Clint Eastwood's family gets real on new E! series

Although she's a TV veteran (a longtime newscaster who still fills in at a station serving the Salinas-Monterey-Carmel market) despite her status as a celebrity wife), Eastwood had some uneasiness about venturing into the "unknown" world of reality TV and putting her family at risk.

She warned E! and production company Bunim/Murray ("The Real World," ''Keeping Up With the Kardashians") that the Eastwood clan wasn't dysfunctional and "it could be boring. They were willing to try something like that."

She was also firm about protecting her husband's stature. "It's about absolute respect for him ... and his image, and not wanting to touch that," she said, noting that he called the shots on his involvement.

"Clint graciously threw me a bone and decided to appear in a couple of episodes. Other times I'd want him to appear and he'd say, 'Nope, I don't want to,'" she said.

In episode one, the highest drama stems from Dina Eastwood's determination to talk Morgan out of getting her bellybutton pierced. Promo clips signal more fireworks, including what Dina Eastwood calls "the most intense argument of my life with another adult," over a child's bloody nose.

But don't expect her show to go the way of "Jersey Shore," Eastwood said: "There's no sordid activity going on."

Overtone members Leonard, Emile Welman, Shane Smit, Riaan Weyers, Ernie Bates and Valentino Ponsonby were the impetus for the series but, Clint Eastwood's non-presence notwithstanding, viewers will learn a bit about his family.

"People have an idea of how the Eastwoods are," said Leonard. "This will help viewers see they are not a conventional Hollywood family. They are very down to earth and have hearts of gold."

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EDITOR'S NOTE — Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/lynnelber .

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