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Byline: ROW LOWMAN

> ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Sometimes life does parallel art.

Danny DeVito has been trying to get a pet project off the ground for a while now when he got offered the role of Frank on the second season of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," the edgy FX comedy about a group of self-absorbed friends running a pub.

"You get into a kind of circle that you go around and around in," says the actor who first made his mark on "Taxi," "because it always takes a long time to do everything."

Already a fan of the show, DeVito found the character of Frank "kind of a mirror of what was going on in my life at the time."

Introduced as the father of Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson), Frank had "made a lot of money and was getting stale ... and he was looking for something that was a little fresh and kind of dangerous."

"Fresh and kind of dangerous" is a good way to describe "Sunny," which is funny, but with humor that is often dark and irreverent. The show was created by Rob McElhenney, who plays Mac, one of the co-owners of the bar in this anti-"Friends" sitcom, which begins its third season Sept. 13 (10 p.m.), with back-to-back episodes. (Seasons one and two are available in a DVD set on Tuesday.)

DeVito, who has produced such films as ""Erin Brockovich" and "Man on the Moon," is hoping to turn the highly regarded children's book "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle" into a movie. But as he works toward that goal, he is nothing if not enthusiastic about working on "Sunny."

"I go overboard about this, but I've been in the room with some of the best writers in television and the movies ... and I know they're in the top tier of writers," he says, referring to McElhenney, Howerton and Charlie Day, who plays Charlie, the fourth owner of the bar.

The scripts, however, allow the cast to improvise, something DeVito, who had four Emmy nominations and one win for his role on "Taxi," really likes. "We work very fast, and we have the freedom to change things around.... It's not very rigid at all, and they're into on-their-feet thinking."

One thing about a "Sunny" episode is that there's likely to be a movie reference or two in it. In season two, "Hundred Dollar Baby," in which DeVito's Frank returns to the gym where he used to box, has an ending more shocking than the Clint Eastwood film it's riffing on, while in "Charlie Goes America All Over Everybody's Ass," DeVito ends up in a scene that's a takeoff of the horrific Russian roulette scene from "The Deer Hunter."

"If I could get into Jackie Chan shape, I could surprise them," jokes DeVito, "but that's the tough thing -- getting into Jackie Chan shape."

In the meantime, "I love going to work. I love churning it up and being free. And I love being with these very talented young minds," says DeVito, who with his wife, Rhea Pearlman, has three children now in their 20s, but who considers the cast members -- 30 years his junior -- part of his extended family.

Season two ended with a big revelation for Frank, and the actor/director says there are more surprises in store for his character.

"You don't know everything about Frank. You know he has a lot of money and is being taken to the cleaners by his wife, which is not the case in my life."

OK, so everything in art and life doesn't parallel.

movies > "The Wind That Shakes the Barley"

Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," which won the top prize at Cannes in 2006, uses the blurry politics of Ireland in the 1920s as a backdrop for his railing against injustice. The film's hero, Damien (Cillian Murphy), has been driven into taking matters into his own hands after the British irregulars known as the Black and Tans have committed a brutal raid on an Irish farm.

To Loach's credit, though, he doesn't shy away from showing the equal brutality of the Irish Republican Army and is ultimately more interested in the humanity of the situation than in the polemics. And he tells the story vividly and lively, with a sharp, nuanced performance from Murphy (better-known for his bad-guy roles in "Red Eye" and "Batman Begins").

movie> "Stephanie Daley"

"Stephanie Daley" is essentially a two-woman show, and an excellent one at that. Amber Tamblyn plays Stephanie, a shy 16-year-old who who is accused of murdering her newborn on a class ski trip. The daughter of conservative religious parents, she denies responsibility by claiming she didn't know she was pregnant.

Stephanie's story is told in flashbacks, as she is questioned by Lydie Crane (Tilda Swinton), a forensic psychologist hired by the prosecution. Lydie, who once gave birth to a stillborn child, is herself reaching the end of another pregnancy.

Certain parallels and questions arise, allowing writer-director Hilary Brougher to explore questions of morality as the two gingerly fence. While we see parts of Stephanie's life in the flashbacks (Timothy Hutton is memorable as her dad), the heart of the film is the relationship between the two women, and you couldn't ask for better actresses than the formidable Swinton and Tamblyn, who makes a difficult role come to life.

movie> "Georgia Rule"

Garry Marshall makes comfortable mainstream comic entertainments ("Pretty Woman," "The Princess Diaries") and occasionally likes to take oddball -- usually soapier -- side roads ("The Other Sister," "Beaches"). "Georgia Rule," which stars the powerhouse trio of Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan and Felicity Huffman, is something of a blue highway, nice and scenic. Troubled child-woman Lohan plays troubled child-woman Rachel, who has been sent by mom Lilly (Huffman) to live with her grandmother, Georgia (Fonda) hence the title. This generational battle and failure to communicate among women is familiar terrain, but there are a few twists and turns that save it from being too predictable and keep it interesting. And the three actresses -- even Lindsay -- are watchable.

television>

There's a lot of good TV from last season to catch up on. The plastic-surgery series "Nip/Tuck" didn't lose much of its edge last year. It comes back Oct. 23 for 22 episodes, with Joely Richardson in 15 of them. "Prison Break," which returns Sept. 17, might be the hardest show to keep going because it was originally conceived for two years. So the question is, how much longer can being on the run be interesting? As for "The Office" and "Desperate Housewives" -- you're either into them by now or not.

Rob Lowman [phone],

[e-mail]

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) Danny DeVito as Frank and Kaitlin Olson as Sweet Dee in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

(2) Padraic Delaney, left, Cillian Murphy and Aidan O'Hare star in "The Wind That Shakes the Barley."