The Breslin Bunch

The lives of gruff Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin, his politician-wife, Ronnie Eldridge, and the nine children from their earlier first marriages has become the stuff of an hour drama pilot for Warner Bros. Television and CBS. “American Nuclear,” set to shoot March 13, will focus on the conflicts arising when two large households--Queens Irish and Manhattan Jewish--merge.

Don’t expect sitcom, Breslin warned us, because “there is nothing cute” about his real-life family--”they truly despised each other” when they were joined by the marriage eight years ago.

To get background for the husband and wife characters, Mickey and Annie, writer Don Dunaway spent time on and off the job with Breslin and Eldridge, at one time the only woman on Mario Cuomo’s cabinet and now a candidate for a N.Y.C. city council seat.

Casting got under way last week in Gotham, and Breslin suggested guidelines for the Mickey role: “They must get somebody who’s beyond youth . . . a devil who’s built like a fire plug.”