Ledger Pop Journal - Celebrity News & Sports

Former celebrity hoofer Stacy Keibler says everything she learned during her "Dancing with the Stars" and World Championship Wrestling days made it a breeze training to be the sword-wielding bad babe she plays in NBC's upcoming "Samurai Girl" miniseries. "I did all my own stunts, and I had just an amazing time," says the gorgeous Keibler, who just wrapped shooting the six-hour mini that airs Sept. 5-7.

Stacey Keibler Shows Off Skills With "Samurai Girl" Stunts (Image: Wenn)

"I got there early, and I was taught martial arts and to use the sword for a while before we even got into any of the choreography. Every day I wasn't working, I was training, but for me it came very naturally with my wrestling background and dancing."

Keibler -- who plays the nemesis of "Samurai Girl" lead Jamie Chung in the small- screen adaptation of the popular young adult novels -- adds of her experience, "I actually had a big revelation when I was there. I really love the action stuff, and I'd really love to do more of it because it was very easy and like second nature for me."

UP-UP-UP AND COMER: Vivacious and ultra-energetic teenage actress Meaghan Jette Martin, who's become a household face in tweendom thanks to her role as catty, bratty Tess Tyler in "Camp Rock," isn't wasting any time capitalizing on her wave of fame. She serves as Online Host of the Disney Channel Games getting underway Sunday (7/27).

And, "I'm working on an album -- like everybody else in the world. It's been a lot of fun doing that because I've been singing all my life, practically," the 16-year-old tells us. "And it's a way to show people who I am, 'cause when you're acting, you're always a character and, finally, like everybody else, I'll get to express myself. I write my own lyrics. I'm really big on that. And I'm really big about singing live -- like, that's really a part of me. I'm a huge theater/Broadway fan, so live singing is what I'm all about." Martin says she's going for a "pop/rock vibe. I wish I could go for the show tunes vibe, but I don't think anybody would buy it except for the musical theater nerds."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Robert Patrick reports his Col. Thomas Ryan character on CBS's "The Unit" is in for trouble at the start of Season 4 of the show that lifts the veil on military special operations from the field and the political realm. "Some of the stuff I've done in the past is going to come into play pretty quick. Some of the things that I shouldn't have been doing are going to come back to haunt me," says Patrick.

Given the officer's complex and shadowy world, his indulgence in skullduggery and his illicit affair with the hapless Tiffy Gerhardt (Abby Brammell), that could mean a number of different things. Patrick also notes, "The men are going to be under stress right away" in the new season, and "There are a lot of things happening on the home front."

With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster.