Kimora Lee Simmons and Queen Latifah arrive at Vibe Magazine's pre-Oscar® party. (photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage.com)

Imperioli Gets Cocky

What was Michael Imperioli doing in New Mexico watching cockfights? New hobby? No. It was research for 'Chicken,' the new play he's currently co-starring in and co-producing at his Off-Broadway theater company Studio Dante in New York. "Mike Batistick, the writer, Nick Sandow, the director, and I thought it was important to go see this, since it's a major theme of the play," says Imperioli. "New Mexico is one of only two states where cockfighting is legal. It was very interesting, but not what I expected. It's not a big spectator thing; it's more like a private club, and the people were very friendly. But yeah, it's violent..."

As it turns out, the 'Sopranos' star isn't so comfortable with blood and gore. "I'm very squeamish about violence," says the actor. "When you're doing it for TV, it's all about smoke and mirrors." Though the final season will be back in April, Imperioli doesn't know how things will end: "...though even if I did, I'm sworn to secrecy." (photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage.com)

[Theatermania.com]

[Studio Dante]

About Last Night

Kim Cattrall's fans are still so taken with her portrayal of the man-hungry Samantha Jones, that they sometimes confuse her for a one-night stand. "I'm still approached by people who think they've already slept with me!" she told The Sun. "Because the series was about sexuality, they feel they can picture it in their minds." But the actress isn't complaining. "It's wonderful to find an alter ego. I love Samantha, I'll never let her go." (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

[The Sun]

Hips Don't Lie

Pastore's re-traction

Dancing just looks easy. After a week of the old one-two, kick, ball-change, Vincent Pastore has had second thoughts about 'Dancing with the Stars.' "When I initially committed to joining 'Dancing with the Stars' I didn't realize just how physically demanding it would be for me," Pastore said, according to People. "Unable to put forth my best effort, I felt it appropriate to step aside and give someone else the opportunity." (photo: Lawrence Lucier/FilmMagic.com)

[People]

Gavin Rossdale and Emmy Rossum at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party. (photo: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com)

It's a rough job but...

Zuleikha Robinson is becoming the ingenue tough enough to tame the most ferocious men. She outran sand storms on horseback with Viggo Mortenson in 'Hidalgo' and goes head to head with Ray Stevenson (Pullo) in 'Rome.' Next up, she's shooting 'New Amsterdam,' a pilot for Fox about a man cursed with immortality who works as a homicide detective in New York (played by Danish hottie Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

[The Futon Critic]

[Zuleikha Robinson online]

As Good As It Gets

Richard Lewis weighs in on his happiness scale

"You have to understand that, in the range of happiness, his gauge doesn't go up to 100," comedian David Brenner told the NY Observer, speaking about his friend Richard Lewis. "But right now, he's at a 40 or a 45 — which is at least 20 points higher than it used to be. Right now, he's much happier than I've ever seen him." Lewis attributes that to his 13 years of sobriety, and his marriage to Joyce Lapinsky. After dating for 7 years, he took her to meet, not his parents, but his longterm therapist. After Lewis made some minor complaints about their communication the shrink couldn't contain himself. "In a voice that was almost satanic — it was so dark and loud that it seemed to echo through the neighborhood — my therapist screamed at me, 'This is as good as it gets!'" Mr. Lewis said. "It shook me to my core."

"Playing Richard Lewis on 'Curb' is the greatest acting role of my career — but, ironically, it makes it even more difficult for me to be considered for other parts," he added, practicing gratitude. "I'm very grateful for my stand-up career...I mean, I was broke for the first 11 or 12 years of my career; I lived in hovels. I guess that's why I relate to Kafka." (photo: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com)

[NY Observer]

Front Men

David Simon and Ed Burns (left) of 'The Wire' have signed on to write and exec produce a new miniseries for HBO called 'Generation Kill,' about the true story of the Marine's 1st Reconnaissance Battalion in Iraq. Also exec producing from 'The Wire' will be Nina Noble. Variety reports that just as 'The Wire' focuses on police and civil servants navigating Baltimore's city bureaucracy in the fight against gang warfare, this series will deal with how the elite Marine Corps interacts with the military during intense warfare.

Shooting this summer in Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa, the series will be adapted from the book of the same name written by Evan Wright based on his writings for Rolling Stone as an embedded reporter in early 2003. Simon praises the source material as "narrative journalism of the first rank." (photo: Mathew Imaging/FilmMagic.com)

[Variety]

Ginnifer Goodwin and Chris Klein at the 2007 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. (photo: Jason Merritt/FilmMagic.com)

Nixon Lights the Way

Cynthia Nixon will be helping Light the Night® — acting as a spokesperson for the annual fundraiser of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The event happens each fall across the U.S. in Canada when people touched by leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's and myeloma carry lighted balloons on an evening walk — red for supporters and white for survivors. Nixon, who appeared in 'The Heidi Chronicles'(written by Wendy Wasserstein who died of lymphoma), and became friends with leukemia-survivor Evan Handler while working on 'Sex and the City,' feels strongly about the cause. "The Society's mission is very close to my heart and I am honored to be the national spokesperson for Light The Night," Nixon said. "While tremendous leaps have been made discovering new and improved treatments, until a cure is found, there is still much work to be done." (photo: Jason Kempin/FilmMagic.com)

[PR Newswire]

Lightning Strikes Again?

Darren Star, the creator of 'Sex and the City,' is guiding a new pilot for takeoff. 'Cashmere Mafia' is the name of his new series for ABC, and it follows the lives of four best female friends with high-powered jobs in New York as they struggle to juggle their personal and professional lives. This time the cast of babes is being culled from down under, with Frances O'Connor (from HBO Films' 'Iron Jawed Angels,' as well as 'AI') and Miranda Otto ('The Lord of the Rings') set to star so far. The show is not to be confused with 'Lipstick Jungle,' the pilot slated for NBC, which is based on 'Sex and the City' author Candace Bushnell's later novel. (photo: Albert L. Ortega/WireImage.com)

[The Daily Telegraph]

Sister Act

Edie Falco is joining a cast of theater heavy-hitters for a benefit reading of Wendy Wasserstein's 'The Sisters Rosensweig' on Monday March 5th. Also gracing the stage for the Lincoln Center benefit will be Christine Baranski, Stockard Channing, Ari Graynor and Robert Klein, among others. For $75 you can see the performance; for $1500 you can join the cast for dinner and know that your dollars are going to Lincoln Center's quality productions and education programs. (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

[BroadwayWorld.com]

Sean Penn, Isla Fisher and Sasha Baron Cohen at the 2007 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter. (photo: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com)

Winner's Circle

Picturehouse's 'Pan's Labyrinth' took home three Oscars® on Sunday — for Cinematography, Art Direction and Makeup. And HBO's 'The Blood of Yingzhou District' won Best Documentary Short Subject. The heart-wrenching film follows children orphaned by a little-known AIDS epidemic in China, due to unsafe blood bank practices. (Presenter Eva Green is pictured here with the doc's producer Thomas Lennon and director Ruby Yang.) Also taking home gold for her portrayal of Elizabeth II in 'The Queen' (not to be confused with her award-winning turn as 'Elizabeth I' on HBO) was a modest Helen Mirren: "To win, win, it's such a silly word, you know. We're not athletes. The best thing was just to be here." (photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage.com)

[YouTube trailer for 'The Blood of Yingzhou District']

[IMDB.com]

[Variety]

Tele Pathic

Anna Paquin comes to TV

For her first television role, Anna Paquin will be playing a mind-reading waitress in Alan Ball's new series for HBO, 'True Blood.' The show, adapted from the 'Southern Vampire' series written by Charlaine Harris, tells the story of a group of vampires who settle in a small town in Louisiana. It's a tricky love story when one of the suckers falls for Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin). (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

[EW.com]

Deep End

Chris Noth and Chris Meloni ditched the comfort of the ubiquitous couch, jammies and a box of Chardonnay to watch the Oscars® at Elaine's. According to the New York Post, the two heated up the betting at the 'Law and Order' table at the 13th annual Entertainment Weekly Oscar® viewing party — drawing Darren Aronofsky, Tatum O'Neil and Erica Christiansen into some handicapping of nominees. No word on who took home the mad money. (photo: Stephen Lovekin/WireImage.com)

[NY Post]

Sheryl Crow and Kyle MacLachlan celebrate Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue. (photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage.com)

Dreamgirl

Chloë Sevigny on why she wants to act

Ever since Chloë Sevigny saw 'Annie' on Broadway when she was 5, she's known she wanted to act. "I saw these little girls up there acting in this other place in this other world when I was a kid and my favorite show was 'Little House on the Prairie' and I wanted to live that," she told Moviehole.

But the actor's life isn't always easy. Even though she has worked regularly since her debut in 'Kids' at nineteen, the indie film biz hasn't provided with her the paychecks to, say, buy a home. But now with 'Big Love' she's enjoying the benefits of a regular gig and a meaty role. "I ... met with the producers and the creators and they told me a little bit about where they wanted ['Big Love'] to go and a bit about this character and where she comes from and I was just fascinated," says Sevigny.

She's been working during hiatus on various film roles, including David Fincher's 'Zodiac,' out March 2, in which she plays the wife of Robert Graysmith, the editorial cartoonist who was the recipient of many of the serial killer's cryptic messages. It's a far cry from Laura Ingalls, but as Sevigny says, "I thought the character was interesting in that she's not this kind of girly girl but she's very practical, smart and kind of tough with her husband and I like that about her in that aspect of their relationship. Also she was very respectful of him and kind of let him run his course with this whole Zodiac mess that he had gotten himself into." (photo: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com)

[Moviehole]

The Real Life

'The Wire' 's Hasan Johnson and Felicia Pearson went back to school last week to talk to some middle schoolers about the importance of an education and hard work. It was part of a program called "Education is 'The Game'," which is meant to teach kids the difference between real life and the lives they see on TV. Kids today worship nice cars, houses and big screen TVs, but they need to know that finding ways to make a quick dollar aren't the best ways to get those things, says Douglas Smarr, creator of the program. He felt the best way to get the message across that crime doesn't pay, was to enlist actors who depict these lifestyles on TV. "These kids aren't going to listen to me," Smarr explained to the Courier News. "But if they see people they look up to telling them that they need to work hard and stay in school to get where they want to go in life, then maybe we'll reach some of them."

Explaining the difference between what they see on TV and real life, Johnson (who plays Wee-Bey on 'The Wire') said: "My character may be serving 25 years to life and isn't really in his child's life, but in real life, I'm the father of a 10-year-old daughter, and I'm in her life in some way every day. My character is not the person I really am." (photo: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com)

[Courier News]