SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

Wall-to-wall celebs

Leave it to Fox to cram every square inch of trendy Hollywood eatery Meson G with wall-to-wall celebrities.

Of course it was a fire hazard, but you gotta take risks to report the news, right?

Besides, there are worse things than being smashed up against Jason Bateman. Bateman was still basking in his Golden Globe win the night before, but confided he was in trouble with his wife. She felt he should have been more spontaneous in his acceptance speech.

“But you don’t want to forget all those people who got you up there,” says Bateman.

It’s OK Jason.

Rockin’ with Ritchie

The lighting was good enough to see everyone from Adam Brody to John Walsh, but the noise level was enough to make you grab some earplugs.

And no use telling the DJ to turn it down. He had friends in pretty high places.

The unnamed guy is Nicole Ritchie’s latest boyfriend and she spent much of her early moments at the party planting some major lip action on him.

Dressed in an adorable pink beaded dress with her blond hair bobbed and curly, Ritchie strayed from the aforementioned guy long enough to gab about her latest project.

“I grew up playing the piano and my whole life was about music,” Ritchie, who was being particularly sweet, says. “I’m working on an album of Diane Warren songs.”

No word on when it might be finished – or released.

Fashion statement

Hunky Billy Campbell (“Once and Again”) has signed on to do his best to cause a rift in the solid marriage of Sandy and Kirsten Cohen of “The O.C.” Campbell admits he hadn’t seen the show prior to signing up for duty.

“I heard you have to take your shirt off a lot in this show, so I’m not eating after tonight,” says the slim actor as he pounded down some serious grub. “I’ve got to look good.”

Campbell says he’s only signing on for a few episodes, and then will go back to taping the USA’s sci fi series “The 4400.”

Coyote finds work anyway

When USA picked up “The 4400” from the miniseries airing last year, Mill Valley actor Peter Coyote was ecstatic.

“I started looking for new cars, but then I didn’t get a call,” Coyote says. “I finally called and found out they didn’t want my character back.”

But what USA taketh away, Fox giveth.

Coyote will be starring in a new midseason replacement, “The Inside,” a kind of supernatural cop show.

Nice guys have a hard time

Adam Brody, one of the nicest guys ever, did his best answering prying questions from some not-me press types.

Like, who was your favorite teacher? (“I liked most of them, but I can’t remember their names right now.”)

How has your life changed since becoming a star? (“You mean other than the cocaine and hookers?”)

And he revealed that in seventh grade a bully once urinated on him in the showers after gym class.

“I wanted to kick his butt, but I was like small, weak…and naked.”

New bad boy

Brody broke away from the stalker reporters for a small chat about his “O.C” character Seth. Seems Seth’s bad boy days are behind him, but co-star Benjamin McKenzie says viewers should expect a turn to the dark side for his character Ryan by the end of the season.

“I didn’t ask for it, but it is much more interesting to play the bad boy,” McKenzie says. “And he’ll be going to a very dark place by the end of this season.”

New good girl

“The O.C.” star Mischa Barton, who plays the tormented Marissa, will be getting a new love interest on the show – a young woman.

Creator Josh Schwartz says it was his idea to go that direction with the character, saying she’s just experimenting after she meets someone who is supportive and caring toward her.

Oh, and Schwartz knows that the story already popped up on the Internet.

“Yeah. I planted it,” says Schwartz.

So long, Jimmy

Schwartz says Tate Donovan, who played Jimmy on the show, is not likely to return.

“It’s not like he’s dead, so I guess it could happen,” Schwartz says. “But it’s not likely. We’ve seen the last of Jimmy, I’m afraid.”

Still an item

Brody says he’s been doing some films in his free time, including “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (“I’m on for like a second.”) and a leading role in “In the Land of Women.”

Oh, yeah. And Brody and co-star Rachel Bilson are still together.

“That was the worst-kept secret romance ever,” Schwartz says.

Mother love

“House of Sand and Fog,” filmed along the San Mateo County coast, was an amazing film. And two of the best people in it were Shohreh Aghdashloo and Jonathan Ahdout, who played mother and son. Now the two are back playing mother and son in the new season of “24.” But mom’s a bit more sinister in this one.

Like knocking off her son’s teen girlfriend.

But she wouldn’t go after her own son, would she?

“With this woman, you never know,” joked Aghdashloo.

Or at least I think she was joking.