Nick Carter (AP file photo)

PASADENA, Calif. -- Did you have a troubled childhood? Is your family a dysfunctional mess? Where better to sort it all out than in front of millions of people on television!

That seems to be the trend this press tour. Monday, Danny Bonaduce and Shannen Doherty were at the press tour turning their tabloid troubles into cable TV shows. On Tuesday, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and his younger brother Aaron were on hand to promote House Of Carters, a new Osbornes-like series premiering this fall on E! Entertainment.

The eight-part reality series spies on the pair plus their three female siblings -- Leslie (who was trying to launch a singing career in Toronto), Angel and Bobbie Jean -- as they escape the clutches of their estranged parents and all live together in Nick's California home. Think of it as Party Of Five Damaged Kids.

Nick, 26, insisted Tuesday that he was no father figure, more of a big brother (with unlimited credit).

He called his parents "selfish" and suggested that they were too focused on pushing his brother and him into showbusiness. Nick was 12 when he began singing with the Backstreet Boys; Aaron's career began at age seven.

Their parents' ugly divorce literally ripped the family apart, with one sister living with mom and the others with dad.

So why is getting back together under one roof a good idea for a TV show? "We came from a lot of fighting and stuff like that, so the only way we knew to communicate was to fight and to be, you know, very loud," said Nick.

Apparently that will be hugely entertaining.

Nick figures that, with all that he and his siblings have been through, "the only way we can explain it is through a television show."

Paging Dr. Phil.

LIFE GOES ON: E! ENtertainment president Ted Harbert announced Tuesday that he's ordered a fifth season of The Simple Life, with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, which was a big ratings winner in its move to his cable network. Also, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire executive producer Michael Davies told critics he expects that Meredith Vieira, who ditched The View to take over from Katie Couric on The Today Show this fall, will remain as the host of his syndicated game show.

PARTRIDGE DROPPINGS: Former Partridge Family bad boy Danny Bonaduce had critics in stitches Tuesday night at GSN's outdoor beach party. The digital network went all out, turning the roof of the Ritz Carlton's parking garage into a summer wonderland complete with surfing machines, a Drive-In movie screen, a vintage Airstream trailer and even s'mores.

Earlier in the day, Bonaduce, who hosts GSN's new game show Starface (premiering Aug. 1), signed a deal to open for various rock bands on a tour of Western Canada this fall.

Asked if it was true that he used to party with Charlie Sheen, Bonaduce recalled the time Kiefer Sutherland -- prior to becoming heroic Jack Bauer on 24 -- got up to a little mischief and was sentenced to clean up a portion of L.A.'s 405 freeway as community service.

"Me and Charlie used to drive along his stretch of the 405 and toss garbage at him," said Bonaduce.

He also cleared up one of the urban legends that clung to his early '70s sitcom: That Jeremy Gelbwaks -- the child actor who played pint-sized drummer Christopher in the first season of The Partridge Family -- grew up to become Axl Rose.

Not true, says Bonaduce, who nevertheless has lost all contact with Gelbwaks.

"Who the hell knows whatever became of that guy?"