When the writers’ strike put her next big screen close-up on hold – in the delayed blockbuster Justice League of America – Aussie starlet Teresa Palmer hopped on a flight back to Hollywood and prepared to play the part of unemployed actor.

But just as she was kicking back in her “trakky daks” at a Starbucks cafe in Beverley Hills three weeks ago, the young actress got a call which changed all that.

“It was my agent saying Adam Sandler wanted to meet me, across town, now,” Palmer told Confidential yesterday.

“I was sitting there with two Aussie girlfriends, with no make-up on, in my trakky daks.”

The stunning blonde had been told her audition for his new Disney flick, Bedtime Stories three days earlier had “gone wrong.”

But after a quick slick of lippie, switching outfits in the loo with her friend (aspiring actress Susie Collins), then making a mad dash to Sandler’s office, Palmer had herself the part.

“It’s a good thing Susie’s got great style because I rocked it in that outfit of hers,” the modest star said from Los Angeles, laughing.

Palmer will play a spoilt Brit who appears to the neice and nephew of Sandler’s character, after he tells them lavish fairytales which come true in a series of CGI-created dream sequences.

“Adam must like Aussies because he cast Sophie Monk in Click too. We didn’t talking much about the film, but the whole time I just pretended not to be star struck,” Palmer said.

The four-month shoot is slated to begin filming in three weeks – a belated gift, falling the day after her 22nd birthday.

Through the infield swarm at the Texas Motor Speedway, there strides a slab of man with gorilla arms and a shaved head shaped like a battering ram. The crowds of NASCAR fans part and go “aaaaah” and then spring back, begging for autographs, mewling for photos with the honorary grand marshal for the race. Fully grown adults are punching numbers into their cellphones. “Honey, you’ll never believe who I’m standing right next to.” Giddy. “It’s Stone Cold Steve Austin!”

Don’t know who Stone Cold Steve Austin is? Then hit yourself over the head with a folding metal chair, because during his long and wild reign, The Texas Rattlesnake (a.k.a. The Bionic Redneck) was King of the Ring, and one of the most popular, most dangerous, most rebellious superstars — as both hero and heel — in the world of professional wrestling.

Behold! Three-time winner of the Royal Rumble. (See him drink beer in the ring while fighting!) Four-time topper of the World Tag Team Championship. (See him deliver double whuppings!) Six-time victor of the World Wrestling Entertainment Championship. Three times at Wrestlemania, which is the Oscars for those who specialize in the spine buster, the pile driver and — watch out!– the cobra clutch.

And now, prepare yourselves, because Hollywood wants to make Stone Cold Steve a movie star. It just may be his toughest bout yet.

Surprised? The people who run WWE Films (a new division of WWE Inc.) have two words for you: The Rock — if Dwayne Johnson can carry a movie, so can his former rival Stone Cold. (They also mention a certain monosyllabic Austrian bodybuilder who became a global box office sensation and California governor, so go figure).

“The Condemned” opened nationwide Friday, and the $20 million movie was written, designed and financed by WWE Films as a vehicle for Austin. The premise: A reality TV producer purchases 10 of the worst murderous rapist terrorist scum convicts on Earth, drops them onto a deserted island, where the damned are ordered to fight to the finish, and the lone winner is promised his (or her) freedom and some wonderful prizes, including a passport and cash. Of course, the island is rigged with cameras and the death match will stream live over the Internet for the low, low pay-per-view price of $49.95. So . . . it’s a think piece.

The R-rated movie is incredibly violent, including the equal opportunity machine-gunning of attractive young women. Austin plays (relative) good guy Jack Conrad, a U.S. Special Forces black-ops type, who has been abandoned by his own government to rot as an innocent man in a dungeon in El Salvador. Jack is a man of few words. “Let’s dance, sweetheart” would be a long speech. Austin’s thespian method is more rooted in Ooogg! Gurgle! Neck snap!

“I think he’s going to be a huge star,” says Scott Wiper, the writer and director of “The Condemned,” who bases his opinion in part on the film’s reception when it screened recently for 5,000 wrestling fans at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. “They went ballistic.”

The WWE has high hopes for Austin, whose acting r?sum? outside the ring includes a turn as a prison guard alongside Adam Sandler in “The Longest Yard” and the recurring character of Detective Jake Cage on the old TV show “Nash Bridges.”

“Where are the new action heroes?” asks Joel Simon, president of WWE Films. “Where’s the new Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis?”

Austin reminds Simon of “the young Steve McQueen, the young Clint Eastwood, the young Lee Marvin and young Charles Bronson,” though not all at once, of course. Austin is actually 42 and his body bears the insults and injuries of 14 years of broncobusters and flying clotheslines. (Austin retired from the fight game in 2003, although he continues to make appearances at events tied to wrestling, which remains highly popular with millions of fans and viewers).

Is the film any good? Nope, according to critics. “A real stinker,” writes the Chicago Tribune. “Off-putting and ridiculous,” says the Hollywood Reporter. “Austin deserves better material than this. So do we,” goes the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Other winners included Adam Sandler as favorite male movie star, Dakota Fanning as favorite female movie star and Ben Stiller as winner of the night’s top honor, the Wannabe Award, for the celebrity kids most want to be like.

“I can’t believe this, oh my goodness,” said Fanning, who giggled her way through her acceptance speech. “I want to thank all of you out there, and at home, who voted for me. “I consider all of you my friends!”

The Kids’ Choice Awards are Hollywood’s messiest, most raucous celebration honoring kid viewers’ personal picks for best movies, music and TV shows. Timberlake, this year’s host, delivered on a pre-show promise to make this year’s version the slimiest ever.

The show’s hallmark is the drenching of a celebrity in green slime, but this year hundreds of celebrities and audience members got the treatment.

The show began with Timberlake descending from the ceiling on a large orange Nickelodeon blimp, and breaking into a Broadway show tune in which he taunted the audience, saying he was too famous to be slimed.

“You’ll never get a drop of slime on old J.T.,” he sang.

By the end of the song, of course, he had been drenched in the green goo. So had actors
Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

Timberlake, the only person to win the show’s celebrity burp-off twice, defended his title this year against all 12,000 people in the audience at Pauley Pavilion, who burped simultaneously in a mass belch that sounded like it was augmented by special-effects. He was roundly defeated.

In a speech mocking awards speeches, Sandler put on his “Happy Gilmore” voice as he thanked the inventor of the potato chip bag and the pillow, and everyone in the audience “for not making fun of me for talking like this every speech I do.”

The show closed with Vince Vaughn and Timberlake being soaked in slime again. When the audience roared its approval, they pulled out firehoses and sprayed hundreds of people in the audience that included such celebrities as Steven Spielberg, Nicole Kidman, Queen Latifah and numerous others.

The award presentations have always been an afterthought on the light-hearted show, which also included musical performances by Gwen Stefani and Maroon 5.

Other award winners were Black Eyed Peas for favorite musical group, American Idol for favorite TV show and Drake Bell for favorite TV actor. Bell also won that award last year.

Kids vote online to select the winners in each category. Approximately 25 million votes were cast last year, according to Nickelodeon.

Rob Schneider is in talks to join frequent collaborator Adam Sandler in the comedy “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.”

The Columbia Pictures project centers on a Mossad agent (Sandler) who fakes his death so he can move to New York and become a hair stylist. Schneider’s character is described as an East Yistannen cab driver.

Shooting will begin in the summer in Los Angeles and New York for a summer 2008 release.

Schneider, whose recent credits include “The Benchwarmers,” is in postproduction on his feature directorial debut, “Big Stan.” Sandler returns to theaters March 23 in “Reign Over Me.”