Friendships not just for show in “Holly’s World”

Watching most reality shows, it's easy to imagine the cast members only interacting when the cameras are rolling. (Would you spend more than 10 minutes with, say, Snooki unless money was changing hands?)

And there are plenty more series that give off the distinct impression that the "friends" they follow were only introduced when filming began. ("Oh, you're the one I'm going to be spilling my guts to? Nice to meet you.")

But the cast of "Holly's World" (10:30 p.m. today, E!)? The only way they could get any closer would be to star in a sequel to "Human Centipede."

Talking with three-fourths of Team Holly -- Holly Madison, best friend Angel Porrino and "Peepshow" co-star and "boy BFF" Josh Strickland (fellow cast member Laura Croft was elsewhere) -- all at once on a speakerphone is a disorienting experience, like being dropped into one of those old-school 900-number party lines while suffering from a head cold.

They're a hyper, giggling bunch who sound as if they've cornered the market on Red Bull and Pixy Stix. They'll finish each other's sentences -- start them, sometimes, too. And you never know when Josh will burst into song.

Ask them what viewers can expect from the new season, and Holly says something about "poachers and encroachers" amid peals of laughter. Throw in a couple of more in-jokes, a phone connection that's a little wonky and the fact that, at first, it's hard to differentiate between Angel's voice and Josh's -- sorry, Josh -- and the whole thing is enough to make you feel so out of touch, so very ancient, you could be the neighbor yelling at those whippersnappers on "Hot in Cleveland" to turn their music down.

But Holly soon rallies the troops, reins everyone back in, and gets down to business.

"The first season was basically getting to know us," the former "Girl Next Door" star says of her made-in-Vegas series. "And this season, I mean, the show got bumped up three months (from its planned airdate), so we just really kind of had to take what life gives us and not really preplan too much, or be, like, 'Oh, hey, we're going to go do this fun thing. Let's film it.' It was more just whatever happened."

The hurried production kicked off in mid-November, with filming, which averages four days a week, expected to last through March.

"They've been in such a rush to get the episodes cut together," Holly says, "they just basically have to film everything that happens, whether we're comfortable or not."

But, thanks to the greater visibility the series has provided, her "Holly's World" co-stars can be counted on to do more of the heavy lifting this time around.

Josh, who has been in the spotlight before having headlined the musical "Tarzan" on Broadway, admits that in the beginning, his and Angel's jobs during filming included fending off Holly's crazed fans. Now, thanks to the exposure from the series, he's recording an album -- with Holly, naturally, singing backup. And he and Angel have developed fans of their own.

"It's been really fun to see how people have started to notice us," he says, "and follow us on Twitter and that type of thing."

Then, there's Angel, who, if she didn't already exist, would have to have been invented by pixie-ish Broadway sensation Kristin Chenoweth.

Angel began her "Holly's World" experience as Holly's assistant and a new mom. She has since gotten new breasts -- a 21st birthday gift from Holly -- and has taken to showing them off onstage while filling in for Holly during her breaks from "Peepshow."

"A lot of doors have opened and opportunities have been given to me, so I'm just kind of walking through it as I go and taking every chance I can to bring myself higher in my career," she says. "You know, this doesn't last forever. Everything has a shelf life. I'm just kind of jumping at it while I can and livin' it up. I'm having a blast, definitely."

Even if that means Angel soon will need her own crazy-fan wrangler. She's still taken aback by a woman who asked to take a picture with her only to grope her when it was being shot. "She grabbed my boob! She was, like, 'Oh, sorry. I had to.' I, like, didn't even know what to do. I kinda respected her for bein' so ballsy. But at the same time, I'm, like, '(Expletive) you!' "

Tonight's premiere finds Holly's world being rocked as she's told by "Peepshow" producers to lose weight, deals with the aftermath of former love Hugh Hefner's engagement and finds herself in the middle of some sort of unexplainable rivalry with ex-Playmate and "The Hills" hanger-on Jayde Nicole.

So, aside from that and these mysterious poachers and encroachers, what can viewers look forward to this season?

"A lot of drama," Holly offers.

Then, the rambunctiousness returns, and they're off again.

Josh: "Confrontations ..."

Holly: "... of all kinds ..."

Josh: "... on all levels."

Christopher Lawrence's Life on the Couch column appears on Sundays. E-mail him at clawrence@ reviewjournal.com.