Joan Cusack admits that it was tough shuttling back and forth between her Chicago home and Bulgaria location for her brother, John’s, “War, Inc.” big screen political satire that opens in limited release May 23 – but she was glad to do it.

“At this point I appreciate how hard it is to get something made that you love, that you really feel has content that’s worth talking about, that’s stimulating cultural conversations.  It’s a great luxury,” says Joan, who plays an executive of the corporation running the world’s first fully-outsourced war – complete with tanks bearing sponsor logos.  “To me, whenever John is working on something that he feels passionate about and I have an opportunity to work with my family and be able to support him, of course I’m going to do it.”

She notes, “The easy part was that I have a great husband and John was obviously flexible about when I could go and come back, so it worked with my family.”

Her other upcoming film this summer couldn’t be much more different – the July 2 release “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl’s Story,” inspired by the popular line of dolls, and its young heroine wannabe reporter of the Great Depression era.  That film stars the superb Abigail Breslin, with whom Joan is currently working in the big screen adaptation of Jody Picoult’s “My Sister’s Keeper.” “I’d worked with her before in ‘Raising Helen,’” reminds Joan, “and she’s a great kid with a great family.” She also notes, “I have two boys, so this girls’ world wasn’t a world I knew very much about.  I was impressed with the content of the story and the way they dealt with the subject matter.  It’s very psychologically empowering.  It made me want an American Boys store.”

Next up for Cusack, “Toy Story 3.”  “They’re just in the beginning stages,” reports the actress known to Pixar lovers as the voice of cowgirl Jesse.  “That’s easy.  I can do it from my home.”

ON THE PERSONAL SIDE: Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan admits that time with her beau, “Dancing With the Stars” pro Mark Ballas, has been pretty hard to come by lately between their respective professional activities.  “We’re just both really busy,” says Bryan, who competed in the upcoming Disney Channel Games last week.  “My partner has his card taken right now with Kristi Yamaguchi, which I’m so happy for.  We did go on tour together, which was awesome – to meet so many of the ‘Dancing With the Stars’ fans face to face and hear their applause.”

Bryan finished the much-anticipated summer Disney Channel movie “Cheetah Girls 3: One World” in India with group mates Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams last month.  “I got back on a Saturday and Adrienne and I went to that Monday’s ‘Dancing With the Stars’ show.  I couldn’t wait to get back and see him dance with Kristi, so I support Team Yamaguchi.  They’ll definitely make the finals, I think.”

As for Bryan and Ballas?  “We’ll see. We’re seeing how were going.”

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: As fans eagerly await J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” , which just wrapped production, Faran Tahir, who plays the Federation Captain, says he’s confident it will bring forth a new legion of Trekkies – and not the kind that still sleep in their parent’s basement.  “J.J. is one of those people who has the ability to re-introduce water to you in a new way.  He’s such a creative man,” claims Tahir.  “I love what he’s done with it because he hasn’t said farewell to the tradition or the story of ‘Star Trek,’ but he has such a fresh approach to it that I think he will re-introduce it to this generation in a way they can relate.  It will create this bridge between the people who grew up with it and this younger generation who didn’t know about it.”

Tahir is certainly no stranger to fantasy flicks as he is also starring in “Iron Man” as Robert Downey Jr.’s nemesis Raza.  The actor believes people will really take to Downey Jr.’s approach to playing a superhero.  “The thing about Robert is that no matter what he attempts, he brings so many layers to the character.  Yes, this is an action movie and you could just do the action part of it and it would be fine, but he brings a certain amount of levity, which not many actors can do,” he notes.  The movie certainly holds a special place for Tahir, whose son got a part in it as well.  “For other movies I might have said no, but for a nine-year-old to be in superhero movie, what is cooler than that?  I couldn’t deny him that, and he did an amazing job.”

IN HIS SITES: Gerald McRaney’s off to Namibia to hunt game for his “World of Beretta” Outdoor Life Network series.  It’s the kind of unscripted show multi-series veteran McRaney can get into.  As for other non-scripted fare, “I agree with my brother’s notion about reality television.  He said, ‘Survivor my a–!  The craft services table is 20 feet away.’”  McRaney’s wife, Delta Burke, is staying home.  He says that while she understands hunting intellectually, “She’s not going to go there herself.”  He’ll be bringing Horton Foote’s “Dividing the Estate” onto Broadway this fall.  On the scripted TV front, “I’ve seen a couple of things this year that look promising, but any more, something is going to have to be really interesting to get me involved in it.  I’m getting a little long in the tooth to putting up with something less just to have another payday.”

Mary McCormack tells us that shooting the USA network’s “In Plain Sight,” debuting June 1, “I honestly for the first time understood why sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture.  I got pregnant between the pilot and the series production.  Luckily, they decided to wait for me.  But when we started shooting, the hours were really tough because I had a not even two-month-old and I’d be up all night with her and up all day working.”

McCormack, now on Broadway starring in “Boeing-Boeing,” also has a three-year-old with her husband, “Brothers & Sisters” producer Michael Morris — who flew in to Albuquerque, N.M. location to see Mary and the girls on weekends.  That family separation was another challenge.

Still, she loved playing Mary Shannon, a U.S. Marshal attached to the government’s witness protection program.  “I like her because she’s a really complex character – good at her job, cranky, sort of rants.  It felt to me like a part written for a guy,” says Mary.  Creator David Maples “is such a good writer.  I love that he just randomly made her cheap as well.  She never wants to pick up a bill.  And her boyfriend (Cristian de la Fuente) is way more mushy than she is.  When anyone talks about feelings she just cringes, though deep down, she wants to be touched.”

SO THAT EXPLAINS IT: James Van Praagh, the psychic/medium who created “Ghost Whisperer,” claims in his new book, “Ghosts Among Us,” that people are surrounded by ghosts every day and Hollywood is no exception.  In fact, he wants to send the book to Britney Spears as he is certain she is not alone.  ”I see people’s energy around them and Britney Spears has two low-level ghosts attached to her.  One has tattoos all over him and the other is kind of creepy looking,” says Van Praagh and, no, he’s not talking about Kevin Federline.  ”Around every living thing is the aura, which is the electromagnetic bubble protecting us, but if someone is overly involved with drugs or drinking and isn’t taking good care of themselves, what happens is that little pinprick holes appear in the aura and these lower level entities who have nothing else to do but hang around the earth can attach themselves and influence that person.  I talk in the book how you can get rid of them.”

This certainly isn’t Van Praagh’s first brush with celebrities as his devotees include Cher, Shirley MacLaine, Barbara Walters, Goldie Hawn, and most recently Heath Ledger.  Yes, you heard us.  ”About two weeks after Heath Ledger died, he appeared to me in the mirror when I was shaving.  It was really quickly.  He said, ‘I f’d up.’  He gave me the thought of his daughter and then he was gone.”

However, you don’t have to be famous to get use out of Van Praagh’s book.  ”I created ‘The Ghost Whisperer’ and Hollywood got a hold of it and made it a little scary, so I’ve gotten thousands of emails from people from all over the world, who ask if this is the way it really is.  Being the teacher that I am, I’ve got to explain to people exactly what it’s like when you leave the body and you’re a ghost and what it’s like as a ghost being earthbound.”  Believe it, or not.

THE INSIDE TRACK: Tears for Fears co-founder/singer Curt Smith says his first solo CD in ten years, “Halfway, pleased”(cq) reflect the changes parenthood has effected in his life. “When I was younger I was protesting against things, but now my main concern is really protecting these small human beings I’m looking after,” says Smith, who has two young children. “Until you have children, it’s all about ‘I need this. I need that.’ Now, I want it to be this way or that way because of them. It’s not just me beating my head against the norm, but really trying to change the future for what we’re leaving our children.”

Smith wrote all the tunes on the semi-autobiographical album, but says the most personal tune is the title track “Halfway, pleased.” “It’s really about my relationship with my mother and how it’s sort of changed over the years. I view it differently because I’m a father now.”  He adds since becoming a father he’s experienced “that feeling for the first time in your life of knowing, honestly knowing 100 percent, that you would actually die for another human being and that’s quite an amazing and powerful thing.” Smith is releasing his new CD May 20 on his own KOOK Media record label.  “I’m not going to be doing excessive touring because of my children,” he says, adding he and Tears for Fears mate Roland Orzabal are “going to do some touring later in the year in Europe, which is another reason why I don’t want to go out on my own.”  For more info go to www.curtsmithofficial.com.

GIVING BACK: Deion Sanders may be retired from his illustrious athletic career in football and baseball, but he says he still takes his  role as an athletic mentor very seriously.  ”I mentor in football, baseball, basketball – from the NFL, all the way
down to junior high kids,” says the NFL commentator and star of the reality television show, Deion & Pilar: Prime Time Love, with his wife Pilar Biggers.   “If I’m naïve enough to think that God blessed me with athletic ability just to make money and hoard it for myself then I would be a fool.  I was  blessed at this level to be able to reach people and touch them, to evoke change in their lives, and I take that very seriously,” declares Sanders, who has helped the likes of football players Devin Hester and DeAngelo Hall.  ”I don’t want to see people make the same mistakes I made or have their dreams thwarted by some type of foolishness.”