Janet Jackson, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Hudson celebrate Giant Magazine covergirl Jennifer Hudson. (photo: Todd Williamson/WireImage.com)

Border Lines

George Lopez's immigrant shtick

Don't ask Comedian George Lopez to say he's sorry. "I don't have to apologize for being successful," he told the San Diego Union Tribune. "I don't have to apologize for having a house in Hawaii....Would Donald Trump apologize if he bought a yacht? He'd show it off. Us, we'd probably have it dry-docked somewhere, saying 'Don't tell my tia I bought a boat because I owe her $75.' That's the way we are."

And while Lopez may temper his jokes for his network sitcom, he doesn't hold back on his HBO comedy special 'George Lopez: America's Mexican' premiering Saturday. "Nobody is a Puritan anymore," he says. "On HBO, I'm going to say, 'You know what? You want to turn the (expletive) page? We'll rebuild the (expletive) Mayflower and send your (expletive) back. We can do it cheaper, better and faster. No permits." (photo: Steve Grayson/WireImage.com)

[San Diego Union Tribune via Tucson Citizen]

What's New Pussy Cat?

Vincent Pastore to trip the light fantastic

Now that he's fit (after his stint on 'Celebrity Fit Club') Vincent Pastore is kicking things up a notch. The actor best known as Big Pussy on 'The Sopranos' will be joining the "cast" of 'Dancing with the Stars' this season. No word yet on who his tango partner will be, but Heather Mills, Joey Fatone, Ian Ziering, Apollo Anton Ohno, Billy Ray Cyrus and Leeza Gibbons will be some of the other stars he'll be going toe to toe with. (photo: Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage.com)

[E Online]

Action for Adams

Tom Hooper (director of 'Elizabeth I') called "action" yesterday, kicking off filming for HBO's new seven-part miniseries, 'John Adams.' Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney star as John and Abigail Adams. Colonial Williamsburg is serving as the set for Boston — since bean town has too many modern buildings these days. As the Virginia Gazette points out, this is ironic because Adams never made it to Williamsburg.

The series will be filming in various locales through July. Other HBO alums recently cast include Justin Theroux ('Six Feet Under') as John Hancock and Guy Henry ('Rome') as Jonathan Sewall, a loyalist antagonist of Adams in Boston (aka Williamsburg). (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

[Virginia Gazette]

Hill Harper and Kevin Connolly at the 2007 NBA All-Star in Las Vegas Charity Poker Tournament. (photo: Jordan Strauss/WireImage.com)

Doubloon or Nothin'

It was a big week for parade lovers in New Orleans. And James Gandolfini showed his love for spectacle by turning out in quite a costume for his job as King of the Krewe of Bacchus parade (the crown jewel of Mardi Gras marches). Gandolfini donned a black derby, white tights, tunic and black knee-high boots for the big day (check out the links for full regalia photos). The man who makes mobsters quake tossed beads and doubloons to the crowd from his throne atop a double-decker float. As he told the crowd at Children's Hospital on Friday for his pre-parade coronation as Bacchus XXXIX, "Every time I've come to New Orleans I've had a wonderful time...I love this city." (photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage.com)

[MSNBC.com]

[CNN.com]

The Oscars®: Are the Times A-Changing?

Each year — for the past 25 years — on the night before the Oscars®, notable stars including James Earl Jones, Whitney Houston, Samuel L. Jackson and Will Smith would gather at a swanky Beverly Hills hotel to celebrate the neglected work of their community, privately, at the "Black Oscars." This year the event has been canceled.

So the question is — with Sunday's Academy Awards® featuring a record-breaking five nominations for African Americans — are times changing in Hollywood? Louis Gossett Jr., who won best-supporting-actor for 'An Officer and a Gentleman' in 1982, tells Newsweek he's not so sure, "I'm pleased all this is happening, but I hope and pray it's not just a phase."

Hot-shot director Antoine Fuqua (a producer of HBO's 'Bastards of the Party,' above) sees it this way: "The playing field is not even, but I don't know that it's as evil as everyone likes to think it is." Fuqua who directed Oscar®-winner Denzel Washington in 'Training Day' and whose next release is the Mark Wahlberg action thriller 'Shooter,' adds, "People make films about what they experience, about what they know, and the film business was created by people that weren't African-American." (photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic.com)

[Newsweek]

Lauren Ambrose: All But Dissertation

Last month marked the launch of two major projects for Lauren Ambrose. On January 16th, the now 29-year-old actress (as of her birthday yesterday) gave birth to her first child, son Orson Handel (with husband, photographer Sam Handel). Just over a week later, her latest film 'Starting Out in the Evening' premiered to glowing reviews at Sundance. In the film, Ambrose plays a 20-something grad student who takes on a 70-year-old novelist (Frank Langella) as her thesis subject. According to Anthony Kaufman of IndieWire:" ...the film's best scenes, hands down, are the intimate battle of wits between [Langella] and [Ambrose], brimming as they are with sexual tension and intellectual rigor." (photo: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic.com)

[Indiewire]

[YourTV.com]

Adrian Grenier and the Honey Brothers kick off the Delta Lounge at Soho House in LA. (photo: Ben Liebenberg/WireImage.com)

Noblesse Oblige

Mirren bows to royal pressure

Helen Mirren turned down the title of "DBE" (Dame of the British Empire) when it was first offered in 1996; the outspoken actress didn't want a title that was so "establishment." But in 2003, she relented and Prince Charles dubbed her with "Dame" at the Queen's Birthday Honors (the Queen, was not in attendance).

Although she studied tapes of QEII in depth for her Oscar®-nominated turn in 'The Queen,' Mirren has only met her once briefly more than five years ago (when she and actress Chloë Sevigny were presented to Her Royal Highness). "It lasted 20 seconds," Mirren recalls. "But she was absolutely charming. It was lovely. It was quite in a relaxed circumstance at the time and lots of other people around. She's very good at being charming to everyone. I think when you first meet the Queen, you have to bow (your head) at least. The Queen herself says, 'I don't measure the depth of curtsey.' I found myself doing it (curtsey) whether you want to or not out of respect." (photo: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com)

[Hollywood Today]

Have Accent, Will Travel

Aiden Gillen logs miles for a good role

Not many fans of 'The Wire' may be aware that Mayor Tommy Carcetti is actually from Ireland. In fact, actor Aiden Gillen (who was handpicked to play Carcetti by the late Robert Colesbury, one of the show's original creators) is building quite a résumé of American roles. He's starring in David Mamet's 'American Buffalo' in Dublin and filmed an indie thriller 'Blackout' during his time off from 'The Wire.' But he denies any rumblings of a British Invasion of Hollywood. "There's always going to be actors from everywhere heading to the States because there's work there. I'm not part of any national Irish team or anything," he told the Guardian Unlimited. But he hasn't moved his family across the Atlantic yet. "My wife and children haven't moved to America. When I'm working in the States, I come back every couple of weeks to see my kids or they'll come over to see me. I've always gone where the decent role is." (photo: Lawrence Lucier/FilmMagic.com)

[Guardian Unlimited]

Rachael Harris and Cheryl Hines at the Los Angeles premiere of 'Reno 911: Miami.' (photo: John Shearer/WireImage.com)

Warm-Up Bands

Al Gore to rock the world

"We have to get the message of urgency and hope out," former vice president and documentary film star ('An Inconvenient Truth') Al Gore announced at a news conference last week (with Cameron Diaz and Pharrell Williams). The topic is global warming and the word will be spread through a worldwide 24-hour rock concert series called Live Earth, to take place on July 7th.

More than a hundred artists and bands will take stages in Shanghai, Johannesburg, Sydney, London and cities in Japan, Brazil and the United States. And get your wristbands now for the gig in Antarctica. The Foo Fighters, Black Eyed Peas, Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz, John Mayer, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw are just a handful of those who will appear.

Proceeds from the concerts will be used to start a foundation to combat climate change led by The Alliance for Climate Protection (headed by Gore). (photo: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com)

[Chicago Tribune]

Skin Flick

Sophie Okonedo ('Tsunami') has signed on to the film 'Skin,' adapted from the biography of Sandra Laing called 'When She Was White.' According to Variety, the film, set in South Africa during the time of apartheid, tells the story of a black girl born to two white Afrikaner parents. Though "classified" as white at birth, a genetic anomaly that resulted in her dark skin and frizzy hair lead her to be reclassified under the laws of apartheid and expelled from her whites-only school. Her parents fought but lost to keep her in her school and Laing later married a black man and had a falling out with her parents, reconciling with her mother only after the fall of apartheid. (photo: Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage.com)

[Variety]

Seasoned Pro

Julianna Margulies gets a new job

She played a nurse on 'ER,' and a real estate agent (and "love" interest to Christopher and Tony) on 'The Sopranos.' Now Julianna Margulies has signed on to play an "edgy and seasoned" defense lawyer, according to Reuters. She'll be filming the pilot for, 'Canterbury's Law,' a new drama series hopeful for Fox. (photo: Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage.com)

[Reuters via playfuls.com]