IN FOCUS

BY KATE O’HARE

“The Book Club,” youtu. be/jcL-kFLkFTQ

This wildly imaginative Web original stars Danny Pudi of the NBC comedy “Community” and Parvesh Cheena (“Outsourced) as two of four guy friends who decide to cross the gender boundary and set up a book club. But an afternoon of literary discussion takes a turn when simply reading a book instead becomes living a book (ninjas included). The link above is to the official trailer.

NBC has decided that its comedy “Community” – about a study group composed of adult misfits in an equally off-kilter community college – won’t return to the airwaves until Feb. 7. Each year, the show films special Halloween and Christmas-themed episodes, which now won’t be seen until midwinter or even spring.

But, in the meantime, the denizens of Greendale take a break on the show’s sets at Paramount Studios in Hollywood to share their personal holiday traditions and/ or favorite foods.

Jim Rash (Dean Pelton; also a voice talent in the animated “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated”; Academy Award winner for co-writing the screenplay for the George Clooney movie “The Descendants”): “We used to make gingerbread houses (growing up in North Carolina). It’s a sugar nightmare. I remember doing it with a bunch of kids in the neighborhood, like Easter eggs.”

As to what might happen if he made one for the “Community” cast, Rash says, “We’d eat the crap out of that thing, except for Joel McHale, unless it was his cheat day.”

Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley Bennett; also voice talent in the animated “Pound Puppies”): “Peppermint bark. It’s white chocolate with peppermint. It’s only around from late November to the end of December, and I can only find it at Starbucks. I look forward to that every year. I’m buying it in bulk this year. It’s minty and chocolaty and delicious.”

Danny Pudi (Abed Nadir; also in the Web series “The Book Club”): “We celebrate a traditional Polish