Andrew McCarthy turns up on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" tonight (Nov. 29) as an ambitious Bronx district attorney in a story that has a certain familiarity about it for those who followed the Duke lacrosse team rape-accusation case. And that brings full circle McCarthy's relationship with the show he departed angrily four and a half years ago in the wake of a falling out with Vincent D'Onofrio.

Once Fired From "Law & Order," Andrew McCarthy Returns (Image: Wenn)

"I was fired because I refused to allow a fellow actor to threaten me with physical violence, bully me and try to direct me," McCarthy was quoted saying at the time. Now, not surprisingly, the one-time Brat Pack heartthrob is in a Chris Noth-led episode of the USA series rather than a D'Onofrio-led installment.

"The show runner, Warren Leight, is a good friend of mine. We did 'Side Man' together," McCarthy tells us, referring to Leight's Tony-winning play, in which he starred on Broadway. "Warren said, 'Want to try my show again?' At first I said, 'I don't know … ' But it worked out well. Chris is great, and my character is interesting; he may have done something not quite ethical."

Now, "CI" production is down as Leight and the rest of the writers are on strike. McCarthy, meanwhile, has the independent horror thriller "Camp Hope" in the can and Paramount's feature adaptation of the best-selling "The Spiderwick Chronicles" children's book, produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, on the way. Plus, he plays "the billionaire about town" in Candace Bushnell's "Lipstick Jungle" series coming up on NBC midseason. No wonder he and Chris "Mr. Big" Noth got along -- they have a lot in common.

"It's been a good year so far," says McCarthy.

CALL AL GORE, WE'VE GOT A PROBLEM: "It is the 'Jaws' of the millennium," declares John Schneider of his upcoming "Shark Swarm" miniseries with Daryl Hannah and Armand Assante. "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water … I'm still scared to go in the water after 'Jaws.'" He adds the Hallmark Channel mini was "shot by the camera operator on 'Jaws' -- and it looks fantastic."

However, unlike the man-eating shark in that classic '70s film, Schneider says the threat in "Shark Swarm" is a direct result of "environmental issues. Armand plays a bad guy who did not have any redeeming quality. He's good at that. … He'd kill you and finish his sandwich. This man's polluting the bay and the predator fish are getting altered so that they're traveling in a swarm like bees and attacking people. I'm a fisherman, and I'm the only one that's got the nerve to find this guy."

He adds, "It was a great thing except I had to spend almost 10 weeks on a boat in the bouncing harbor in Ft. Bragg, so there was a lot of seasickness. Shooting a movie on the water is not something I recommend."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Frances Sternhagen reports she and her TV hubby, Barry Corbin, get a little action in the back-to-back episodes of TNT's "The Closer" airing Dec. 3. "Brenda and her fiance, Fritz (Kyra Sedgwick and Jon Tenney), are coming to her parents' house for Christmas, but there's a bit of subterfuge there," says Sternhagen, who plays Sedgwick's mom on the show. "They are also following a suspect who is going to Atlanta. Her parents are not aware it's anything except a Christmas visit. They cancel their trip to Florida for the visit then find discover there's more to it. From then on it gets actually quite exciting because they have to look for the suspect who is not always where they expect him to be. It's really fun, too, because when they have to escape, the parents have to escape as well. We had to shoot quite a bit of the material in an RV that the parents had prepared to travel around the country in."

She adds, "The whole family relationship is kind of revealed to be more complicated, so it gets very interesting as the episodes progress. It also gets kind of funny at times, which I think is one of the virtues of 'The Closer.' It's a cop show, but it's got more humor than some others."

FROM BADASS TO WORSE: "Prison Break" actor Wade Williams reports that the show's writers were "working frantically, trying to bang out as many episodes as possible so we would have something to shoot" prior to the start of the Writers Guild strike. It's the latest reason he feels grateful to the scribes on the Fox series, who came up with his memorable character, Brad Bellick -- which he considers the gift that keeps on giving.

"Bellick has gone from the heights of power to the depths of despair and back -- from a ruthless authoritarian guy to losing everything, then getting a second lease on life as a bounty hunter, then going into prison for a murder he didn't commit, then getting out of prison, then becoming an FBI agent, a sanctioned dude, who gets his hands on five million bucks and loses it again, then winds up in the worst of the worst prisons, the lowest of the low, walking around in his underwear and cleaning toilets. It's been a great role for an actor."

With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Fortune Feimster.