Ellen Gray: 'Pains' actor a lot like his character

ROYAL PAINS. 10 tonight, USA.

I'M NOT one of those people who looks for parallels between actors and their characters, but I can say Paulo Costanzo and Evan Lawson, the guy Costanzo plays on USA's surprise summer hit, "Royal Pains," are both into cars.

In Evan's case, it's a shiny new electric Tesla Roadster, a gift his too-good-to-be-true brother Hank (Mark Feuerstein), with whom he operates a "concierge doctor" business in the Hamptons, passed on from a rich and grateful patient.

I can't tell you what Costanzo drives, because in a phone interview this week, he refused to say.

Not that it's the kind of thing I usually ask.

But after we'd talked about tonight's first-season finale, which ends in a cliff-hanger, about his yen to direct - more about that later - and about the positive reactions he's gotten to the show from New York's sidewalk critics, Costanzo brought it up.

"You want a little tidbit about my life? You've put me in a talkative mood," he said. "I got back to L.A., and my car is like a brand-new car. I'm so excited to come home and drive it. It's been sitting in my garage. And I go and press my button and . . . the battery had died."

What kind of car?

"I don't talk about type of car. I'm feeling talkative, but not that talkative, missy," he said, while admitting he's a "car guy."

Jay Leno, another car guy, would tell me, I suggested.

"Jay Leno'd be like, 'I've managed to take three dead prostitutes and turn them into a car. The only one in the world. It rattles at 60, but, man, in the city it's great,' " replied Costanzo, who does a passable impression of the former "Tonight Show" host, whose NBC prime time show launches Sept. 14.

"Would you put that in your article?" he asked. "Oh, please put that."

You know that thing "Pains' " Evan Lawson does, where he persists in some insanity until those around him are worn down? Let's just say the show's writers, who've clearly had some fun growing the character over the course of the summer, may also have spent time with Costanzo.

The former "Joey" co-star, meanwhile, spent a happy spring and summer filming on a Brooklyn, N.Y., soundstage and on location in the Hamptons trying to learn everything he could about filmmaking.

"I know that I'm the quote-unquote, you know, comic relief of the show," he said. "There's more to the character than that, but a lot of what I do is just fun, so I tempered that" with trying to learn something.

"The first camera operator's name is Peter Nolan, and he was also the . . . operator on 'The Wrestler' with Mickey Rourke," Costanzo said. "I developed a relationship with him where I would just ask him questions every day. I made it a goal of mine to learn something every single day, whether it be about pulling focus or about lighting or about, you know, what a first AD [assistant or associate director] does, specifically. You know he shouts stuff on set, but you don't really know what he does."

He also produced "Paulo's Video Blog" - you can find it under "video" at usanetwork.com - "a kind of behind-the-scenes featurette."

"They know that I want to direct eventually, and they just basically gave me a camera and let me do whatever I want," he said.

Why am I not surprised? *

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