Petra Nemcova, Russell Simmons and Carmen Electra celebrate the launch of the Gap's "Individual" portrait collection. (photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com)

Mystery Dad

Grenier's search for the father he never knew

Growing up, Adrian Grenier had a big question to solve: he didn't know who his father was. At 23, he set out to find him, and made a documentary about it along the way. His emotional journey, 'Shot in the Dark,' unspooled over the weekend at the Toronto film festival and Grenier hopes it will help others on similar quests. "I'm sort of a vehicle for a story...I allowed myself to be vulnerable so that people might feel more comfortable or might discover things about their own history and family," he told Reuters. In the doc, Grenier interviews family members who provide differing accounts as to how his mother and father broke up. (They had met at a commune in the seventies, but never married.)

The film captures his awkward first meeting with his dad, as well as some of their time spent getting to know each other — playing guitar, shooting pool, boating. And while the pair haven't "suddenly closed the gap of so many lost years," they do see each other once or twice a year. (photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage.com)

[Reuters]

Fashion Weak

Why Sarah Jessica Parker is skipping the fall shows

It may be fashion week in New York, where Sarah Jessica Parker was once a regular (and Carrie Bradshaw made a most memorable debut), but this year the actress has no time for the runways. "My son starts school this week and I have to take him every day," Parker told Reuters in an interview. Plus, hubby Matthew Broderick broke his collarbone during a recent family vacation in Ireland and he's down to one arm, leaving one less helping hand to get their son dressed and out the door in the morning. "So I have a great excuse not to attend any fashion shows," she says. (photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com)

[Reuters via Washington Post]

Two Stand-Up Guys

Jeff Garlin shoots John Waters

"This Filthy World," the 90-minute performance documentary directed by Jeff Garlin premiered to positive reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film showcases John Waters' standup/nightclub act in which he weaves zany autobiographical tales and observations. As Rotten Tomatoes reports, "Waters indeed runs through his entire filmic career (from 1964's 'Hag in a Black Leather Jacket' on), shares his early influences (vaudeville, B-movie gimmick king William Castle, the Wicked Witch of the West), and touches on the politics of drugs, censorship, and sexuality."

Of his 40 + years making films, Waters told the London Free Press, "It's lasted because I never make movies about things I hate. I learned long ago from the yuppies that you can use humour as terrorism." (photo: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com)

[London Free Press]

[Rotten Tomatoes]

JoJo and Emmanuelle Chriqui take in the Tracy Reese show at Fashion Week in NYC. (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

Street Smarts

'The Wire' 's Youth Movement

Maestro Harrell, one of the young actors featured in the new season of 'The Wire' grew up on the south side of Chicago. But according to the Los Angeles Times, he and his fellow co-stars Jermaine Crawford, Julito McCullum and Tristan Wilds hadn't experienced the hard-scrabble life of their 'tweener characters.

The fifteen-year-old Harrell called his time spent on location in the ghettos of West Baltimore an "eye opener." It took him awhile to realize the people's homes the production team was shooting in weren't sets. "It really made me feel like I have to portray this character well because somebody out there is living this."

[LA Times]

The Bobby Show?

Watch out Leno and Letterman — there may soon be a new couch capo on the block. Big Steve Schirripa (Bobby Bacala on 'The Sopranos') is shopping a late-night chat fest to be shot in New York, according to Michael Starr of the New York Post. A combination of Schirripa's "everyman" bits on NBC's 'Tonight Show' and 'Today' and his 'Casino Cinema Show' (which he co-hosts on Spike TV with Beth Ostrosky), the show would also include interviews with A-list celebrities in a format similar to the 'Best Damned Sports Show.' A regular on the talk-show circuit for years, Schirripa is the best-selling author of the Goomba Guides (to life, love and diet). But it's unlikely he will have time for talk-show hosting any time soon — Tony's brother-in-law is busy at the moment shooting the final season of 'The Sopranos.' (photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage.com)

[NY Post]

Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen at the premiere of 'Bonneville' at the Toronto International Film Festival. (photo: George Pimentel/WireImage.com)

Young Love

Author Toby Young can't curb his enthusiasm for Larry David

Loser lit author Toby Young ('The Sound of No Hands Clapping' and 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People') wants to be Larry David, according to his essay in the Belfast Telegraph. "It's not even that I daydream about meeting him and am convinced that we'd get on like a house on fire. No, I actually want to be Larry David." And it's not just his fame or his millions he's attracted to, it's that he actually already is him. "George Costanza, c'est moi," Young writes. He credits his obsession with 'Seinfeld' for his move from London to New York in hopes of running into David, or even just like-minded people. And now he has moved on to identify with Larry David's life on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' as both Young and David navigate married life and their careers under the rule that "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."

Young may get to meet his doppelganger. His book 'How to Lose Friends' is being made into a film and Robert Weide (exec producer and director of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm') is directing. (photo: Mark Sullivan/WireImage.com)

[Belfast Telegraph]

Scared Scot

Ugly Betty gets an Extra friend

"I quite like scaring myself from time to time, putting myself in an environment I'm not entirely sure of," says Ashley Jensen, the actress who plays the "female Stan Laurel to Ricky Gervais's Hardy" on 'Extras.' The small-town Scot has scared herself plenty in the past year by uprooting to Los Angeles to take a part in the new ABC sitcom 'Ugly Betty.' And unlike the rough and tumble war drama sets of 'Extras,' she's been dropped into the world of a glamorous fashion magazine.

"I never even thought I'd be going to Hollywood, and this show ... it's so colourful and glitzy and fun. I've seen the pilot. I look like I've been superimposed on to it. I'm like, what the hell am I doing there? I'm from this wee town in Scotland!" When the UK Observer suggests the show could make her a big star, Jensen responds, "or it could go tits up." Either way, she'll be back in Laurel mode in no time, returning to Ricky's side in the upcoming season of 'Extras.' (photo: Tomos Brangwyn/WireImage.com)

[Observer]

[ABC.com]

Frodo Rap

Kiwi boys take flight

They've described themselves as "a Weird Al Yankovic - Bowie fusion," and even "John Lennon meets Gary Shandling." Now, like Shandling himself, the Flight of the Conchords are getting their own show. New Zealand folk parody duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie will sing, strum guitars and star in a scripted comedy series on HBO, which will feature their original songs and even a few music videos. Some may know them from their song on the 'Lord of the Rings' soundtrack, which they've since converted into "Will Smith-style rap": "Yo, Frodo, what you doing with the ring, is that your new thing? It's hard when you're a little more than three-foot four, a little less, so close to the floor. Trying to leave the fellows to the gates of Modor."

The duo has some big plans, including a merchandising line ("hologram pants"). They'll be performing this Friday the 15th at New York's newest comedy venue, Comix. (photo: Amy Tierney/WireImage.com)

[HBO.com]

[Reuters]

Patricia Clarkson and Kate Winslet at the premiere of 'All the King's Men' at the Toronto Film Festival. (photo: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com)

Wire Rap

Series launches Baltimore hip hop artists

When season 4 of 'The Wire' debuted Sunday night, Baltimore's rap scene got its biggest showcase to date. During last season's drug legalization experiment, two local hip-hop producers decided to make a mix of local rappers and call it 'Hamsterdam,' after the name given to the drug scheme. It was a hit — and not just in Baltimore.

It also caught the attention of 'Wire' creator David Simon (pictured). "I put it in my car's CD player and drove around with it for three days straight," he told The New York Times. Using the music in the show adds "to the credibility of the moment," Simon explains. "We're not trying to cue people as to what to think. The perfect song that comments on the action, that's never on the jukebox when the moment actually happens."

The rap artists are already receiving major-label interest. "In Baltimore your hood is your whole world," Mullyman, one of the featured rap artists, told the Times. " 'The Wire' inspired me, let me know we had a voice I didn't know we had. It showed me I might be sitting on oil." (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

[NY Times]

[Mully Man on MySpace]

There's Nothing Like a Dame

Dame Helen Mirren won best actress at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears' 'The Queen,' about coming to terms with the death of Princess Diana. She told the crowd: 'It's always terrifying to send your movie out for its first little toddling steps. It's an incredible honour to have this film take its first steps here at the Venice Film Festival.'

Spike Lee's 'When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,' was also honored with the Horizons documentary prize. (photo: Chris Uncle/FilmMagic.com)

[The Observer via The Guardian]

[NY Times]

Stolen Bits

Ricky Muses on his Muses

On the brink of his role in 'For your Consideration' (due out in November), Ricky Gervais talks to EW.com about his idols and the various ingredients in his comedic stew, which include Christopher Guest ('Spinal Tap' had a direct influence on 'The Office'), 'The Simpsons' producer James L. Brooks, Garry Shandling and 'The Larry Sanders Show,' 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' and most of all, Laurel and Hardy ("everything has to be about warmth and character and relationships").

"You put those in a pot and it comes out new. It comes out original because you've stolen different bits from everyone else and put them with other stolen bits." (photo: Jon Furniss/WireImage.com)

[EW.com]

Cillian Murphy with Kelly Macdonald at the GQ Men of the Year awards. (photo: Richard Lewis/WireImage.com)

Borat Interruptus

Borat arrived in style for the Toronto screening of his mockumentary, 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.' Riding in a wooden cart, pulled by six dour women in peasant garb, plus one horse, the Kazakh reporter greeted his fans waving his native flag in one hand, the Canadian maple leaf in the other.

Alas, after only about 15 minutes into the screening, the projector broke and Borat, the film's director Larry Charles ('Curb Your Enthusiasm,' 'Seinfeld') and Michael Moore distracted the crowd with an impromptu Q & A. USA Today reports that Borat thanked his hosts, saying it was "a very great honor to make a visiting to the minor nation of Canada our countries is a very, very similar and not only so in the projection system." But after 45 minutes, the decision was made to reschedule the screening for Friday night. (photo: John Shearer/WireImage.com)

[USA Today]

Sweet Sensations

Edie Falco makes a cameo as a grande dame of fancy cake design (playing Maggie Gyllenhal's chief rival) in 'The Great New Wonderful' out tomorrow on DVD. The film, by Danny Leiner (who is, surprisingly, also the director of 'Dude, Where's My Car?' and 'Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle'), follows several New Yorkers in their post-9/11 lives. The ensemble cast also includes Tony Shaloub, Olympia Dukakis, Tom McCarthy, Judy Greer, Naseeruddin Shah and Sharat Saxena. As Ty Burr of the Boston Globe writes, "The movie is a quieter, less melodramatic piece of work than last year's 'Crash,' and arguably a better one." (photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com)

[Boston Globe via Rocky Mountain News]

[Pop Matters]