"Pushing Daises" has been a big hit with critics, but the show's bubbly Kristin Chenoweth admits she's feeling less than bubbly about the show's future. "Things are going great, but I have to be honest, I'm afraid we're on the bubble," says Chenoweth, and, no, she's not referring to the large bubble she rode on while portraying Glinda the Good Witch in "Wicked."

"It looks like we could possibly not be getting picked up. We have not gotten our order for the back nine [episodes] yet. We finish Nov. 12, and if we don't get any more news, then that means we're done," she explains. "We just don't know what's going on. It's the not knowing that is driving everybody crazy. We're still doing our show and keeping positive, but I think deep down people just want to know."

Yes, it seems that even Hollywood has been feeling the pinch of today's faltering economy. "I guess no shows are really doing great except reality shows. Viewership is down, but yet the critics love us. They're calling it the best show on television, so it's kind of a bummer. It's like nothing else on TV, but it's expensive to make," Chenoweth points out. "I'm really holding out hope and crossing my fingers because I'm so proud of this show. It has aired nine times and got 12 Emmy nominations, so it's like, 'Whoa! How could it be gone?' Plus, we've become a family, as many shows tend to say about their cast, but we really do love each other, and we just don't want to see it go."

MEANWHILE: Chenoweth has other things to keep her spirits high, like the recent release of her holiday album "A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas." "It just crossed over to the Billboard's top 200," she reports. "I just love this album. I never say that about anything that I sing on, but I made the record that I really wanted to make."

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: It was 2005 when Warner Bros. announced a big-screen version of the vintage highway patrol show "CHiPs." Looks like it might actually get made next year. At least, that's according to Wilmer Valderrama, who's starring as Ponch. They're sharpening up the script and determining the director, he says, and will decide who'll play John, his Highway Patrol partner, after the director is set.

"CHiPs" is just one of the interesting projects on the plate of the actor who used to play Fez on "That '70s Show." At the top of his agenda this week is his Disney Channel preschool series, "Handy Manny" — for which he made a surprise visit to L.A.'s Para Los Ninos children's center.

"I've done a lot of great, rewarding things in my career, but nothing is more meaningful to me than this," he happily declared after reading a "Handy Manny" story to about 60 kids. Valderrama, who voices the title character of the multicultural Playhouse Disney show, left a load of "Handy Manny" toys behind. "It was a great, great, great day! Al the kids were so excited to hear from Handy Manny, and we had the character in life size there to help me."

LOOKING FORWARD: Cybill Shepherd, who's been busy doing back-to-back film and TV roles, tells us she's also laying plans to put together "a new cabaret act, and I'm very excited about seeing how that's going to develop. It may take a while." She definitely plans to do her chanteuse thing in New York, noting, "The last time I was supposed to perform there was at the Café Carlyle the 18th of September, 2001. Then came 9/11, and that was cancelled."

Cybill credits her past one-woman show with breathing fresh life into her career. "It was one of the best, hardest things I've ever done, an incredible challenge, physically and mentally. It was a chance to get back to the basics and get my hands back in the dirt, so to speak, and remember why I love what I do for a living. I can't wait to get back on the stage."

HERE AND THERE: Parminder Nagra has made a home in L.A. — complete with friends all around and two dogs — thanks to her years on "ER," but she still maintains a house in England as well. Though she doesn't anticipate moving back to the land of her birth full time after the long-running medical show is over, she says. "I have my Green Card, and I'd like to stay here six months and there six months a year — but with this business, I could end up somewhere else completely. It's one of those things one never knows. It all depends on where the work is."

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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