>BY MARILYN BECK and STACY JENEL SMITH

If all goes as planned, Oscar nominee Felicity Huffman will be starring in "The Accordion," a big-screen romantic comedy reteaming renowned director/producer Norman Jewison with his "Moonstruck" screenwriter, John Patrick Shanley.

"I'm working on the screenplay now with John, and Felicity wants to do it, but it's always a matter of availability," notes Jewison, whose 1987 "Moonstruck" garnered a Best Picture nomination and earned Oscars for both Shanley and the flick's star, Cher. He says "The Accordion" is "based on an Italian film called 'Bread and Tulips' about a woman who has been married for a number of years and has really never seen anything or had a chance to be on her own. She gets stranded in the South on a golf tour and ends up alone. It follows her change in life and experiences. It's a very funny, touching romantic comedy. In the Italian film the setting was Venice, but we're changing Venice to New Orleans post-Katrina. Every film has a place and an ambience, and it's very important because the setting and where it takes place is part of the story, so the city is very involved in the film."

Jewison says he and Shanley have already scouted locations for "The Accordion" in New Orleans, which he hadn't been to since shooting the 1965 Steve McQueen starrer, "The Cincinnati Kid." The latter film and "Moonstruck" are part of a marathon of Jewison's classic films set to follow TCM's "Private Screenings: Norman Jewison" on Sept. 13. The esteemed filmmaker shares delightful anecdotes from his illustrious career on everyone from Judy Garland and McQueen to Denzel Washington with host Robert Osborne. And what a career it has been! Personally nominated for four Oscars, Jewison received the prestigious Irving Thalberg Award in 1999 for his body of work that has garnered 46 nominations and 12 Academy Awards for such films as "In the Heat of the Night," " ... And Justice for All" and "The Hurricane."

IT'S SSSSMOKIN': "Weeds" regular Kevin Nealon says he's shocked at how far-reaching the hit Showtime comedy about suburbanites trafficking in marijuana has become. "I was in France a couple of weeks ago in a little train station, and this French guy about 35 comes up to me and says `I'm a big fan. I love the show `Weeds.' I said, `Do you get Showtime? And he goes, `No, I see it on the Internet."' Nealon — who plays the now-unseated stoner city councilman Doug Wilson on the show that garnered Emmy nominations this year for Mary-Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins — says as the season progresses, "all the stakes are kind of raised. The people are much more involved in the trafficking, and it kind of really takes it to the next level."

Meanwhile, Nealon and his wife, Susan Yeagley, return as hosts of TBS' "World's Funniest Commercials" special airing Thursday). "Last year we did it at Venice Beach, and I said, `Hey, we should do this in Paris!"' And voila! "Watch what you ask for ... We were in Paris for two weeks, and it was a great experience," says Nealon. His favorite commercial? "The one I really liked has this guy in a locker room and the cell phone rings. The wife is asking if it's OK to buy a dress for hundreds of dollars, get the new car she wanted and tells him a house they liked is up for $1.5 million. He says yes to everything, then puts down the cell phone and walks away. It's not his phone."

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: Paget Brewster, who plays FBI Special Agent Emily Prentiss on CBS' "Criminal Minds," says she loved the show even before joining the cast in its ninth episode last season. "I'm obsessed with serial killers — it's probably the only reason I got the job," jokes the former "Huff" and "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" actress. When she came aboard the crime show, "I'd actually done four movies back to back. It's exhausting, frankly. I prefer TV," she says, referring to low-budget indie films. "Rarely do you get the experience of having everyone like each other and feel dedicated to what they're doing. You find yourself doing your laundry in the bathtub of the hotel, flying around. It's wearing. With television, you go to work every day with the same bunch of people. You know each other, have jokes together, meet other people's families. It's great to finally be on a show that's doing well enough to stay on," she adds. "When they're cancelled, it breaks your heart. I know it sounds corny, but the team on a show can really feel like a family — even if it's people you hate."

MUSIC BY CANDLELIGHT: Goo Goo Dolls frontman Johnny Rzeznik reports the recording studio he and his colleagues have been building in their native Buffalo, N.Y., is "going really well. It will be completed by the end of September, hopefully. It's like a really elaborate home improvement project — it takes twice as much time as you think and costs twice as much." Still, he says, "I really like the idea of having our own place. It's really inspiring to me because I set the rules. I make the hours. I can pretty much do whatever I want." As for the kind of atmosphere he likes — "a bunch of votive, deep forest candles. I like to have the lighting a certain way and stuff. I like sometimes not knowing what time of day or night it is."