Kirk Cameron, whose big-screen "Fireproof" is in its first week of release, notes that even his marriage can profit from the drama about a fireman who's a hero at work and a failure as a husband.

Cameron has been married for 17 years to Chelsea Noble, whom he met when both were teenage co-stars on "Growing Pains." His wife and their six kids come first in his life, but, he says, "There are challenges and struggles when work and even charitable causes become so overwhelming they displace your first love — marriage and family. If you fail at that you fail at everything, and I can benefit from that lesson as much as anyone."

Kirk reveals that his parents' troubled marriage has served as an example of what not to do in his life. They were, he says, victims of "a lot of stress when I was working on 'Growing Pains' and my sister Candace was on 'Full House.' We tried to hide their problems from the public — you know, kids in the limelight in a broken home — but my parents finally broke up. They did eventually get back together, but it was tough on us all — and something I would never want to put my wife and myself, and our children, through."

Cameron, who's specialized in faith-based films in recent years, and focuses much of his time on his "The Way of the Master" television show, looks back on his turbulent teenage years in the Hollywood fishbowl and recalls with regret that when he converted to Christianity at age 17 he alienated himself from Alan Thicke and the rest of the "Growing Pains" cast. He wanted material on the show changed to come closer to what, in his opinion, was more suitable for family audiences, and ended up causing, he says, "a lot of friction. I withdrew, I acted like a jerk, wanting control, and didn't handle things in the best way. Fortunately, I have had a chance to patch things up, but I'm just sorry they happened in the first place."

ANOTHER FAMILY AFFAIR: Hulk Hogan's son, Nick, will be released from jail Oct. 21, three months earlier than his original sentence. His sister Brooke says she's ready to help her brother put back on the pounds he lost in jail. "I'm going to make him anything he wants. We're just going to chow down because all he's been eating is yucky jail food."

Maybe now she and her family can get back to a normal life … well, as normal as it can be.

"We're definitely one of the crazy ones," she admits of her family. "I used to always think we were the normal group of people, and it just shows you that you can't really stay away from stuff going wrong."

Yes, it has been a tough year for the Hogans. Despite the parents' current divorce battle, Brooke says she hopes the media will start focusing on more positive things once Nick's jail sentence is behind them. "They focus on things I wouldn't like them to focus on. I would love the public and the media to focus on what an adventurous kind of person I am and that I live a clean, healthy life and have fun with my friends, but that's not interesting. They like to focus on the dirt," she notes.

For now, her plan is to not pay attention to the naysayers. "It's a lot easier when you don't listen to what people say. Sometimes it gets to me, but most of the time I can just let it roll off my shoulder. The emotional baggage does add up and explode sometimes, but I try not to dwell on the negative." And, hey, at least she has a hit TV show on her hands! "We actually broke VH1's history," she says of her reality show "Brooke Knows Best." "'Hogan Knows Best' broke VH1's history, and then we broke 'Hogan Knows Best's' history. I told my dad, "Brooke knows best, b——!"

WHAT'S IN A NAME: Actor Justin Hartley is very much in the comic book hero business — he played Aquaman and is a regular on "Smallville" as Oliver Queen/The Green Arrow, future member of The Justice League. So you might imagine that somehow inspired the middle name of his 4-year-old daughter, Isabella Justice. But it didn't. "Justice came first, and then all this superhero stuff," Hartley tells us. His wife and former "Passions" cast mate Lindsay Korman "likes the name Justin. When we found out we were going to have a girl, we were thinking Justine — yeah, OK, we can do that," he explains. "But then the idea of naming her Justice came, and we really liked it." So what they named their child came true in a way. Maybe their next one will be named Academy Award.

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: With hot up-and-coming Australian teen actress Mia Wasikowska ("In Treatment") set to assume the title role in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland," and Johnny Depp reportedly attached to play the Mad Hatter, casting forces on the feature are filling out subsidiary roles on the feature. It's set for a mid-October start with shooting in England and Los Angeles.

With reports by Emily Feimster.

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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