'It' TV starlet Hayden Panettiere -- a.k.a. "Heroes'" cheerleader -- went off to make "Fireflies in the Garden" with Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, Emily Watson, Ioan Gruffudd, Willem Dafoe and Carrie-Ann Moss after wrapping production of the NBC hit series this year. Taking on the film, about a family struggling to cope with a devastating tragedy, meant she had to table plans to make a feature with her younger brother, Jansen, this summer. Now, he tells us it's on again.

"We were actually planning to do a project called 'Play Room,'" notes the 13-year-old Jansen, who stars in Nickelodeon's TV movie "The Last Day of Summer" airing July 20. "Now, we're going to probably do it around next May."

Jansen -- who co-starred with Hayden in the 2004 Disney Channel Original Movie, "Tiger Cruise" with Bill Pullman -- says "Play Room" is about "a dysfunctional family. We play brother and sister, and what they do is go up to the play room and tell stories to each other to try to get as far away from their life as they can."

In "The Last Day of Summer," Jansen plays tween-aged Luke Malloy, who's dreading going to middle school so much he wishes Labor Day would last forever -- and gets his wish. Now in the 10th grade in real life, Jansen says playing the part brought back his own fears of going to middle school. "I didn't get as scared as Luke, but I had butterflies and was a little nervous. Everyone tells you 'Oh, it's horrible, you get so much work, you get teachers from the Black Lagoon...' I've already been through that, so I knew what it was like."

THE INSIDE TRACK: Nickelback heads out on tour June 28. "That's one last summer run on this album, one more summer I get to miss, of sitting on the tour bus, going from show to show," as lead singer Chad Kroeger puts it with a smile. In fact, this latest concert swing marks 16 months of touring behind the Canadian band's "All the Right Reasons" album, which has sold more than seven million copies worldwide so far, and continues to appear in the top 20 of the Billboard 200.

Kroeger believes, "People expect you not only to play to the best of your ability, but to give them the best stage show of their lives. They want you to blow their minds." He says he is up to the challenge, however -- though he tells us he doesn't have any special physical regimen for staying in shape on the road.

"I don't exercise," says the Alberta native, cheekily. "Just standing there on stage screaming every night gives you a core workout."

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Sharon Lawrence reports her character in The CW's Wednesday (5/30)-debuting drama, "Hidden Palms" is "somebody completely superficial, but she's fun. She's not mean."

Lawrence plays the mother of Michael Cassidy's character in the show, which also stars Taylor Handley, Amber Heard, Tessa Thompson and her former "NYPD Blue" alumnus Gail O'Grady. "The whole thing about my character is she's made some bad choices. She was a pageant girl, has always been with the wrong man. She's truly been disappointed and let down by men, but it hasn't made her stop trying."

However, she adds, "She lets herself have fun without anything long-term, because her son is the love of her life and she definitely dotes on him -- to the degree that she can't see how twisted he really is."

She says "Hidden Palms" is "a very stylized, iconoclastic world...Our young hero moves into the neighborhood and finds out he's moved into the bedroom of a dead boy, and that sparks all kinds of questions and challenges because he's gone through an emotional turmoil himself."

SOMETHING FUNNY GOING ON: "The Office's" Kate Flannery has turned her attention to live performing, now that the show is on hiatus. She's among the names who'll be doing their thing on-stage at L.A.'s Improv Olympic West at the 5th Annual Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival, June 4-9.

"Office" mates Melora Hardin, Oscar Nunez and Angela Kinsey, and talent from other shows, including "Mad TV" and "Thank God You're Here" are aboard, too, and up-and-comers the likes of the Gas Money troupe (with our own Emily Feimster) will also be showing off their skills.

Flannery tells us her one-woman comedy show tends to startle "Office" fans, who are used to her character, Meredith, "as sort of a spice, never the main course on the series. On TV, you don't have a lot of control, so it's fun to be doing something where it's all up to you."

As far as "The Office," which returns to production this summer, Flannery says, "We've kind of touched on Meredith's moody alcoholic thing. I'd like to touch on it a little more. I think there's plenty of room for that."

With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster