Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy at the opening night party for David Hare's 'The Vertical Hour,' on Broadway. (photo: Jim Spellman/WireImage.com)

Driving Lessons

Ashley Jensen trades in her walking shoes

It's a long way from the tiny Scottish town of Annan in Dumfriesshire to the Hollywood Hills, where Ashley Jensen is living with her boyfriend Terry and BFF (best four-legged friend) Barney while working on 'Ugly Betty.' She spoke to the Scotsman about her adventures in LA — finally succumbing to the driving culture after a few tight spots while attempting taking the metro ("it was me and these three weirdos") the bus ("every journey seems to take four hours") and walking ("I was mistaken for a hooker").

But she's taking Ricky Gervais' advice and having a laugh at her new world. "But maybe the most wacko think we do is put Barney in doggie day care. He goes to a place called — wait for it — Chateau Marmutt."

She's signed to 'Ugly Betty' for seven years but fellow Scots will be able to hear her voice soon in the 'The Clan' an animated series being billed as "Scotland's answer to The Simpsons," according to The Scotsman. Jensen will play a local radio DJ on the fictional Scottish island of Rhuck, where the inhabitants live in fear of mainland visitors. (photo: Ron Wolfson/WireImage.com)

[Scotsman, Living]

[Scotsman, News]

Surfer Girl

Surfer Keala Kennelly was awarded the Top Female Surfer award at the 2nd annual FreeSurf Magazine Kai Mana Awards last week. But she's stepping aside from competition in the 2007 ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) Women's World Tour, in part to pursue acting, having landed a role as a series regular on David Milch's new surf noir 'John from Cincinnati.'

"I think it's going to amazing for me and amazing for women's surfing to get a more mainstream audience interested in the sport," she told the OC Register. "When I'm not doing HBO and not competing in select events, I'm going to be doing some adventure and vision stuff with Billabong, kind of a Shane Dorian type of thing, just flying around the world and surfing the best waves. That's going to be way more my thing. I think when you put a time limit on me and I have the pressure of being judged, my best surfing doesn't shine through." (photo: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com)

[Honolulu advertiser]

[The OC Register]

Alan Wyse and Kim Cattrall at the Utah Jazz vs. New York Knicks Game, December 18. (photo: James Devaney/WireImage.com)

Little Children

Flight of the Conchords fret about progeny

New Zealand folk parody duo Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, whose recent 'One Night Stand' on HBO has led to a committed relationship, like to sing about "the issues" — like the future of their children...and their children's children's children. But as Bret puts it, when the children are having children, "how small are they gonna get? It's just gonna get into this ridiculous Russian doll situation, isn't it?"

In a video percolating on the Internet, they finally confront the fact that their children are imaginary. Bret's wife is unable to have children, because she's imaginary, too. "The kids take after her in that sense," he notes. But at least she is a much better kind of woman than some of the women Jermaine has conjured. (photo: Djamilla Rosa Cochran/WireImage.com)

[LiveJournal.com]

Faux Rex?

A lot of people want to be Rex Lee's friend. "I do have a MySpace page!" Rex Lee told Ted Casablanca of E-online's The Awful Truth. "For whatever reason, a lot of people on MySpace enjoy my work and my character, and they wanna be my friend, so I approve them." But beware the imposters. "There is somebody with a fake page," Lee says. "It has a picture of my publicist-an Asian woman-that says, 'Rex, at his sister's birthday party'-but she's not my sister!" (photo: Michael Bezjian/WireImage.com)

[E Online]

One from the Heart

In 'We Are Marshall,' the new film that tells the story of Marshall University losing its football team and coaching staff in a plane crash, many of the characters are based on real people. Ian McShane plays steelworker Paul Griffen, a football fan whose son died in the crash. Reviewer Michael Calleri of the Niagra falls Reporter writes "I think [McShane's] performance is the heart of the movie....Griffen understands the need to carry on tradition and bring back football, but he is also wracked by intense sadness."

McShane gets his understanding of what a sport can mean to individuals and a town from British football (soccer) rather than American football. His father Harry played for UK's Manchester United in the 50s — the soccer team that was also devastated by a plane crash. "Sports is tribal," said McShane, "and in the case of Marshall football, which was the lifeblood of the city, the crash created something powerful. The players would be forever iconic. Forever young. Frozen in time." (photo: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com)

[Niagra Falls Reporter]

Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler host the one-year anniversary of Pacha nightclub in New York. (photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com)

Blue on Blonde

Laurie David laid down the law when her husband was casting her doppelganger for 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' she explained at the taping of the PBS news show 'Now.' "I told [Larry] there was no way a blonde could play his wife....[It was] the only real fight Larry and I ever had." So did she lose? After all, Cheryl Hines is no brunette. Nope, apparently Hines had to dye her hair brown for the first season, but it's slowly lightened up over time. (photo: Amy Graves/WireImage.com)

[NY Post]

Turtle Bleeds Orange and Blue...

But not for the Mets

Diehard Knicks fan Jerry Ferrara has stuck by his team over the year. "I came up in the 90s when we had a great team," he told MSG TV, "so I still have a lot of hope." As fate would have it, he was stuck in the nose bleed 300 level seats back when they were red hot. Now that's he's connected, he sits courtside, where he can hear the players and coaches cuss through their losses.

As for the team's blue and orange colors, Ferrara wears them selectively. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he begged the 'Entourage' creators to make the characters from his borough. "I tried to tell them, Brooklyn is cooler than Queens, and I'm not putting on a Mets hat." Alas, he lost the battle for Brooklyn, but has yet to surrender to the blue and orange cap. (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

[MSG Network]

Bean-Town Santa

Christmas came early for Mark Wahlberg this year, in the form of a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his turn in 'The Departed.' Just days after the nomination, the actor-producer was already spreading goodwill this weekend in his hometown of Boston at Fenway Park's State Street Pavilion — where he and four of his siblings handed out gifts to children as part of his youth foundation's party for 265 youngsters. He also gave out $125,000 to various youth programs in the Boston area. The Boston Globe reports he opted for a leather jacket and a Celtics T, rather than the traditional red suit and beard. (photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage.com)

[Boston Globe]

Steve Buscemi and Dakota Fanning at the Los Angeles premiere of 'Charlotte's Web.' (photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage.com)

When in Rome...or Eton

Early Romans weren't the only ones who were open-minded when it came to sexual experimentation. British actor James Purefoy, who plays skirt chaser Marc Antony in the HBO-BBC series and is straight in real life, says he would "never say never" when it comes to having sex with a man. "Anyone who went to an English [private] school in the 1970s will have had some kind of a gay experience," he told Out magazine. "You bang 500 adolescent hormonal boys together at exactly the time when they're exploring their sexuality, and don't be surprised if some shenanigan comes out of it." (photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com)

[New York Post]

Rock n' Roll Savior

He's host of the national radio program 'Underground Garage,' has his own channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, is Tony's consigliere on 'The Sopranos,' and has been wielding the ax for Springstein's E-Street Band (off and on) for decades now. "I'm getting a little bored, you know?" Steven Van Zandt deadpanned to the Associated Press. So to cure his ennui, he's started a new record label, Wicked Cool Records. . "It's a very personal thing. ... It's my own taste, my own personality, and we're not pretending otherwise. We're not doing any marketing surveys," he explains.

According to the AP, he's been on a tear to breathe some life back into old-school rock and roll. Watch for his label's planned compilation albums (also featured on his radio show): 'The Coolest Songs in the World.' (photo: Larry Busacca/WireImage.com)

[The Associated Press via The Press-Enterprise]