Can Hollywood turn healthcare.gov into a blockbuster?

OBAMACARE is going Hollywood.

Since the healthcare.gov website is turning users into the Incredible Hulk, the .gov is calling on TV creative folk to make a difference and persuade the uninsured to sign up.

The California Endowment, a private foundation, recently provided a $500,000 grant to ensure that TV writers and producers have information about the Affordable Care Act that can be stitched into plot lines watched by millions.

The aim is to produce compelling prime-time narratives that encourage Americans to enroll, especially the young and healthy, Hispanics and other key demographic groups needed to make the overhaul a success.

"We know from research that when people watch entertainment television, even if they know it's fiction, they tend to believe that the factual stuff is actually factual," said Martin Kaplan, of the University of Southern California's Norman Lear Center, which received the grant.

Whoa, talk about a new kind of product placement.

So . . . imagine this upcoming scene from "Big Bang Theory":

Sheldon: Hey, Leonard, how's your swollen colon feeling?

Leonard: It's not my colon, Sheldon. Thanks to healthcare.gov I was able to get an early diagnosis of appendicitis and have that useless organ removed before it burst all over Penny's couch.

(Laugh.)

Sheldon: And even though Amy and I never actually have sex, thank goodness those Washington liberals have made most genital issues a key component of Obamacare.

California Republican strategist Jonathan Wilcox, who has taught a course on politics and celebrity at USC, said the attempt to engage Hollywood was coming too late to influence views, and he doubted that fictionalized TV would play into families' decisions about health care.

Really? If TV didn't influence behavior, why does the Parents Television Council freak out on TV's constant assault on "family values"? And tell Ellen DeGeneres she had no impact on the legalization of gay marriage.

There is, however, no guarantee that the entertainment industry will be in lockstep with the White House on health care.

Just last week, a "South Park" episode was largely devoted to mocking a malfunctioning website billed as a "simple, integrated portal" for health services. When it's being demonstrated for students, a laptop instead starts playing Lionel Richie's "All Night Long (All Night)."

* Josh Hutcherson and Queen Latifah will help honor four teenagers at the awards show founded by Nick Cannon, which is set to be broadcast live for the first time.

Nickelodeon announced yesterday that the "Hunger Games" actor and the rapper-actress-talk show host will present trophies at the fifth annual TeenNick HALO Awards, which recognize teen volunteers for outstanding community service. "Pretty Little Liars" star Shay Mitchell and pro basketball player Chris Paul will also present awards during the ceremony at the Hollywood Palladium on Nov. 17, which will be broadcast live on Nick at Nite.

* Netflix has acquired the first-run rights to Jehane Noujaim's documentary on the Egyptian protests in Tahrir Square, signaling a new push by the subscription company to program movie premieres.

"The Square" will debut exclusively on Netflix early next year. It is playing in New York and Los Angeles theaters, and was due to open in Philadelphia later this month.

* The cast of "Duck Dynasty" will be among the celebrities appearing at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this month in New York City. They'll join Ariana Grande, Jimmy Fallon and the Roots, Florida Georgia Line, Cirque du Soliel and several other acts on the famous parade floats.

Good thing the show's not "Turkey Dynasty." That would have been awkward.

* Jonah Hill, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kristen Bell are among a batch of celebrities donning Russian-language "Love Conquers Hate" T-shirts to show support for gays in Russia alarmed by a new law banning pro-gay "propaganda."

It's part of an initiative launched yesterday by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. gay-rights group.

Participating celebrities will share photos of themselves wearing the T-shirts on their social-media platforms, encouraging followers to do likewise. The HRC says all net proceeds from shirt sales will go to a fund supporting gay-rights efforts in Russia.

* The German government says it is helping Bavarian prosecutors investigate a huge art find related to pieces seized by the Nazis from Jews and art that the Nazis considered "degenerate."

Focus magazine reported Sunday that about 1,500 works by such masters as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Emil Nolde were found in a Munich apartment in early 2011 but gave no sources for its information.

Sounds like Das Barnes.

- Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Twitter: @DNTattle