far" -- which is saying something, since the NBC series is in its fifth season. "We find a World War II pilot who crashed his plane in the mountains, and he's encased in a block of ice, and he's like 22 years old," says the actor. "And we track his son, and his son is like 65, and he comes in and sees his father, the body of a young man ... It's an amazing story." One sparked, in all likelihood, by the discovery of a WWII-era airman's body in the Sierra Nevada last October. Meanwhile, Valentine's working on his own scripts. "I bought an iMac and I love it. I've never had a computer until four months ago, which is kind of ironic because the character I play is a computer expert," he admits. Hey, that's why they call it acting.
 
Of the episodes he's concocting, he says, "I have crazy, crazy stories. I'm a little out on a limb with some of them. If we come back, that's season six, and in season six you can get a little crazy." Will "Jordan" come back? Says Steve, "Unless something bad happens, I imagine we will."

(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.

©2006 Creators Syndicate, Inc.