Laura Vandervoort’s blue and white bikini pictures were taken on the set of “Into the Blue 2: The Reef.” She looked stunning. The movie also starred Chris Carmack, who had supporting roles in Desperate Housewives and The Hills. The movie was shot on location in Hawaii. The sands were beautiful, clean and white. The movie would be packaged for the DVD market. Laura said that the finale contained many dramatic changes. A character would disappear and the climax would come as a surprise.

Alicia Witt’s character in the Friday (4/18)-opening Al Pacino thriller, “88 Minutes,” is that of a teacher’s assistant who’s completely ga-ga over her boss. To hear Alicia carry on about Pacino, her feelings of idolization must have been pretty easy to play. “Al goes above and beyond the norm, especially for someone who’s accomplished all he has,” she lets us know. “He really wanted to rehearse, and for two weeks before we started shooting, he had people come over to his house to read scenes and work on them with him.

During production, he’d have people get together for Italian dinners, and we’d sit there with our scripts and work on scenes some more.” Adds the actress/singer, “He’s probably always been my favorite actor. Now I look up to him for his work ethic as well. He doesn’t carry himself as someone to be idolized, which is really endearing. There’s no grandiosity, no entourage. As soon as we shook hands, my nervousness went away.” Pacino plays a forensic psychiatrist/university professor who put a serial killer behind bars, and who gets told by an unidentified phone caller that he has 88 minutes to live in the flick. Witt says that given the ticking clock aspect, “There was the challenge of trying to define what these people are to each other, but not be absurd about it” — and the relationship had to be conveyed within glances and tones of voice.

MEANWHILE: Witt doesn’t know what her future will be with “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” though she made it clear from the start of her tenure as Det. Nola Falacci on the series, she says, that she wasn’t interested in a permanent job. “Julianne Nicholson is back from maternity leave, and the structure of the show is two detectives. They’ve asked me to do a few more but it wouldn’t be on a regular basis because that’s not the nature of the part. I actually miss Falacci. She’s a kick. I have one episode left to shoot on my current contract. I think we’ll do that in June, and then we’ll see.”

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: Richard Jenkins’ “The Visitor” doesn’t open ‘til Friday (4/18), but it’s already become a critic’s darling, with praises for the film – and especially Jenkins’ performance – being sung from NPR to the New York Times, along with commentary about the mysteries of great acting. “It’s been an incredible experience and one I didn’t think I would ever have,” says Jenkins modestly. The one-time “Six Feet Under” ghost dad tells us that he and filmmaker Tom McCarthy (“The Station Agent”), who share the same agent, happened to be staying at the same hotel awhile back, and after running into each other in the lobby one evening, went out for dinner. “We talked about everything but the new movie. A year and a half later, he called and said, ‘I wrote this part for you.

Would you read it?’” The part turned out to be that of a widowed economics professor whose empty life gets recharged — and then some — when he becomes friends with the Syrian drummer to whom his New York apartment has been rented by scammers. “The first thing I said to Tom after reading it was, ‘Nobody is going to give you the money for this with me in the lead.’ But Michael London and Groundswell Productions stepped up and it wasn’t even an issue for them.” Jenkins’ next two flicks have him beck in the supporting actor range, but Jenkins isn’t complaining. He says he had a blast making the Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly comedy “Step Brothers” – as Reilly’s father, who falls for Will’s mother (Mary Steenbergen), leading to a blended family of grown men who never quite managed to leave the nest. He also recently wrapped the Coen Bros. comedic drama, “Burn After Reading” – with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich and Frances McDormand.

COOKING ON ALL BURNERS: Food Network star Sandra Lee reports the four — count ‘em — four cookbooks she’s putting on the market this year are just a drop in the bucket. “I have done so much work in advance I have already laid out my next nine books through 2011,” says the popular host of “Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee.” In addition to cookbooks, she now has “a deal to do a book based on my Semi-Homemade philosophy for Better Homes and Gardens.” First off the presses, is the just released “Semi-Homemade Grilling 2,” “Grilling 1 was the number two bestselling grill book ever when it was released,” she notes proudly. “Then this Fall I have ‘Semi-Homemade Shortcut Meal Solutions’ coming out on how to get the supermarket employees to do all your work for you, ‘Sandra’s Fast Fix Family,’ the 300 recipe collection all about family meals and ‘Semi-Homemade Desserts 2.’” Lee says she’s expressed concern she might be glutting her own market, but “the buyers dictate what comes out and they want these books. There’s always room for another cookbook and they’re all under $20.” Lee will celebrate the 200th episode of “Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee” show on May 3, but says she’s also way ahead of the game on that front. “I have three more shows to do and I will have shot shows well into and through 2009.” To commemorate the milestone, Lee and crew donated $10,000 to God’s Love We Deliver, an organization that feeds people living with serious illness.

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.”

There were rumors about Britney Spears being pregnant because of her increasing girth. We do not know for sure so let’s keep the level at rumors only. Britney has enjoyed a return to popularity as she returned to the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Britney’s character, Abby, dated Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) but Abby could not make up her mind between Barney and Ted, her other crush. The producer left the ending open in the hopes that Britney would want to return again in the next season.