Ledger Pop Journal - Celebrity News & Sports

Kellie Pickler, who'll be doing correspondent duty in Times Square on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest," is getting in a Yuletide USO tour before turning her attention to the year-end fest. It's the 22-year-old "American Idol" cutie's second USO tour.

Kellie Pickler Feels Safer Than At Home On Yuletide USO Tour (Image: Wenn)

The first time out, she wound up "in Baghdad. We did about two or three shows a day. We flew helicopters to the different bases and did 30-45 minute shows. It was incredible!" She adds, "I didn't get nervous at all. I was there with my military to protect me. I felt more safe than I do here sometimes," she says.

Pickler says she'll probably film a new video from her self-titled album after the holidays. Her "Best Days of Your Life," written with pal Taylor Swift, single came out last month. As for Christmas itself, "I am actually thinking of going on vacation somewhere. I went to Mexico for Thanksgiving. I've always wanted to be a world traveler."

THE INDUSTRY EYE: Hollywood may be bracing for an actor's strike, but it's readily apparent that in the meantime, work is carrying on. Among the pilots being cast now for shooting sometime after what could be a strike vote by Screen Actors Guild members next month, is the much-talked-about spinoff series of "NCIS," which is due to begin shooting in February. There's also ABC's "Flash Forward" hour-long series pilot -- that has to do with everyone on earth experiencing a mass loss of consciousness and other eerie phenomena -- has a large cast to fill before its production.

On the feature side, subsidiary roles are being cast in the Will Farrell big-screen comedy "Land of the Lost," which has the movie cutup as an unlucky paleontologist who validates his theories by traveling to an alternate universe -- which proves to be even more unlucky for him. Sylvester Stallone's all-action-star "The Expendables" is gearing up for production in Brazil and Louisiana, with Stallone directing and starring as the leader of a group of mercenaries including Jet Li, Jason Statham and Dolph Lundgren. And Mario Van Peebles is getting ready for a February start on his "Kerosene Cowboys" movie that'll shoot in Nevada.

HAMBURGER OF THINGS TO COME: Asked about his favorite childhood Christmas present, Carson Kressley is quick to respond. "I remember when I was 10 years old, I got a little plastic McDonald's franchise. It was shaped like a 1970s McDonald's. Maybe I was supposed to grow up to be an entrepreneur," he tells us. 'Course, he grew up to be a reality show star ("Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," "How to Look Good Naked"), potentially a talk show host for Lifetime, a designer, an actor, an author, a QVC pitchman and more. So he's certainly serving up a lot of dishes, just not the edible kind.