With his comedy tour a hot ticket and his “Frank TV” series taping its second season — having outperformed expectations at TBS on its initial limited run — comic impressionist Frank Caliendo (right) is feeling on top these days.  He’s also feeling relieved to be away from the mean antics often seen on his former place of funny business, Fox’s sketch comedy show “MADtv.’”

“When I was at ‘MADtv,’ we would attack a lot.  That’s the reason why nobody wanted to do ‘MADtv,’” he claims.  ”They ripped on people for no reason.  They were outing Rosie O’Donnell ahead of time.  Why, if you are a big actor or actress, would you want to be on a show that’s being mean to people?” asks Caliendo, who says he often avoided going too far.  ”I wouldn’t do a lot of stuff they asked me.  I would just tell them I didn’t feel comfortable with certain things.”

As for his own sketch comedy show, returning this fall, Caliendo says they’re just trying to have fun and have no intention of hurting anyone.  ”We try to take the smart route.  We’re not doing attack pieces.”

In fact, Caliendo, who’s most known for his dead ringer impersonations of George W. Bush and John Madden, says he has no ill will towards the people he imitates.  ”I like most of the people I do impersonations of, although John Madden hates me.”

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: “Entourage” creator/writer/exec producer Doug Ellin has reported he has four more seasons of storylines already in reserve for the Emmy-winning HBO show – but is the cast locked down?

“We’re not signed for it, but we want to do it,” declares Kevin Connolly, who co-stars in the show based on actor/exec producer Mark Wahlberg’s showbiz experiences with Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrarra.

“I’ll tell you.  I swear to God if you stick that paper in front me I will sign on the dotted line for 50 seasons! Anything to make it not go away. I think anybody that wouldn’t would have to have their head examined. The worst thing about this show is that some day it will come to an end. It’s going to be like the worst day of my life.”

Connolly (right) says the troupe — which is half way through shooting the fifth season of the show that returns in September – “just shot an episode in The Joshua Tree Monument in the desert. Our first episode was in Hawaii and we’re going to do a New York episode and that’s just three out of 12.  So just for the locations alone… And one of the other benefits of being on an HBO show, is the time commitment is really small. We shoot four months out of the year… It’s so ideal.” Not to mention the plethora of hot babes encountered by this entourage weekly.  Rough job!

He adds, “Ultimately we’d like to do eight years of the show. That would be where everybody would feel like ‘We did it’ you know, because we’re not like a network. Eight years for us is just about 100 episodes” — enough needed for syndication – “and that’s five years on a regular network.”

IDOL THOUGHTS: Teenage actress Meaghan Jette Martin figures that once “Camp Rock” debuts tonight (6/20), “Everybody’s going to hate me.  It’s sad, but it’s okay,” laughs the vivacious blond, who portrays the junior diva/rich daughter of a rock star  – and nemesis of Demi Lovato’s character – in the highly-anticipated Disney Channel original movie starring the Jonas Brothers.  “She’s really mean, pretty terrible.  Her mom is very neglectful so you learn throughout the movie why she’s mean.”

Martin is also the object of tween envy, of course, having worked in close proximity to the It Boys of the pop music scene.   As for her take on the Jo Bros.?  “They definitely are very different from each other.  Joe is the crazy, hilarious one as everybody knows.  He’s not shy about letting people know that. He’s so much fun to be around. You can be incredibly down and so sad and the minute Joe’s’ around, he will make you happy.

“Nick is always there to comfort you, but he’s more the serious one, he’s very sensitive and the funny thing is whenever he has too much caffeine or sugar, he won’t stop talking.  It’s really cute.

“Then Kevin is like such a gentleman.  Every night he would walk each and every one of us to our home room when we were filming ‘Camp Rock,’” she says of herself and her other femme cast mates, “’cause he wanted to make sure we were safe. They’re really great guys. And none of us are making it up, they really are great guys.”

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: Clint Eastwood is deep into casting of “Gran Torino,” the drama that director Clint got movie star Clint out of retirement to make.  You may recall Eastwood’s statements that he couldn’t imagine going out on a better note than with “Million Dollar Baby,” and how he turned down Paul Haggis, who was interested in Clint’s acting services for “In the Valley of Elah.”

Anyway, the new film starts shooting next month in Michigan.  Among the subsidiary characters still to be cast is Clint’s son.  The feature has the 78-year-old legend playing a bitter old man, a Korean War vet, who can’t get along with his children or neighbors – but becomes the friend and protector of a Hmong family in his neighborhood.  His prized 1973 car gives the film its title.

Miley Cyrus has another battle on her hands. This time with Selena Gomez, of Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly.”

By now you should know that Miley Cyrus and her back-up dancer, Mandy Jiroux have become a huge YouTube sensation with there Miley & Mandy Show. But what you don’t know is that this huge sensation is a mimic of the YouTube video first put out by Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato of Disney’s “Camp Rock.”

I love Selana and Demi. I actually think I like them more than Miley and Mandy. They remind of cheerleaders who are trying too hard to act cool. I think that is why Miley singled them out. I didn’t think Miley had it in her to be so cruel.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. –Demi Lovato recalls with delight “my first — and my only! — fan mob scene.”

The 15-year-old had dropped by a friend’s autograph session at a Disney Studios event to say hi when suddenly a little girl shrieked her name. Within seconds, hundreds of kids clutching pens and autograph books had surrounded her.

“I was like, `What! How do you even know me?” says Lovato, rising partly out of her chair, tossing up her hands in disbelief and bursting into laughter.

“But yeah,” the actress adds quietly, regaining her composure. “It was like, `This is the coolest thing ever.”’

As the star of the latest Disney Channel original movie “Camp Rock” — which the Mouse House hopes will be its next “High School Musical” — it’s a scene Lovato might have to get used to.

“I’m getting kind of anxious, and a little nervous, because there was a picture I saw the other day of Ashley and Vanessa,” she says of “High School Musical” stars Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Anne Hudgens. “They were at a McDonald’s and there was paparazzi all over the place.

“I’m excited, though. For the most part,” she concludes.

Only time will tell whether the Disney Channel can capture lightning in a bottle twice in the same decade. Disney is clearly banking on it, however, rolling out buzz about the movie on the Internet for months, offering various “Camp Rock” tchotchkes and casting as co-stars the mega-hot pop group the Jonas Brothers. (It airs June 20 at 8 p.m. EDT.)

“People are expecting it to be the next `High School Musical.’ That would be an honor if it is,” says 14-year-old Alyson Stoner, who plays budding music producer Caitlyn Geller.

In the film, Lovato plays Mitchie Torres, a musical prodigy who can’t afford to attend a prestigious music camp filled with snooty rich kids until her mother gets her a break on the tuition by landing them both jobs in the kitchen.

Once there, she’s befriended by miscreant rock star Shane Gray, played by 18-year-old Joe Jonas. She’s also hounded by the rich girls, particularly after she’s outed as a kitchen worker, until one of them (17-year-old Anna Maria Perez de Tagle) comes over to her side.

Then, in the time-honored tradition of kid musicals dating to the days of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, they bring everybody together for a show at which the irrepressible Lovato says happily, “I get to rock the house.”

Indeed she does, say the Jonas Brothers.

“She’s a great singer. We’re writing with her for her new record,” 15-year-old Nick Jonas says by phone from Florida, where he was recently on tour with the band.

“And we’ll be introducing her on our `Burning Up’ tour this summer,” pipes up his 20-year-old brother, Kevin.

As was the case when the first “High School Musical” film debuted in 2006, most of its teen stars, although unknown to mainstream audiences, already have followings among the demographic of 8- to 13-year-olds.

Lovato developed a cult following as one of the stars of “As the Bell Rings,” the five-minute mini-show Disney uses to fill breaks between its regular programming. Stoner, who appeared in both of the “Cheaper by the Dozen” films, voices Phineas’ precocious girlfriend in the Disney cartoon series “Phineas and Ferb.” Perez de Tagle, whose grandmother is prominent Philippine singer-actress Sylvia La Torre, plays the tone-deaf singer, Ashley DeWitt, on the Disney series “Hannah Montana.”

“And I’m an actual singer!” she says emphatically.

“Being able to finally sing good on `Camp Rock’ is … ” she adds before dissolving into laughter during a recent interview at a Hollywood studio.

There, the actresses have scattered laptop computers, cell phones, schoolbooks and stuffed animals across tables as they rush off to pose for pictures between bites of lunch.

They say they became friends years before their current project, having bumped into one another at auditions and acting classes.

“I met Demi on a show called `Just Jordan,”’ says Perez de Tagle. “Ever since then we kept in touch. She visited me on the set of `Hannah Montana’ and we switched phone numbers. And then, all of a sudden, we were like, `We’re going to be on “Camp Rock”!”’

The three say the friendships made filming the movie easier.

Even when they had to dance all day long for days on end, they had each other for support, says Lovato.

And even when the movie’s producers took them to a remote location in Canada, “where there was no Internet or phone service and there were bears,” they still had one another, Stoner adds.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Former NBA star-cum-superhot jazz bassist Wayman Tisdale happily reports he’s back on track after recovering from bone cancer last year.

“I’m feeling great,” says Tisdale, whose new Rendezvous Entertainment CD is appropriately titled “Rebound.” “I’m still going through minor chemo and all that, but other than that I feel fine.”

Tisdale says February to September of last year was the worst period for him, but the music “was therapeutic for me. On tough days I stayed in bed, but between family, loved ones and my music, that’s what kept me going.” He adds, “I wrote about the whole experience in the song ‘Grateful’ — it says it all in the lyrics. And I got (gospel legend) Marvin Sapp to sing that.”

An unexpected treat on Tisdale’s eighth CD, being released  Wednesday (6/3), is country superstar Toby Keith singing the late, great Barry White’s classic hit, “Never, Never Gonna Give You Up.” “That was Toby’s idea,” says Tisdale. “We’re good friends and had talked about doing something together for a while. We were supposed to do an original song, but he hit me with the Barry White tune and I fell off the couch. He just nailed it. We were like, ‘Wow.’ It just floored everybody.”

TEEN SCENE: The Jonas Brother’s “Camp Rock” leading lady Demi Lovato says the collective young hotties are definitely an oxymoron in her book. “You don’t find three good, humble, classic gentleman rock stars…there’s no such thing, you know what I mean?” says Lovato, who plays the love interest of Joe Jonas’ character in the Disney Channel movie debuting June 20.  “They’re rock stars, but yet when they get off stage they’re nerds and gentlemen and they’re like humble — just great guys.”

Lovato has had to put recording of her solo debut album temporarily on a back burner to make a Disney Channel Original Movie “Princess Protection Program” with long-time pal Selena Gomez — then go out on tour as opening act with The Jonas Brothers. Their Burning Up concert trek launches July 4. The 15-year-old Dallas-born beauty adds, “I write my own songs and I’ve been co-writing with the Jonas Brothers too.  They’re producing it,” she says of the album.

Demi displays some powerhouse vocals in “Camp Rock” but says her off-screen style is much different. “My personal sound is more rock than pop. I love listening to rock music, so to be able to record it and go crazy on stage. I can’t wait….”

FUNNY GUY: Lil’ JJ – the 17-year-old comic/rapper/actor/musician rising star of Nickelodeon’s “Just Jordan” series – reports he’s now set to go before the cameras mid month playing Ice Cube’s son in “Janky Promoters.”  That’s the Dimension Films caper comedy about concert promoters who find themselves in a heap of complications trying to book a rapper to do a show.  “I’ve seen different people promote different shows and seen how it works.  I don’t think people know how much drama everyone goes through behind the scenes to get that done,” notes the energetic multi-talent, born James Charles Lewis.

As a fan of the rap giant cum film director, producer and star (“Are We There Yet?”), Lil’ JJ has been hoping to work with Ice Cube for years.  “I’d always see him different places.  I’d say, ‘We’re going to work together soon.’  And he’d say, ‘All right.  Just let me know.’ When I auditioned, I just gave it my all. This is going to be hot!”

Lil JJ will go from shooting the film into touring with his stand-up – and working on his next music album at the same time.  “We try to fill the whole summer up. We try to fill the rest of the year up, the rest of ’08, to work every day and not slow down,’” he lets us know.  Right now, he’s busy launching his “Almost Grown” comedy DVD – “a family show that’s clean, you know?”  It drops tomorrow (6/3).  “I’m going to all 50 states, everywhere, every city” to do comedy and promotion, he says. “I need to go to (where “Just Jordan” is now airing) and go holler at some people and find out what’s going on there. I’m hoping the DVD will be in stores in , too.  I’m going to the moon.  I want do a show on the moon.”

Gee, we weren’t sure he was exaggerating until that moon part.

LOOK OUT WORLD: The upcoming indie film “American Inquisition” stars Alfre Woodard, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton and Xzbit — but it’s a young actress named Nicole Behaire who steals the show, reports Michael O’Keefe. “She plays the lead in the film,” says O’Keefe of the movie about a young woman unlawfully arrested in East Texas. “She just graduated from Juilliard and she’s only done two films but I really think she’s special. It’s a real opportunity for Nicole to break out as a star. For lack of a better image, she strikes me as a black Audrey Hepburn. She’s diminutive in size, but she’s got this gigantic personality.” The film, he says, is “a true story. The D.A. in a town in east Texas decided he was going to do a sweep of his annual drug busts in the projects and arrested 28 people. Twenty pled to a lesser charge, 7 pled guilty but this one woman, Dee Roberts, decided to plead innocent and fight the charges. She sat in jail for two months without going to trial. The ACLU heard about her case, took it and got the charges dismissed. Then they sued the district attorney and the drug task force, and they won. I play the corrupt district attorney – or as I like to refer to him ‘the racist b—h! That’s how I was introducing myself to everyone on the set.”