talking with... Katie Cassidy

Her favorite subject is math, but right now Katie Cassidy, 15, is thinking about history, as in whether it will repeat itself. She hopes her first release as a singer, a hip-pop cover, approaches the success of the original: David Cassidy's 1970 No. 1 with the Partridge Family "I Think I Love You."  "She wants to play it for him in person," says her ex-model mom, Sherry Benedon, 49, who had a long on-again, off-again relationship with David Cassidy, although they never married. "She wants to see his face." 

That face may be a little red - as in upset - now. "He doesn't agree with me singing," admits Katie, who says Dad advised her to wait until she was 18. Still, her father says, "I love my daughter and I support what she does." The 10th grader, who got a break when a record producer she met at a drugstore asked her to give her mother his card, lives in L.A. with stepdad Richard Benedon, 50, and Mom, who encourages her daughter's career. "She's very mature."

Mature enough to also get modeling gigs: She posed as a cheerleader on the cover of 'N Sync's Celebrity disc last year. Not that Cassidy worships the band or anything. "You go through stages," she says. "I went through my teenybopper phase. That's over now."  (Marisa Laudadio)
 

The Cassidy clan couldn't be happierin their $4M European-style  mansion, which has seven bedrooms, eight baths and occupies more than 8,000 square feet.

The home has a warm, cozy feel accented by hardwood floors, hand-carved doors, beamed ceilingsand ornate moldings. Cassidy and his wife, Sue, added another fireplace to the four existing ones, plenty of bay windows, lots of French doors and a second patio area. David installed an officeand a game room above a four-car garage.

The 1.35-acre property, an oasis from the Nevada heat, is shaded by 150 pine trees and is lush with rich grass and flowers. Neighbors include Mike Tyson, Wayne Newton and the Sultan of Brunei.

"Welove the setting and privacy," says David who, along with his songwriter wife of 11 years, shares the magnificent home with their son Beau, 11, and a mini-dachshund, Chance.

Since the move, the one-time child star's career has been hotter than the Vegas sun.

The actor/singer, who produced the recent Vegas show The Rat Pack Is Back! and starred in EFX, is a champion breeder and racer of thoroughbred horses.

He also has a new album out, Now and Then, which has already gone platinum in England with staples like I Think I Love You, I Woke Up in Love This Morning, I Can Feel Your Heartbeat and Cherish.

And the handsome 52-year-old star is in the middle of a fan-packed cross-country tour that features most of the hits from his days on the hit sitcom with stepmom Shirley Jones, Susan Dey, Danny Bonaduce, Brian Forster and Suzanne Crough.

"That's what I do best," he says of his concerts. "I love entertaining people!"

Q: What does David Cassidy say about his daughter recording his 1971 hit "I Think I Love You"? - Jessica C., Denver, Colo.
A: "I hadn't heard about it," admitted Cassidy, whose hectic schedule promoting his own new CD, Then and Now, has kept him from seeing his daughter as often as he'd like. The single by Katie, 15, who lives in L.A. with her mom and stepdad, is due out in the next three weeks. Papa David, 52, lives with his wife No. 3, Sue Shifrin, and son, Beau, 11, in Las Vegas, where he's a frequent headliner on The Strip. 
 

The Desert Inn Golf Club has played host to many celebrities. Here's a partial list:

Presidential Suite

Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy
 

Star Power

Claude Akins, Susan Anton, Tony Bennett, Pat Boone, Foster Brooks, Michael Caine, Glen Campbell, David Cassidy, Shaun Cassidy, Chevy Chase, George Clooney, Alice Cooper, Tom Cruise, Norm Crosby, Scatman Crothers, Vic Damone, Mac Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Celine Dion, Bob Dylan, Kevin Dobson, Mike Douglas, David Doyle, Chad Everett, Mickey Gilley, Bryant Gumbel, Larry Gatlin, Rudy Gatlin, Steve Gatlin, Monty Hall, Mark Harmon, Bob Hope, Dennis James, Jack Jones, Gabe Kaplan, Harvey Korman, Huey Lewis, Jerry Lewis, Hal Linden, Fred MacMurray, Peter Marshall, Johnny Mathis, Greg Morris, Dean Martin, Anne Murray, Willie Nelson, Joe Pesci, Tom Poston, Charley Pride, Lou Rawls, Robert Redford, Dale Robertson, Smokey Robinson, Rita Rudner, Telly Savalas, Charles Schulz, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, T.G. Sheppard, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Tommy Smothers, Dick Smothers, Robert Stack, Sylvester Stallone, Ray Stevens, Toni Tennille, Robert Urich, Eddie Van Halen, Robert Wagner, Lawrence Welk, Andy Williams, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
 

Sports Set

Andre Agassi, Larry Bird, Billy Casper, Roger Clemens, Mike Ditka, David Duval, Joe DiMaggio, John Elway, Julius Erving, Joe Garagiola Sr., Wayne Gretzky, Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, Keith Jackson, Michael Jordan, Greg Maddux, Mike Maddux, Willie Mays, Ann Meyers, Joe Montana, Joe Namath, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Byron Scott, Vin Scully, Lawrence Taylor, Derrick Thomas, Joe Torre, Lee Trevino, Alex Webster, Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, Tiger Woods. 
 

WHEN all-American heartthrob David Cassidy steps out on stage for his Summer Pops gig, expect a Scouse greeting.

From him, that is. The New York-born singer knows all about the Liverpool vernacular, having spent more than three of his 51 years starring in Willy Russell's musical Blood Brothers.

David played the working class twin Mickey. His brother Shaun (in real life eight years younger) was posh twin Edward. Petula Clark played the Mum.

By all accounts, it was a happy experience for all three.

They rescued Bill Kenwright's Broadway production from near extinction and toured it around the States.

"It was a turning point in my career," says David, whose personal fortunes had been rooted in American family TV series The Partridge Family in which he played the lead singer of a domestic pop troupe.

"Blood Brothers put me back in the public eye and back into theatre," he insists.

And he adds: "I can honestly say I have never wanted to come and play anywhere as much as I want to play Liverpool.

"Not just because of the Blood Brothers, but also because I became quite good mates with John Lennon.

"He was a very good role model for me.

"He came over to my house on New Year's Eve 1974, and we got drunk together and played Beatles songs, which was pretty fab.

"At the time, John was one of the few people who understood my life. I think because of that, we had a kind of bonding thing going."

For the once preppy-looking Cassidy - in those days the world was divided into David or Donny (Osmond) - life has not all been sweetness and light.

He came from a broken home, and even after celebrity struck, there were the kidnapping and death threats, and even the bogus paternity suits.

But life does seem sunny once more.

I catch the newlook "Butch" Cassidy - short hair, a little stockier and more rugged than in his youth - holidaying in Ireland.

One of his grandfathers came from Cork, the other from County Clare, from where they'd escaped to America from the potato famine.

All of which explains why the brothers Cassidy are named David, Shaun, Patrick and Ryan.

Irish thoroughbreds every one. "Obviously that's why I am so drawn to thoroughbred racing," jokes David.

This Sunday, he and his wife Sue will be at the Irish Derby.

They are also spending their break horse-riding, going to a couple of stud farms, and playing golf.

The race is the icing on the cake: "It's a first time visit," says David. "I am a breeder not a better," he says. "But I do have a go every so often."

But who could have bet that Cassidy and Co could rescue Bill Kenwright's Broadway production of Blood Brothers from wipe-out?

"It was dying a death after being panned by the critics.

"But they it turned around and became a fantastic success," says David. "I didn't have a voice coach to do the Liverpool accent,' he reveals.

"They merely flew me over to London and put me with a bunch of Liverpool people and actors. I hung around with them and just got to hear the music of the Scouse accent. It's like learning to sing in a particular key. I never really rehearsed it and had no problems.

"The only trouble was, when I got back to New York, there were the remnants of the Broadway cast with some really bastardised Liverpool accents that were really naff.

"I had to guard against falling into the trap of copying them instead.

"But it will be good to be back in the thick of it all at the Pops. I have no doubt that my Liverpool accent will re-emerge after a couple of hours at the sound-check."

David found the story of Blood Brothers particularly relevant.

He grew up in Manhattan and moved out to New Jersey. Before his actor father, Jack, met his actress mother, Shirley Jones, in a production of Oklahoma, things had been hard.

"It was very working class," says David. "My grandfather worked for the public services reading meters and the other was an engineer on the railroad."

But David was separated from brother Shaun who was raised in posh Beverly Hills.

This made the twins' class division in Blood Brothers all the more relevant. "Shaun naturally has what Bill Kenwright called a soft public school type accent.

"We didn't really get together properly until we were in our teens, so there are some real parallels with the musical."

There was also the storyline which required David as Mickey to hold a gun to Edward's head as part of the show.

"You do that every night on stage and it's not like you're playing with a water pistol.

"So when you've been through your own personal adversity in life, as I have, a show like Blood Brothers still has such an impact on you, even years later."

David Cassidy says playing Mickey also went against his popularly conceived image as one of the boynextdoor types of 70s pop idols.

Last year he brought out a CD - Then And Now - which tells the story of his entire career, and includes re-workings of old hits as well as new material.

The recording has just gone platinum - proof positive that Cassidy still has pulling power.

So were there two David Cassidys? He's amused by that and laughs: "I think there were a lot more than that.

"But what this CD does, as does my show, is mark out and celebrate the whole of my career.

"It re-embraces the past and brings us right up to the present."

David Cassidy did 10 shows in the UK as recently as April.

Enough to assure him that his fanbase had grown to include the daughters and grand-daughters of his initial knicker- throwing female admirers.

But in the case of the Liverpool gig, it's more than that.

"Liverpool has influenced music so much, particularly for my generation.

"When I was a teenager, Liverpool was the focus for the entire world of culture."

David Cassidy is at the Summer Pops on July 11.

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- British actor Jason O'Mara will be the new action man on CBS' CIA ( news - web sites) drama "The Agency." 

O'Mara has joined the cast of the series from Wolfgang Petersen's Radiant Prods., Universal Television and CBS Prods. It will return for a second season in the fall. 

He will play a paramilitary case officer who runs the CIA's incident response team and is the agency's go-to guy for the toughest assignments. 

O'Mara's recruitment follows the exit of Gil Bellows, who played a CIA field officer in the series' freshman season (HR 5/29). 

O'Mara has appeared in several projects for the U.K.'s BBC and ITV in the past six years but was virtually unknown to U.S. audiences before his co-starring role in the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers." 

Sources said his performance in Fox's drama pilot "Eastwick" in the spring piqued the interest of several networks and studios, and as a result, the actor was offered talent deals as well as series gigs, including a regular role on CBS' new drama "Presidio Med." 

The cast of "The Agency," executive produced by Petersen, Gail Katz and Shaun Cassidy, also includes Beau Bridges, Daniel Benzali, Paige Turco, Will Patton and Rocky Carroll. 

The series, which spent its freshman year squaring off with NBC juggernaut "ER" on Thursdays, is set to move to 10 p.m. Saturdays in the fall. 

O'Mara is repped by ICM, ICM London and the law firm of Armstrong Hirsch.