Sherman and Chris Meloni with their daughter at the "Dream Halloween" fundraiser in New York, hosted by the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation. (photo: Jemal Countess/WireImage.com)

Surf's Up

DeMornay plays mom to Milch's new family

'Deadwood' fans have a salty new David Milch drama to look forward to. Shooting will soon begin on 'John from Cincinnati,' a mystery/family drama centered on a legendary surfing clan, the Yosts, who live in a seaside town near the Mexico border and chafe against contemporary American culture and commerce.

The Yost clan includes patriarch Mitch (Bruce Greenwood, 'Capote'), a former surfing star; his unhappy wife Cissy (Rebecca De Mornay, 'The Practice'); their drug-addicted son, Butchie (Brian Van Holt, 'Threshold'), also a former surfing champ; and his son, Shaun (Greyson Fletcher).

The series includes several 'Deadwood' veterans, including Milch's co-writer, "surf noir" author Kem Nunn, who also wrote an episode of the western, and the title character, John, played by Austin Nichols, who blew through camp as Morgan Earp. Nichols' character plays a wealthy savant from Cincinnati who disrupts the family's dysfunctional life when he arrives to take surfing lessons. Luis Guzman ('Luis') rounds out the cast. The series is tentatively scheduled to air next summer. (photo: John Sciulli/WireImage.com)

[Hollywood Reporter]

[Zap2it.com]

Sarah Jessica Parker's Smart Moves

Kids may still be tormenting over which super hero to dress up as for Halloween, but Sarah Jessica Parker is reminding them to collect more than just candy when they go trick or treating next week. As Goodwill Ambassador, she and students at New York's Public School 59 launched the UNICEF campaign, putting coins into a giant version of the classic collection box. "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF demonstrates that kids can do good deeds and still have fun," the actress said. "A positive first experience with philanthropy can lay the groundwork for a lifetime of giving."

After she and her son sort their candy and turn in their boxes, Parker will be heading back to work. She's signed on to star in 'Smart People' opposite Dennis Quaid, along with Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page ('Hard Candy') and Ashton Holmes ('A History of Violence'). Parker is stepping in for Rachel Weisz, to play a doctor who falls for a bitter, widowed professor. (photo: Jemal Countess/WireImage.com)

[UNICEF]

[Variety]

Old-School Legend

For his sophomore effort, R & B singer-songwriter John Legend knew he had to live up both his name, and his first album. And with 'Once Again' out this week, critics say he's done just that.

"I was hungry," the 27-year-old Legend told AP radio in a recent interview. "I was excited, and I knew that no matter what I did on 'Get Lifted,' it wasn't going to get me a free pass on this album. I had to come back and make a great album again."

Jim Farber of the McClatchy Tribune praises the old-school grooves of the new album: " 'Save Room' [the song that accompanies the HBO fall campaign] oozes with vintage lounge soulfulness, suggesting something sung by Tom Jones in 1968."

Legend said he listened to a lot of older music in different style while making the album, citing influences like Jeff Buckley, Marvin Gaye, Sufjan Stevens and the Beatles. "Millions of people hate what's on the radio right now," Legend said. "I also hate what's on the radio right now. So I've put my bet on being different." (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

[McClatchy-Tribune via Baltimore Sun]

[Chicago Defender]

Scarlett Johansson at a tribute to Nick Knight in London. (photo: Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage.com)

Bye Bye Birdie

Kim Cattrall says goodbye to badminton and hello to art

What was your week like? Kim Cattrall writes in London's Observer about her week — heading to Dublin for the opening of the John Boorman film 'The Tiger's Tail,' which she shot over the summer, and performing in Mamet's 'The Cryptogram' at the Donmar Warehouse.

She took on her role in 'Cryptogram,' she explains, because she wanted the challenge of working on something she didn't understand "one word" of. The play is just three characters — Cattrall, Douglas Henshall, and a boy who plays their son. Because of labor laws, that part is played by three young actors (pictured here) who share the role. She writes: "One's 10, another's 12, the third's 13. Not only does the slight age difference alter how the piece develops, but each boy plays it differently. There have been some fantastic added bonuses though, some great firsts for me in terms of the rehearsal process — lots of playing games for the benefit of the boys, a bit of tag, badminton." Now that the play is open and rehearsals are over, she's enjoying her afternoons curled up with a good book, or wandering museums. (photo: Dan Wooller/WireImage.com)

[Observer]

Clay Feat

'The Wire' 's Isiah Whitlock Jr. takes to the stage in a NY melodrama

On hiatus from playing the conniving State Senator Clay Davis on 'The Wire,' Isiah Whitlock Jr. is strutting his stuff onstage in the Labyrinth Theater Co.'s production of Stephen Belber's 'A Small Melodramatic Story.' In the play, which opened at the Public theater in New York Tuesday night, Whitlock plays a cop with a secret who falls for a woman named O, a widow (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) who's reluctant to re-enter life, and love, again. When she finds out that he shot and killed a kid while on duty years ago, she digs deep for answers, leading to tragic results.

Whitlock is charming in the role. One reviewer writes: "Whitlock is the play's most powerful presence. When he dances on a date with O, you can feel yourself rooting for him and all his boyish charm and infectious enthusiasm. And, when O confronts him with the facts of his past, his righteous indignation at her presumptions jarringly illustrates the hurt and confusion the shooting of the youth still causes him." The play runs through November 5th. (photo: )

[AP via the SF Gate.com]

[New Jersey Star-Ledger]

[Labyrinth Theater Co.]

Icon in America

Al Pacino's career honored

"Al Pacino is an icon of American film," proclaimed chairman of the American Film Institute's board of trustees Howard Stringer. After 40 years of outstanding work — including an Academy Award ('Scent of a Woman'), a total of eight Oscar nominations, two Tony awards, and an Emmy ('Angels in America') — AFI is honoring Pacino as the 35th recipient of its lifetime achievement award.

Stringer added, "He has created some of the great characters in the movies — from Michael Corleone to Tony Montana to Roy Cohn. His career inspires audiences and artists alike, with each new performance a master class for a generation of actors to follow."

The 66 year-old Pacino, who has five movies in the pipeline for 2007 (including 'Ocean's Thirteen') said he was "moved and honored." (photo: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com)

[The Olympian]

Rosemarie DeWitt and Ron Livingston at the FOX Fall 2006 Eco-Casino Party in Hollywood. (photo: Mark Sullivan/WireImage.com)

Art Imitates Life

Felicia Pearson on her life before 'The Wire'

As Snoop on 'The Wire' Felicia Pearson has been called "perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series" — and that was by Stephen King, who knows a thing or two about scary. Pearson knows about the hard life firsthand, as she told the New York Times. She was a crack baby, sold drugs as a kid and at 14, spent more than seven years in jail. She was actually given the nickname Snoop by a drug-dealer who watched out for her, but when he was killed, she realized she needed to make some changes. After getting her GED she got out of jail and was working at a car wash when she met Michael K. Williams (Omar on 'The Wire') at a nightclub. Taken with her story, he recommended her to the show, and the producers signed her up.

"I still can't believe it, because I come from the gutter," she said. "I hope and pray that someone reads my story, or hears me talk about my story and will be, like, 'She did it, I will see what my chances are.' " (photo: Bennett Raglin/WireImage.com)

[NY Times]

No Mr. Nice Guy

Timothy Olyphant plays the villain

'Deadwood' 's Timothy Olyphant will be the next villain to cross paths with Bruce Willis' 'Die Hard' hero cop John McClane. The fourth installment of the action series, 'Live Free or Die Hard,' revolves around an attack on the U.S. computer infrastructure that begins to shut down the country. McClane's super smart nemesis has all the digital angles down for his dastardly scheme but never counted on the analog grit of our "Yippy Kai-A" hero.

In other news, Olyphant is currently shooting an untitled drama dealing with the return home of soldiers from the Iraq War and stars with Jennifer Garner in the soon-to-open 'Catch and Release.' (photo: John Sciulli/WireImage.com)

[Hollywood Reporter via Backstage]

Comic Q & A

Robin Williams answers to kids

The reporters from Kidsday cornered Robin Williams when he was in New York recently to ask some revealing questions about his work. To wit: "In the movie 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' was it comfortable to wear women's clothes?" Williams responded that it was not. "It was a big lady's outfit. Wearing a big lady's body was uncomfortable. It was like wearing a big beanbag chair. The makeup took four hours to put on, and it was 18 different pieces. The hardest part about the makeup was they had to paint it."

Asked about the best thing about being an actor, Williams replied: "The work, making movies or performing. It's the chance to work with other people who are really good. People ask me if I like watching my movies, and I say no, but I don't like looking in a mirror all day, either. Making (the movie) is the best part." (photo: Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage.com)

[Kidsday via Washington's The Daily News]

Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman at a press conference for 'Stranger Than Fiction.' (photo: George Pimentel/WireImage.com)

Nicole's Fur Frenzy

Sex scene gets hairy

Not that anyone else really wanted to be there, but the room was cleared when it came time to shoot the sex scene between Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr. in 'Fur.' Downey plays a man suffering from hypertrichosis — his face and body are covered with excess hair. The Picturehouse film, which opens November 10th, is a fictionalized portrait of the life of the legendary photographer Diane Arbus (played by Kidman), who becomes involved with her furry subject. During the love scene, "it was only me, the cinematographer and the two actors," director Steve Shainberg tells Page Six. "And sometimes it was just me, with the camera over my shoulder. It's very tough to shoot love scenes, and you really don't get to do a lot of takes." Shainberg didn't reveal whether the "love scene" was the same one in which Downey's character asks Kidman to shave him down. The 'Secretary' director says he's been inundated with offers to do a sequel to his S&M cult classic starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, but he's not interested. (photo: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage.com)

[NY Post]

Tony for Governor?

Beats Luke Perry for AG

On the eve of the November elections, the NY Daily News turned up some disturbing findings: New Yorkers can pick Tony Soprano out of a lineup but have no idea what their next governor looks like. Stopping 100 people on the city's streets and showing them photos of the candidates, only 47 could put a name to nationally-renowned media star Eliot Spitzer, the state's attorney general for the last eight years and the "odds-on favorite to be the next NY governor," as the News explains. "Is that Luke Perry? It is, isn't it?" asked one clueless potential voter. James Gandolfini had no trouble being identified — albeit as Tony Soprano — by 80 of the 100 New Yorkers. Only one candidate managed to have a higher Q-rating than Tony — Senator Hillary Clinton; 92 out of 100 New Yorkers correctly identified her. (photo: George Pimentel/WireImage.com)

[NY Daily News]

It's a Boy!

Molly Parker was able to loosen Alma Garret's corset on her time off from 'Deadwood' and gave birth to her first child, a boy, on Friday October 20th in Los Angeles. William Strummer Bissonnette weighed 8 lbs. 12 ozs. and Parker's publicist told People: "both mother and son are doing well." (photo: Albert L. Ortega/WireImage.com)

[People]

Andre "3000" Benjamin and Big Oomp celebrate the Cartoon Network's 'Class of 3000' premiere in Atlanta. (photo: Rick Diamond/WireImage.com)

Mommie Dearest

Annette Bening on motherhood

Alan Ball once postulated that Annette Bening liked to play women on the edge (in 'American Beauty,' 'Mrs. Harris,' 'The Grifters' to name a few) because she was so grounded in real life. She's putting that theory to the test once again with her role in 'Running with Scissors,' based on Augusten Burroughs memoir of growing up with (or often without) his manic-depressive mother (played by Bening).

She spoke to Reuters about her own mothering of her four children with Warren Beatty (aged 14, 12, 9, and 6), admitting: "I have my good days and bad days. I'm certainly not a perfect mother, but I am an avid mother, let me put it that way." And now that her children are entering the teen years, the tables start to turn, she added, "You're the one that's doing the learning and they are teaching you. You thought you were supposed to be the one who knew, and that's turned all around. Now they are teaching me everyday about life." (photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com)

[Reuters]

Homeward Bound

Borat gets invited to Kazakhstan

First they denounced him, but now the Kazakh's have issued an official invitation for Borat (a.k.a. Sacha Baron Cohen) to come visit his homeland. Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat Aliyev said, "..we must have a sense of humor and respect other people's freedom of creativity." However they would like to show the intrepid mockumentarian around to set the record straight on a few of his facts. "I'd like to invite Cohen here," Aliyev said. "He can discover a lot of things. Women drive cars, wine is made of grapes and Jews are free to go to synagogues."

The if-you-can't-beat'em-join-em approach may be due to the pending U.S. premiere of 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.' "It's useless to offend an artist and threaten to sue him," Aliyev acknowledged. "It will only further damage the country's reputation and make Borat even more popular." (photo: PPTB Press/WireImage.com)

[CNN.com]

Three's a Crowd

'The Wire' 's Gillen plays to a small room

Let's hope Aidan Gillen's new co-stars, Amber Tamblyn and Arnie Hammer, aren't claustrophobic because they're about to spend some quality time stuck together in a very small room — when principal shooting for 'Blackout' starts today in Barcelona. The new project, directed by Rigoberto Castaneda, centers on the day-long saga of three people trapped in a mirrored hospital elevator during a power outage. Each has a desperate need to get out — especially when Gillen's character turns out to be a murderous psychopath. (photo: Brad Barket/WireImage.com)

[Coming Soon]