Ready or not, Stuart Gordon’s controversial “Stuck” film finally arrives on screens in limited release Friday (5/30) after a year of playing festivals from Cannes to Toronto to Philadelphia. Sounds as if it’s taken about that long for star Mena Suvari to get over making the black comedy, based on the awful, bizarre, real-life case of a woman who hit a homeless man with her car, drove home and left him to slowly die stuck in her windshield.

Suvari tells us that essaying the role was an “emotional roller coaster…I have to literally lose my mind by the end of the movie. My inspiration was Kathy Bates from ‘Misery.’”

She describes the production, with Stephen Rea as the victim and Russell Hornsby as her boyfriend, as “intense filmmaking, a short schedule and a small budget with sometimes one or two takes.  By the end of the day I was really exhausted and ready to get back to reality a little bit…just be a nice person.” While playing the woman afflicted with what one critic describes as “sociopathic selfishness,” Mena says with a laugh, “I tried to do something good every night.”

Suvari says it was a “huge shock” to her to discover “Stuck” was based on a true story. “When I first read the script I didn’t know that and my jaw hit the floor. I couldn’t believe someone would be involved in something like that. I’d worked with Stuart Gordon before on

‘Edmond’ and was excited this was his next project,” she adds of the cult favorite filmmaker of “Re-Animator” and “From Beyond” fame.  “I told my agent ‘I have to do this.’  I really pushed for it.” She adds, “I’ve always been fascinated with criminal psychology and what makes people do the things they do.  I was even studying psychology and criminal forensics so it was exciting for me to finally come across a script where I could use that.”

THE LAUGH INN: Comedienne Rita Rudner declares her new PBS special, “Rita Rudner: Live from Las Vegas” is not – repeat – not geared toward that highly sought after youth demographic. “We’re being comedically ignored after age 39,” quips Rudner. “And if there was ever a time we needed to laugh it was after 39. That’s exactly why I’m doing the special for PBS.”

Rudner — who’s booked to perform at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand through 2010 — taped her 2000th Vegas show for the PBS special debuting May 31 and airing throughout June (check local listings). “I talk about my usual… life, marriage, relationships, women and men…the same topics I cover in my book,” says the comic, whose latest tome, “I Still Have It…I Just Can’t Remember Where I Put It (Confessions of a Fiftysomething)” hits book stores this month. “I pick on women a lot more than I pick on men. Even though we’re perfect we do silly things. I don’t know why we’re buying pillows we can’t lay our heads on, buying shoes we can’t walk in, buying ashtrays when no one can smoke. And why has women’s underwear become so uncomfortable? We went from wearing pillow cases to sling shots.”

GOOD SPORTS: Hosea Chanchez, who stars on the CW’s sports comedy/drama “The Game,” which was recently renewed for a third season, tells us he’s been surprised at the amount of professional athletes who watch the show.  ”We’ve actually been told by professional athletes — and a lot of people in that industry who are trying their hardest to get on our show — that we’re one of the few who got in right,” claims Chanchez about the content of the show, which follows the fictional lives of several professional football players and their wives.  ”It’s a complete honor to do something and do it correctly.”  While Chanchez is admittedly not a football fan, he says there is one athlete he would like to see be a guest star on the show.  ”I would love to see Michael Jordan come on the show.” Now, wait a second!  ”I know he’s not a football player,” adds Chanchez with a laugh, “but he is the man.”

BRANCHING OUT: Looks like the irrepressible 15-year-old “Suite Life of Zack & Cody” twin stars Cole and Dylan Sprouse are poised to make the leap to the big screen.  Dylan says, “We have a couple of films coming up. One that might be a feature release. It’s called ‘The Kings of Appletown’ and it’s a Bobby Moresco production,” he says of the Oscar-winning writer-director-producer. “And we’re in the works for another movie, the ‘Untitled Sprouse Brothers Project.’”

Anthony Michael Hall can hardly wait for the ban to be lifted on his discussing “The Dark Knight” plot and his mysterious role in the hugely-anticipated “Batman” flick — which, as he told us a year ago, he’s legally prohibited to do having signed a confidentiality agreement.  However, “I can tell you this: It’s the biggest movie of my career.  I can’t wait for people to see it,” says the actor who rose to fame as a Brat Pack teen movie star, put in six seasons starring in “The Dead Zone” — and plays a cult member who masterminds an airline hijacking in this Saturday’s (5/24) “Final Approach” thriller on the Hallmark Channel.

He says making the July 18 release feature was an experience of a lifetime.

“Basically, we shot in Chicago and London.  Heath Ledger, who obviously isn’t with us, sad to say, did a great job.  He plays the Joker.  I worked with him and with Christian Bale a lot.  I had the most fun with Gary Oldman. I really was honored to work with Gary and to spend some time with him. We have a lot of mutual friends. We would joke and talk about everything but show business.”

As far as filmmaker Chris Nolan, Hall feels, “He did a great job reinventing this Batman franchise by making it darker. I think the consensus view of the previous films was that the franchise had gotten out of control, that it was a little bit goofy and over the top, especially in the Joel Schumacher versions.  But what Chris Nolan did was brilliant. He started by hiring Christian Bale, a British actor who, by the way, according to Chris, was the first actor through the door. Then surrounded him with other great actors — and I just feel so honored to be considered worthy to be part of the company.”

MEANWHILE: Dean Cain plays the FBI agent who has to contend with Hall’s twisted bad guy and his threatened nuclear destruction in “Final Approach,” which also stars Lea Thompson, Ernie Hudson, Tracey Gold and Richard Roundtree.  Cain also has the family movie “Ace Of Hearts” newly out on video, and the big screen “Five Dollars a Day” comedy with Chris Walken and Sharon Stone in the can.  “I’m one of the folks that Christopher Walken and his son (Alessandro Nivola) encounter along their way.
Everyone gets conned,” says Dean.

He tells us, “I’ve been enjoying mixing things up lately.  It’s been interesting with the writers strike and what projects are going and not going – having everything slow down for awhile, then speed up, then slowing down again with the possible actors strike.”  He’s been making the most of the hurry-up-and-wait pattern in the industry of late.  “I’ve had some nice down time with my son.  He goes to school three minutes away” says Dean, referring to his Malibu home.  “He visited the ‘Final Approach’ set one day, but he’s six years old. He’s seen enough of my movies shooting.  If something’s not exploding, it’s not that fun.”

THE INDUSTRY EYE: The “Reno: 911” police department will be doing their bit for the war effort in an upcoming episode – in their inimitably skewed way, of course. “Clemmy and Deputy Garcia help train some Iraqi soldiers to use weapons and other things they might need to know,” reports Wendi McLendon-Covey, who plays promiscuous Dep. Clementine “Clemmy” Johnson on the Comedy Central show returning for its sixth season Thursday (5/22). “We think we’re doing some really good training and end up with egg on our face, as per usual.”

Meanhwile, McLendon-Covey is the celebrity spokesperson for Cops4Causes, a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring together members of the law enforcement community to raise funds to help those in need. This year seven deputies and police officers will ride 545 miles from San Francisco to L.A. to raise money for the AIDS pandemic. “They’re having a kick-off party in Los Angeles May 22 at Eleven Nightclub and Restaurant with legendary disco diva Martha Wash performing,” says McLendon-Covey, who first began working with Cops4Causes a couple of years ago. “I hosted an event for them in Ventura, CA, for the Special Olympics.  They were cops really reaching out to the community.  It was really inspiring and I told them ‘I’ll do whatever you want, whenever you want. I’m totally down with this organization.” For tickets or info, go to www.cops4causes.org.

THE SMALL SCREEN SCENE: “Suite Life on Deck” — the upcoming spinoff of The Disney Channel hit ‘Suite Life of Zack & Cody” — will not just have a new location, but new faces report stars Cole and Dylan Sprouse.

“Some regulars are leaving, and we have some new regulars coming in,’” says the irrepressible Cole, whose revamped show debuts in September.  “Ashley Tisdale is gone because she is busy doing ‘High School Musical 3.’ And our Mom, played by Kim Rhodes, will be gone because we are schooling on a ship now.” So we won’t see either of Zack and Cody’s parents? “A-parently not,” quips Cole, adding everything else on the show is “very much the same, except they’re really aging Zack and Cody.”