Marlee Matlin Nervous, Anxious as She Prepares for 'The L Word'

Marlee Matlin admits she's been feeling "nervous, anxious -- like the new kid in school," as she's joining the cast of Showtime's "The L Word," shooting in Vancouver this month.

Marlee Matlin Anxious for 'L-Word' role (Image ABC)

"That's the part I love about acting, when people have asked me to do things I've never done that are different and challenging," says the Oscar-winning actress, who'll play an artist, the new lesbian love interest of Jennifer Beals' character on the show. "Certainly the scripts I've been reading are not like any I've done."
 
Speaking through her interpreter, Matlin, who's been deaf since she was 18 months old, adds of her former series castmates, "When I went to the wrap party for 'West Wing,' everyone was so supportive of my doing the show. Jimmy Smits said, 'I love "The L Word,"' and Richard Schiff said, 'I'm getting Showtime.' I hadn't seen any of the episodes until I got involved. I'm a mom of four, and I go to bed early. But they gave me the DVDs and I got hooked."
 
Matlin recently shot both an "Extreme Makeover" -- the Aug. 3 edition in which a man who's helped many deaf individuals and who is deaf himself will get a full-on physical transformation -- and an "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" that'll air in the fall.
 
"I've been so busy -- the best thing is my kids and my husband, they're the best support group," says the actress, who has been married to Kevin Grandalski since 1993. "And 'The L Word' has been so generous about letting me go back and forth to be with my family. Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible. They're probably going to come up for my birthday -- hint, hint." Marlee celebrates her 41st birthday on Aug. 24.
 
MARCHING TO HIS OWN DRUMMER:

Nicolas Cage won't be walking the red carpet at the premiere for Oliver Stone's Aug. 9-opening "World Trade Center," nor will he do a publicity sweep on its behalf. He doesn't view the film -- about the final two survivors pulled out of the World Trade Center wreckage after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks -- as entertainment. At least, so says Cage in the August issue of Reader's Digest.
 
He also tells the magazine that he and the rest of Hollywood's much-revered Coppola family don't get together all that often: "I would like to think of us all at the big table having spaghetti, laughing and listening to the opera, but everyone's off doing their own thing. It's a sad reality -- sort of an American epidemic of family. Now, my wife comes from a Korean family that is so tight-knit. There's an understanding that you will have dinner together, at least once a week. I think it would be more helpful if more American families spent more time together."
 
The 42-year-old Oscar winner concludes that he's more relaxed these days than when he was a younger man, that "I'm not as volatile. I can do a lot more good in this stage than I could in my twenties. There's a grace that comes with age," he observes. "You say the right thing at the right time, as opposed to blurting things out. You can get your emotions to work for you, rather than run you down. We all have fire in us. It just needs to be harnessed."
 
The issue hits stands this weekend.
 
THEIR TURN NOW:

Once their in-the-works Broadway adaptation of "The First Wives Club" is up and running, multi-Grammy-winning songwriting legends Brian and Edward Holland plan to move front and center for the first time in their illustrious careers.
 
"Brian and Edward are going to be doing a musical project, singing and dancing," reports Richard Davis, vice president of Holland Productions. He says the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, predominantly responsible for the Motown sound behind such acts as Martha and the Vandellas, The Supremes and Marvin Gaye and The Four Tops, want to "celebrate the music that has flowed from Detroit (the home of Motown). They've got so much to say. Detroit has one of the most magnificent diasporas the music world has known." Davis adds "other artists will be included on the album, too, but Brian and Edward are going to be the navigators."
 
CORRECTION:

Only Ziggy and Stephen Marley are confirmed to perform on the Bob Marley Roots, Rock, Reggae Festival tour in August -- not all the Marley brothers, as we reported the other day. Ziggy will debut tunes from his new CD, "Love is My Religion" and Stephen will perform songs from his solo debut album, "Mind Control," due out in the fall.
 
PERFECT TIMING:

"Kyle XY" star Matt Dallas reports his indie film, "The Indian" is finally ready to hit the film-festival circuit -- just in time to take advantage of his newfound celebrity. "It was almost a year and a half ago that I did it," says Dallas, who plays the mysterious teenager with no past, no instinctive human behavior and no belly button on the ABC Family Channel's "Kyle XY." He says "The Indian" is about "a boy whose father left him when he was real young. The father comes back because he needs a transplant from his son, and his son is like 'Why are you back in my life?' He has all this pent-up anger against his father. It's a nice story."