Jann Arden is releasing a greatest hits collection on Tuesday. But since the Calgary singer-songwriter adamantly refuses to take anything in life too terribly seriously, she has named it Greatest Hurts -- The Best Of Jann Arden.

"It certainly was tongue-in-cheek initially," said Arden, 39, during a recent promo stop in Toronto. "I thought, 'Oh that's kind of funny and, for once, maybe I can show that yeah, I do have a little bit of a sense of humour."

She is, of course, speaking in jest, because she is known as much for her self-deprecating sense of humour and gift of mimicry as sad-sack songs.

"For once? What the hell? The kid doesn't know how to laugh!," Arden adds in a strange voice, which I think is her approximation of a pushy record-company executive.

Greatest Hurts, which she describes as a collection of her favourite songs as opposed to greatest hits, does include two new songs, Never Mind and Thing For You, and a couple of bonus tracks -- a remix of Sleepless and a live version of Insensitive.

Arden also said the new collection is a nice stop-gap measure in Canada while she juggles several other projects.

For starters, Arden still has about eight more months of promoting her last studio album, 2000's Blood Red Cherry, in the United States where it was just released.

"I'm going to do some symphony dates next year, maybe six or seven in March, and I think that's going to be the end of me for a couple of years," said Arden of her Canadian plans. "I need to write, and you need to live some kind of life in order to have some kind of art to represent."

Most significantly though, is a serious attempt at moving into television.

Her multi-hyphenate, half-hour pilot -- a combination sitcom-variety-talkshow -- is called The Arden Diner and was shot in August in the Calgary restaurant she co-owns with her younger brother Pat.

Arden said it will air on the CTV's main network and The Comedy Network next month.

"I feel hopeful about doing another 13 (episodes) next year," said Arden, who sat down with former prime minister Joe Clark for the pilot episode. "And at the same time I'm, like, 'God, you know if I didn't get it, it wouldn't be the end of the world either 'cause it's so much bloody work.' But it's really funny. You've never seen Joe Clark like this. My mom and dad are involved. My brother is involved. The staff in my diner are involved. There's a cow involved."

Helping Arden develop the show was Ottawa-based producer Merilyn Read, who nurtured Tom Green's TV career in Canada before he hit it big down south.

"It's not a talk show," said Arden. "It's not a sketch comedy show. It's like everything TV should be, which is no theme, no purpose. It's something that you could watch for five minutes and still have a few laughs. You don't have to be there from the beginning and you don't have to stay 'til the end. It's stupid entertainment and I think the world could use a little of it."

Arden also shot a small part in a low budget Canadian feature film, White Lies, earlier this year, playing, "this crazy realtor that rents out this cabin to these supermodels (Baywatch's Erika Eleniak and former model Monica Schnarre.)"

"I figured I wouldn't be hurting the production. I mean it wasn't f---ing Sophie's Choice, it was Snowbound, right? I didn't have to learn to speak Polish, right?"

Arden also auditioned in the past for the U.S. TV series The King Of Queens, the Adam Sandler stinker Little Nicky, and the upcoming Tom Cruise-Penelope Cruz movie, Vanilla Sky.

"I was, like, this bartender girl that says these two lines to Tom Cruise, but I never got that part, either," she said. "It's funny 'cause the character's description was, 'She's a pretty girl who knows she looks good in white.' And I said to my agent at the time in Los Angeles: 'You actually want me to go read for this? I said, 'What are you on? I've never worn white in my life!' "

JANN JAMS: Arden is currently on a mini-tour of Ontario that has her at the Living Arts Centre in Mississaugua tonight, the Centre For The Arts in Oakville (tomorrow and Sunday), the Brock Centre For The Arts in St. Catharines Monday, and the Sanderson Centre in Brantford Tuesday.