Elizabeth Stewart, Ben Lee, Kristen Davis, Donovan Leitch and Ione Skye at the opening of the Oscar De La Renta Boutique benefiting EIF Women's Cancer Research Fund. (photo: John Sciulli/WireImage.com)

Singled Out

Connolly plays the field, and the Cineplex

Kevin Connolly is taking time off from serial monogamy to focus on his work, according to a recent interview in Time Out New York. And just in time: with production for 'Entourage' in full swing and his feature film directorial debut bowing at Tribeca next week, he's got a lot on his plate. Being a "relationship guy," he has to make an effort to stay single, he says: "... it happens so quick. You turn around and all of a sudden you're with somebody. I'm trying to just focus on the work end of it, and when that happens, it happens. The other thing is, let's face it, feelings don't ask permission....It's when you're looking for a relationship that you'll never get in one. When you're trying to stay out of it, it seems to happen."

He looks forward to celebrating the premiere of his film with his LA and NY friends. 'Gardener of Eden,' featuring Jerry Ferrara, is about "a kid from New Jersey who is trapped — working a dead-end job, smoking weed. He's basically a bum. He doesn't really fit in anywhere. He accidentally becomes a local hero by accidentally apprehending a wanted local rapist, and he thinks he's found his purpose. He thinks he was put there to save the town." (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

[Time Out NY]

I Love My Punchline

Louis C.K.'s wife sure knows how to take a joke. After years of putting up with audiences cackling at her sexual habits (or lack thereof), now she gets to watch her one-and-only's ambivalence play out onscreen in 'I Think I Love My Wife,' which he co-wrote with Chris Rock. Lucky for her, C.K. is lazy when it comes to extramarital activities: "If I wanted to cheat on my wife I would have to heavily pursue it. That's one thing that makes it easy for me to be faithful. The idea of having some sexy girl from your past suddenly showing up and not leaving you alone — for both me and Chris, that's a fantasy." (photo: Jeff Kravitz/Variety via FilmMagic.com)

[Rocky Mountain News]

Alec Baldwin and Stephen Baldwin at Second Stage Theatre's 20th Annual All-Star Bowling Classic. (photo: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic.com)

Brooklyn Boy

He may be living the good life in LA now, thanks to 'Entourage,' but Jerry Ferrara had to work harder than his alter-ego Turtle to get there. After winning some awards in a showcase and landing an agent, Ferrara saved up to make a move to LA. "I sold Christmas trees," he told the NY Daily News. "I worked at Richard's Pharmacy, which is now Dyker Heights Pharmacy." Once in Hollywood, he landed small roles ('King of Queens, the indie flick 'Cross Bronx,' and "was also the worst waiter in the history of the San Fernando Valley," he reports.

He's got his own entourage of pals who visit, but they remain in Brooklyn. "They remember when I struggled," he says. "I remember telling them one time that I had a pilot. One friend said. 'You have your own pilot?' Now they know what it means. These are life-long friends whom I consider not just friends, but family." They'll no doubt be on hand when two films he's in premiere at Tribeca Film Festival later this month. 'Gardener of Eden' (directed by Kevin Connolly) and 'Where God Left His Shoes,' (starring John Leguizamo). (photo: Todd Williamson/WireImage.com)

[NY Daily News]

Dr. Phil?

Honorary degrees may be no big deal to some, but to Gabriel Byrne (star of HBO's forthcoming series 'In Treatment'), his recent Trinity College honor in philosophy was something special. As the 300th recipient of the university's medal since 1770, he found himself in good company — Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde among others.

"Every second day people are getting awards for something but that really meant something to me." As for what he intends to do with his new status, Byrne says: "I suppose I could throw my weight around in pubs in Dublin and demand to be called a doctor of philosophy but I know the kind of reaction I'd get if I ever tried that." (photo: Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic.com)

[PR-Inside]

Mountain Man

He tamed Samantha on 'Sex and the City,' now Jason Lewis plans to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro. To make the trek he's allocating three weeks, he says: "You can't do it all in one hike; you have to get acclimatized because the air gets thinner as you get higher. I want to see the snows of Kilimanjaro before they're gone."

He can breathe easy knowing he's got three movies in the can, including 'The Life And Death of Bobby Z' (with Laurence Fishburne) and 'Mr Brooks' (starring Demi Moore and Kevin Costner). (photo: John Shearer/WireImage.com)

[Contact Music]

[Life Style Extra]

Behind Every Great Man

Edie Falco, Lorraine Bracco and Jamie-Lynn Sigler sat down with ABC News to talk about the strong women on 'The Sopranos' recently. In keeping with her character, Bracco gave her analysis of how Carmela works: "[Carmela] is married to someone who is doing despicable things. She's living a good life. She's trying to bring up children in a good way, give them an education, instills things that are important. She has her own family, and she deals with it in an unbelievably dysfunctional family that she's going to feed every Sunday, whether she likes it or not. Am I right?"

Falco concurred. "If you think about it, you find ways to get through every day, even though there are little pieces that just don't match up," Falco said. "And you have no choice but to put them in that little place in your brain where you say, 'I'll deal with that another time.'"

As for Melfi's and Meadow's M.O. with Tony, the actresses have theories on that too. "My power with Tony Soprano is very simple," Bracco said. "I was smarter than him."

"We all knew how to manipulate him," Sigler said. "He was a very simple character to us in that sense, that he was very easy to manipulate." (photo: Theo Wargo/WireImage.com)

[ABC News]

A Wing and a Prayer

Bill Maher takes on storks and religion

Bill Maher didn't pull any punchlines when he sat down with the ladies of 'The View.' "I think faith is a distraction," he said. "They're selling an invisible product." Before moving on to another of his favorite subjects — Rudy Giuliani's penchant for cross-dressing at fundraisers — Maher took the opportunity to skewer President Bush's support for teaching Intelligent Design: "It's like saying, 'Well, we're going to teach how babies are really born in the hospital, and then we're going to teach that the stork brings them.'" But, Barbara Walters had the last laugh, resting her head in her hand and asking, "Who's going to answer the mail that is coming to this show?" (photo: Brian Ach/WireImage.com)

[News Busters]

Sarah Paulson and Rachel Griffiths at the 18th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles. (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

Hot Stuff

Kim Cattrall and her boyfriend chef Allan Wyse have been talking up the Turbochef speed oven, which cooks food up to 15 times faster than normal ovens. At a foodie party last week, the NY Post, reports she told the crowd she and Wyse like to cook in the nude, so "Using this oven will leave more time for other things." (photo: Brian Ach/WireImage.com)

[NY Post]

[YumSugar]

Dumb and Dumber

When Ray Abruzzo gets recognized from 'The Sopranos' these days, it's a mixed compliment. He told Newsday the story of a woman who spotted him recently: "She looks at my face and she says, 'You're the idiot! He's the idiot!'" Abruzzo said. "Then, in a full voice, pointing to me, 'He's the idiot!' Now everybody's looking at me, and just sees this woman pointing, 'He's the idiot!' Hopefully, that's a misconception. That people think I'm an idiot."

Abruzzo, who landed the role after making the choice to mispronounce the word "Versailles" and say "Ver-sales," even had some of the show's staff fooled. One day a director spotted him reading a philosophy book and told one of the show's exec producer/writers Terry Winter: "You know the guy that plays Little Carmine is reading this book." Abruzzo reports that Winter replied: "What do you think, he can't read?" (photo: Mark Von Holden/FilmMagic.com)

[Newsday]

Budding Buddhist

Garry Shandling's new DVD, "Not Just the Best of 'The Larry Sanders Show,'" includes a conversation with a Buddhist monk, but it's Shandling who was nearing nirvana at Sony's party for the release. "I can feel the energy in this tree right now," he told the San Bernadino Sun. "Watch the DVD for the quiet, still and awkward moments in the special features. That's the true meaning." Naturally, with yin comes yang — in this case Shandling's more earthly cracks about the red carpet ritual: "I don't know when they're going to stop using that (expletive deleted) color. I wouldn't put it in my house because Joan Rivers would show up." (photo: Jason Merritt/FilmMagic.com)

[San Bernadino Sun]

Milla Jovovich, Ginnifer Goodwin and Carmen Hawk at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

Miss Leon High

Cheryl Hines reminisced with Tallahassee.com about her high school days recently on the eve of hosting the Leon High School reunion this past weekend. While the 'Curb' star admits she didn't excel in academics, she says she lived for school — namely chorus, theater and softball.

She was apparently not so hot a singer ("I was a nun in 'The Sound of Music' but never Julie Andrews") or a softball player ("The coach used to hit fly balls to us in practice and if we missed, we had to run a lap. When she would hit a ball in my direction, I would just drop my glove and start running my lap.") But that didn't prevent her from being voted homecoming queen: "I think I won because of the dork and chorus nerd vote," Hines said. "Those were my people. I was not the prettiest or the most popular girl in school. I think I represented the average person. I think people related to me. That, or they really didn't want any of the other girls to win." (photo: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com)

[Tallahassee.com]

Kinney Breaks Out

From the rough and tumble prison cells of 'Oz' 's Emerald City, Terry Kinney has recidivated into the kinder world of directing. Kinney — a co-founder of Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company — is set to direct the troupe's first film production, 'Diminished Capacity,' based on the comic novel by Sherwood Kiraly.

Mathew Broderick stars in the gentle comedy of a man who suffers from amnesia after a bonk on the head and ends up on a road-trip to a memorabilia show with his Alzheimer's addled uncle (Alan Alda) and high school sweetheart (Virginia Madsen), where they hope to sell off a very rare baseball card. Shooting is scheduled to start in Chicago and New York in May. (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

[Variety]

Analyze This

Constance Zimmer has played one of 'Entourage' 's tough gals (going head to head with Ari as studio exec Dana) and thinks the world could use more women in charge. As she told E Online: "Maybe some decisions would be made with a little bit more thought, because men don't really think that hard....But women think a lot! We analyze everything, to the utmost. To the point where it can be annoying." (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

[E Online]