Making the Band

Actress Marla Sokoloff, best known as the receptionist on “The Practice,” has joined the legions of thespian rockers: Russell Crowe and his band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, Jason Schwartzmann’s Phantom Planet and Keanu Reeves’ Dogstar, to name a few. As lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist in the band Smittin, Sokoloff says she’s prepared to go the distance in the struggle to land a record deal. “We’re really, really determined,” she said in a phone interview from her Sherman Oaks home on Monday.

It could be a long road. Sokoloff says the record companies the band has been approaching don’t hear a hit single among its songs. “It’s a little bit of a difficult time period for us as a band,” she said. “It’s unfortunate because ... [record labels are] not as likely to nurture bands as they used to.” And even big-name actors don’t have an easy time of crossing over into the music business. Reeves’ band just issued its first U.S. release after years of touring and recording, and Crowe’s band has self-released the two albums it’s put out in 17 years. But Sokoloff, 21, isn’t discouraged. She spends almost every day off practicing with the band and writing songs about her life as an actor, her family and her boyfriend, “Spider-Man” co-star James Franco.

In her song “Ode to Hollywood,” Sokoloff riffs on the industry’s image machine: “I saw her just the other day/looking thin she was wasting away/Should I start to play the game?/So we can all look the same.”

“A lot of [the songs] come from sacrifices I make as an actor and how hard it is on your body and as a person,” she said. “I’m really, really hard on myself. I have this need to succeed all the time.”

Taking the Blake Story to the Bank

As pundits ponder O.J. versus Robert Blake, various entrepreneurs--beyond lawyers--are already spinning gold.

Books and movie deals include SilverCreek Entertainment’s picking up movie and literary rights to the Blake case as told by Christina Scheier, a friend of Blake’s slain wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. And this week, bestselling author Dennis McDougal (a former L.A. Times reporter) sold his telling of the story of Robert Blake’s life and trial for an advance “in the low six figures” to Penguin Putnam. Working title? “Cold Blood: The Saga of Robert Blake.”

“What’s the thesis?” said McDougal, when reached by phone at his Long Beach home. “Different kind of star-crossed lovers: a child of Hollywood meets a child of American Bandstand, adventures ensue.” McDougal added, “It’s a cautionary tale.”

After Blake’s arrest, the author (whose previous books include “The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood,” and “Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L.A. Times Dynasty”) dashed off a two-page proposal. Within a couple of weeks, his agent had secured the deal. McDougal hasn’t yet discussed any possible participation by Blake with the actor’s lawyer Harland W. Braun, but hopes the actor will tell his side of the story--in a jiffy.

“They want it, like, yesterday,” McDougal said about the publication plans. “Before the summer is over, it’ll be on the bookshelves.”

Already on the shelves is murder-case merchandise.

The Y-Que Trading Post on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz (maker of the popular “Free Winona” T-shirts following Winona Ryder’s arrest on suspicion of shoplifting at Saks) has come up with a line of Blake wear.

Designs on the $10 T-shirts include a photo of Blake and phrases including, “Who Dunnit? Ask the Bird” (a reference to the cockatoo he shouldered in “Baretta”) and “You Can Take This to the Bank.”

Obviously.

House Guest Takes His Act on the Road

It’s been nearly a decade since famous former house guest Brian “Kato” Kaelin testified in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, yet his 15 minutes of fame seem never to end.

Now, he has filmed a pilot of a reality-based show titled (cringe) “Houseguest.”

No word yet on where--and if--it will air. The plot? “It’s a show where I ... go across America,” Kaelin told Barbara Walters on Wednesday night. “I knock on doors of the unsuspecting and invite myself in to spend a weekend with a family. And it’s ... an absolute ball.”

Quote/Unquote

“Ninety-nine percent of the celebrities I’ve met I would consider friendly acquaintances. Except Russell Crowe....I’ll still go and see his movies but if someone told me he was going to be at a party I might not go.”--Moby tells the British music publication Q Magazine in the May issue.

City of Angles runs Tuesday through Friday. E-mail: angles@latimes.com