Jamie Lynn-Sigler at a benefit for Breast Cancer Research and Initiatives in New York City. (photo: Mychal Watts/WireImage.com)

Boy Friends

'Rome' explores male friendship

Writing about the depiction of "male-la tionships" in the media, Washington Post writer Frank Ahrens spoke to Bruno Heller (center), executive producer and co-creator of 'Rome,' about the special bond shared by the two soldiers Vorenus and Pullo, played by actors Kevin McKidd (left) and Ray Stevenson (right).

Heller told Ahrens that he was pleased that audiences were responding to male duos, since in the past male friendship usually had to occur in groups (with sports, or in movies like 'Diner'). "Romantic love is relatively easy to find in the world. But to find a friend of that sort you can rely on through thick and thin ... is rare. It's a great charge for men in watching that kind of friendship blossom. It's something that a lot of men wish they had but don't have with each other."

Heller would like to see it pushed even further. "I think the true test would be to see an on-screen relationship between a gay man and a straight man....As with a relationship between a man and a woman, it would be nice to see that unresolved sexual tension played out in (a) male relationship ... and have it just be a part of the grit of the relationship." (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

[Washington Post]

Father Knows Best

Bill Paxton works with the next "Director to Watch"

In the wake of directing Bill Paxton, Orlando Bloom and Zoe Saladana in his just-released indie film, 'Haven,' Cayman Islands filmmaker Frank E. Flowers has been selected to receive the "Director to Watch" award at the 2006 Black Movie Awards. Flowers was the unanimous choice of the Board of Film Life Inc and HBO.

His first feature, 'Haven' tells the story of greed and corruption on the islands where he was raised. "This is the story of my people — an amalgamation of things and characters I knew growing up," Flowers tells the New York Press in an interview. "While I was studying screenwriting at USC, John Singleton encouraged me to make films about my culture."

'Big Love' 's Paxton plays a corrupt Miami businessman on the run from the feds, his cash and rebellious teenage daughter in tow. Flowers explains that the film evolved through the actors. "Rather than rehearsals, I had dinners with actors, going one-on-one with them to find truth in their characters...Like with Bill Paxton, I said, 'Bill, nobody knows about being a 45-year-old American father like you do. I'm looking to you to tell me about it.' (photo: Jesse Grant/WireImage.com)

[NY Press]

[Caymanian Compass]

24-Hour Party People

Julianna Margulies joins the 24-hour play benefit

Julianna Margulies will join an all-star cast of actors performing plays that are written, directed/rehearsed and performed within 24-hours on Broadway. The 6th Annual 24-Hour Plays on Broadway will be held Monday, October 23rd at the American Airlines Theatre.

Six plays will be performed, cast from a talent pool that includes David Cross, Liev Schreiber, Erika Christensen, Sam Rockwell, Jennifer Aniston, Elizabeth Berkley and Rosie Perez. The actors meet Sunday night at 10 pm with the directors and playwrights and head home to get some rest while the writers pull an all-nighter, penning 10-minute plays. At 7 am the directors choose their favorites and the actors arrive at 8 am to start rehearsals. The show goes up at 8 pm.

Proceeds from the event benefit the non-profit group Working Playground, that works with youth from inner city schools in New York. (photo: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com)

[BroadwayWorld.com]

Lance Bass and Emmanuelle Chriqui at the "Street Sexy" after party in Hollywood. (photo: Michael Caulfield/WireImage.com)

Scott Free in LA LA Land

Ashley Jensen's change of address

The Scottish-born Ashley Jensen hasn't gone Hollywood, even though the 'Extras' and 'Ugly Betty' actress has moved to the Land of the Locusts. Before her cross-Atlantic journey, Contactmusic.com reports, the gal from Galloway was terrified L.A. would turn her into an anorexic "tanorexic."

And once she got there? "I felt like a bit of a mutant at first. I'm not four foot two with lips the same size as my thigh but, after a few months, I'm into the swing of LA now — not that I've had botox." Although, she's hasn't been sipping champagne from her stilettos on the Tinsel Town party circuit: "I've not had a wild time here. I've not being going out in public really. When I first got here I did things like cat sitting." Then this past weekend, Jensen made the scene with fellow Scots as a guest model for L.A.'s 'Dressed to Kilt' party, and admitted, "It's really lovely to be at an event like this. It's really homey."

She's also got two big pieces of home to help with the transition, according to Scotland's Daily Record, "Now my boyfriend (Terry Beesley) and dog Barney are here, things are better. He survived 16 hours in a crate in a plane, and just two weeks later got neutered — my dog not my boyfriend, that is." (photo: John Shearer/WireImage.com)

[Contact Music]

[Daily Record]

Little Buddha

Piven's Tour of India

He's been fascinated with Indian culture since he first became involved in yoga 15 years ago, and now Jeremy Piven is taking the world on a tour in 'Jeremy Piven's Journey of a Lifetime,' a documentary he's hosting for Discovery Travel and Living — to air tonight at 9pm.

The actor had to downshift a bit from his maniacal Ari mode. "In the beginning, it was a struggle," he tells Malaysia's Star Online. "I had to be a good interviewer, whereby I had to understand the pace of it and ask suitable questions to make it entertaining and informative." But by the end of it, Piven says he learned on the job and realized the experience was "an incredible spiritual exchange." "Learning from that culture results in finding some balance or harmony or peace in your life," he says, noting that he's both Jewish and a practicing Buddhist.

Throughout the two-part documentary, Piven takes viewers to ancient religious temples and the birthplace of yoga, rides rickshaws with author Padma Lakshmi, and takes in sitar music and a Kathakali performance, the oldest form of theatre. "Being able to witness that and to speak to the actors performing was magical," he says. "I felt connected to them, despite speaking different languages. I realized people are truly connected regardless of their culture, skin color or rights of passages." (photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage.com)

[The Star Online]

Preacher Man

Real-life Reverend whips up the congregation on 'The Wire'

"When we choose the men and women who will lead our city, we would do well to keep those standards in mind: men of truth who fear God and hate covetousness." Those were the words spoken from the pulpit of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on 'The Wire' the Sunday before the Democratic primary for Baltimore mayor, as one candidate, Thomas Carcetti, sat as a guest in the church.

The man speaking them was Rev. Frank M. Reid III, one of Baltimore's most widely known real-life clergymen. And as the Baltimore Sun reports, the shoot required an entire day for the pastor and his energetic congregation, but "the feeling was so elevated in the church during the filming that some members of the congregation and the crew 'were still in celebration' after the cameras and lights were shut down."

As Rev. Reid tells the paper: "It was written for television, done for television, but the spirit got in it."

[Baltimore Sun]

Carmen Electra and Drea de Matteo at the Conde Nast Traveler 19th Annual Readers' Choice Awards in New York City. (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

Surprise! It's A Film Festival!

It's the 50th anniversary of the London Film Festival and to celebrate, the festival plans to surprise locals with screenings of films at secret locations. Travelers passing through Heathrow's Terminal 4, patients at a hospital in Lambeth and inmates at Holloway Prison may find themselves watching one of the latest big screen offerings for free.

Up to 10 such sneak peaks will occur simultaneously at 8:30 pm on Sunday October 29th, and the festival planners are hoping the event will make it into the Guinness Book of World Records (how many World's Biggest Surprise Screenings are there, anyway?).

Attending the non-surprise portion of the festival, will be Kate Winslet and director Todd Field introducing 'Little Children' and Ben Affleck with 'Hollywoodland.' Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Will Ferrell are slated to be at the European premiere of 'Stranger than Fiction,' about an accountant who suddenly hears his life being narrated — surprise! (photo: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com)

[This Is Local London]

One for the Books

Richard Lewis gets into Yale

He may not be a Yale grad, but to Richard Lewis, getting his signature phrase "the _____from hell" into the latest edition of the Yale Book of Quotations, is just as good. "I love Yale," Lewis says. "Yale is finally giving me credit! People were stealing it, marketing people were using it ... Letterman was mocking me for saying it so much. Now at least people will know they're using Richard's phrase."

You can catch him using his Yale quotation from hell in his stand-up act not far from the Ivy League campus at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, Conn. on Oct 21, and The Kirby Performing Arts Center in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Oct. 28. Meanwhile, Lewis is scheming to get his 'Curb' boss Larry David back on stage as well. "I've been trying to get him to do standup ever since he stopped. I said, 'Do it. I'm your opening act.' No one really knows that he was such an amazing standup. He was like in the top five of all time for me." (photo: Jordin Althaus/WireImage.com)

[Los Angeles Daily News]

Kyle MacLachlan and Claudia Schiffer at the 2006 Women's World Awards in New York City. (photo: Theo Wargo/WireImage.com)

Paula's Primetime

She may be harder to recognize without the corsets and the cussing, but Paula Malcomson ('Deadwood' 's Trixie) is a fierce presence in primetime this fall. With guest roles on 'Lost' and 'ER,' the diminutive actress is showing her range. On 'ER,' she's been spotted playing the roommate of John Stamos's character, Tony Gates, an Iraq vet and paramedic-turned-intern who is bunking with Malcomson's character (the widow of his dead war buddy) and her daughter. And on 'Lost,' she's one of the mysterious "others" (Colleen) going head-to-head with the captured Jack, Kate and Sawyer. (photo: John Sciulli/WireImage.com)

[Gannett News via Tennessean.com]

[TMZ.com]

Orphan Annies

How did appearing in the Broadway musical 'Annie' change the lives of the girls who sang about "Tomorrow"? That's what one of the former 'Annie' orphans, Julie Stevens, set out to examine in her documentary 'Life After Tomorrow.' The film, co-directed by Stevens (who played the young orphan Pepper) and Gil Cates, Jr., has been on the festival circuit and debuts in New York on October 21st at the Museum of Television and Radio.

Sarah Jessica Parker makes an appearance in the film, as do more than 40 other women who performed the "Hard Knock Life" on Broadway from 1977-1983. Parker and the others talk about what it was like to carry a show at such a young age, how it impacted their childhood, personal and professional lives, and where they are now. (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

[Playbill.com]

Mrs. Ari, Back to School?

Now that she's had even more experience being married to an overgrown child, the woman who shares a bed (and a therapy couch) with Ari Gold will be getting an expanded role in an 'Old School' sequel in the works, according to director Todd Phillips. The 'School for Scoundrels' helmer is finishing up the script for the follow-up film, and while he can't confirm who will be back, he wants more Perrey — who played the newlywed wife of "Frank the Tank party god" Will Ferrell.

"People sometimes tell me, 'You play such a good bitch,' " Reeves told HBO.com earlier this year. "It's so funny that I've fallen into this traditional wife role, challenging the men. In my real life, thank God I don't have to do that." As for playing the shrewy wife to the naked pledge trainer/Playboy mansion party boy husbands: "Hey, sometimes yelling is the only way to go. Children left to their own devices are gonna be out of control." (photo: Mark Sullivan/WireImage.com)

[Jam Canoe]

[IGN]

[HBO.com]

Nicole Kidman arrives at the screening of Picturehouse's 'Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus' at the 1st Annual Rome Film Festival. (photo: WireImage.com)

Common Ground

What do Molly Parker and Sarah Polley have in common? It's not just having a Canadian passport. Both actresses have been working with their husbands on film projects, reports Flare magazine. Parker stars in her husband Matt Bissonnette's upcoming film 'Who Loves the Sun.' Written and directed by Bissonnette, it's the story of a woman whose husband disappears for five years, and returns to find himself part of a love triangle. Parker found the off-screen relationship enhanced the collaboration: "I have read several drafts over the years and I've seen the whole thing come together, so by the time we started shooting, I'd already lived it out."

As for Polley, her feature directorial debut, 'Away from Her,' (which she adapted from an Alice Munro story) unspooled at the Toronto Film Festival last month — edited by her husband David Wharnsby. Flare finds it surprising that the first time the two actresses shared camera time was the photo shoot for the magazine. Parker says: "It's a complete cliché, but I feel like Sarah and I are ships passing in the night. We've never worked together, but we've worked with loads of the same filmmakers." (photo: George Pimentel/WireImage.com)

[Flare]

Chameleon Cattrall

The actress talks about her work and love life

She may have written two books that dealt with sex, and she may be dating a much younger man, but other than that Kim Cattrall is not like Samantha Jones, she insists. In London rehearsing for David Mamet's 'Cryptogram,' now in previews at the Donmar Warehouse, Cattrall talked to the Telegraph about just how different she is from the character she portrayed on 'Sex and the City.'

It may be difficult to reconcile some of the roles that became cult classics on TV and film (in addition to Samantha there's Miss Honeywell in 'Porky's' and the buxom police cadet in 'Police Academy') with her more serious stage work (Molière, Arthur Miller, Chekhov, Strindberg), but as Cattrall points out, "I'm an actress...I've worked as an actress in the same way most other people do their jobs — to pay bills, buy food, exist."

As for her relationship with chef Alan Wyse, 23 years her junior: "I find that young men are more open to experiences. They don't carry baggage. They don't seem to have jealousy issues." (photo: Jemal Countess/WireImage.com)

[Telegraph]

The Muppets Take Fenway?

Creative casting for Red Sox series

In the wake of rumors about an HBO miniseries based on the 2004 Red Sox, the Boston Herald offers up their casting suggestions for the hairy champs. First on their list: 'My Name is Earl''s Jason Lee as Johnny Damon, since he would need "just a minor tweak to the shaggy hair and porn-star mustache" to play the lefty during his pre-Yankee reign...and his wife, Michelle Damon, could be played by Earl's co-star, Jaime Pressley. "With her skin-tight duds, button-busting bustline and large hair, [she's] a white-trashtastic Michelle!"

Herald reporters Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa step outside the box to cast loveable sluggers Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, offering Whoopi Goldberg as Manny ("Do they have the same hairdresser?") and Fozzie the Bear as Big Papi (he's got that "big, happy cuddly thing going on"). (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)