Adam Beach and Anna Paquin at the premier of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" in Los Angeles. (photo: Kevin Terrell/WireImage.com)

Adrian Grenier Ponies Up

Unlike his alter ego Vince, 'Entourage' star Adrian Grenier reads. In fact, he is part of a book club that recently finished 'The End of Poverty,' which inspired his group to throw a "Fund Rager" for Kiva.org.

The organization helps small businesses in developing countries gain economic independence. According to ecorazzi.com, 100 percent of the donations go to loans that, once paid off, are extended to other businesses in need.

Co-star Kevin Connolly and Willie Garson of both 'Sex and the City' fame and the new David Milch series 'John from Cincinnati' were among the guests at Grenier's home. (photo: Maury Phillips/WireImage.com)

[ecorazzi.com]

Open the Books

Friends of ours will be in New York

For Sopranos fans in the New York area, Wednesday, May 23 could be the day to get mobbed-up. Stars of the David Chase series will be on hand to sign copies of 'The Sopranos: The Book' at two Manhattan locations.

At 11 a.m. you can meet members of The Family at the HBO SHOP™, 1100 Avenue of the Americas (between 42nd & 43rd), or take lunch at 12:30 p.m. to stop by Borders at 10 Columbus Circle (Time Warner Center).

The book offers the behind-the-scenes story of the hit mobster series with loads of features and original cast interviews, including James Gandolfini, Edie Falco and Drea de Matteo. (photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage.com)

[HBO.com]

Blood Sucking for Good

Sookie Stackhouse fans bite into a new adventure

As readers of writer Charlaine Harris know, Alan Ball is turning her Southern vampire mysteries into an HBO series called 'True Blood.' And the New York Times bestselling author believes her mind-reading heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, and her vampire pals are in good hands for their television debut.

"I came to the happy position a couple of years ago of having three offers on the table ... and the offer that attracted me most was Alan Ball's, not necessarily financially, but because I've seen his work ... He understood the books and what I was trying to do." And what of the Oscar®-winning Anna Paquin playing the role of Sookie? "She is a great actress. I'm very pleased."

But as the latest installment of the mystery series, 'All Together Dead,' climbs the bookseller's lists, Harris cautions her blood-sucking fan base not to expect her stories to be regurgitated by the man who brought us Six Feet Under. "The television show will be a completely different creation. It will not be an echo of the books after a certain point." (photo: Caroline Greyshock)

[The Arizona Republic]

Sarah Polley with Toni Collette, Maria de Medeiros, Maggie Cheung and jury president Stephen Frears at Cannes Film Festival. (photo: Tony Barson/
WireImage.com)

Hustling for a Role

As much an L.A. icon as the Lakers, Snoop Dogg was bound to catch his close-up as an 'Entourage' guest sooner or later. But, now that he's met Vince's crew, the Doggfather wants to run with a different set on the East Coast: "They called me to be a part of 'Entourage.' I used that as leverage to try and be on 'The Wire.' They ain't call me yet. They just using my name in there," he says, referring to drug boss Marlo Stanfield's hit-woman, Snoop, played by Felicia Pearson. (photo: Malcolm Ali/
WireImage.com)

[MTV.com]

A Walk to Remember

Lily Tomlin's new role as a rich Dallas matriarch on HBO's '12 Miles of Bad Road' hardly marks the actress's first brush with the upper crust. Her recent film 'The Walker,' which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, plants her in the shoes of a Washington power broker's wife. "He's the Cheney type," she says, "someone who has immense power and never really has to answer to anyone." (photo: Marcel Thomas/FilmMagic.com)

[Vancouver Sun]

Is He Having a Laugh?

'Extras' star Ricky Gervais, about to perform live in the United States for the first time, plans on packing staunch standards for his trip across the pond: "I have such a long list of don'ts — just like I approach TV. I don't want to pander. I don't want to end with a song. I don't want to do observations about, 'Do you remember the '70s and what was going on there?' I don't want to deconstruct children's shows. I don't want to resort to catch phrases and funny wigs and comedy songs. All that's left is me talking normally, trying to be as funny as I can, to a roomful of strangers." (photo: Chris Wolf/FilmMagic.com)

[NY Daily News]

Abigail Breslin with the young ladies who auditioned in New York City for 'Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery.' (photo: Hal Horowitz/WireImage.com)

Pre(emptive) Natal News

Sopranos alum Drea de Matteo didn't even get a chance to announce that she and her boyfriend, musician Shooter Jennings, are expecting before employees at a New York City maternity store leaked the news to the gossip pages.

The response Matteo's spokesperson gave Us Weekly made the star's feelings pretty clear: "Please be aware the only reason we're announcing the news is because the very rude and condescending sales people at Veronique Maternity on Madison Avenue decided to leak this to the press, so please beware if you're trying to keep your happy secret under wraps." (photo: Chris Wolf/FilmMagic.com)

[Metro.co.uk]

Growing Pains

Aidan Quinn fell into acting while roofing houses as a teenager and, at first, pegged his new trade as effortless. "All you had to do was pretend you were in the situation that the character was in and let whatever happens happen," he told a McClatchy-Tribune reporter. "Of course, I didn't work for the next two and a half years and saw how difficult it was."

Quinn says he quickly realized he'd have to portray characters vastly unlike himself — and it doesn't get much different than his latest role as 19th-century Senator Henry Dawes in HBO's 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.' Quinn notes, "You'll see the kind of ethno-centralism that's so deeply buried in this character is also buried in the fabric of our nation's government." (photo: Gregory Pace/FilmMagic.com)

[McClatchy-Tribune News Service via PopMatters.com]

Stage Advice

Demetri Martin — who's set to land on 'Flight of the Conchords' for a guest spot with HBO's favorite folk parody duo — offered Spin magazine some hard-won lessons for surviving summer music festivals. Among the gems:

"PLAN FOR THE PORTA-POTTY: Get into the line when you don't have to go because by the time you get to the front, you will. Once you're inside, apply a binder clip or $40 T-shirt over your nose and try to think about other things, like a meadow or a rain forest or clouds made out of cotton candy." (photo: Rebecca Sapp/WireImage.com)

[Spin magazine via Stereogum.com]

Adrian Grenier with his band, The Honey Brothers, at a performance hosted by GQ and the Stoli Hotel. (Photo: Todd Williamson/WireImage.com)

Rest in Peace

You know the body count has stacked up on 'The Sopranos' when the real-life owner of its funeral home gets his SAG card. James J. Cozzarelli Jr. first heard from the show when a scout was combing North Jersey for a mortuary to handle Livia Soprano's arrangements.

Since then the Irvine-Cozzarelli Memorial Home, chosen for its dutifully restored woodwork and other fixtures, has hosted a bevy of mobster memorials, with Cozzarelli playing the funeral director. The line between fiction and fact gets even blurrier when actual bereaved families want the 'Sopranos' treatment. According to Cozzarelli, "They'll say, 'Which room was Mrs. Soprano in?' and I'll say, 'Well, the Georgian reception chapel.' ... 'Would you put my mother in there also?'"

[The Record]

Not Above a Lift

'Big Love' star Chloe Sevigny may be seen as a red carpet queen, but if she starts to show her years, she's not afraid to beat them off with a needle: "Luckily, age hasn't set in yet, but I'll be working with older actresses and think, 'Would I be able to resist a little shot of Restylane?'"

The cosmetic drug, used to fill wrinkles and reshape lips, may be on the table, but Sevigny's not enamored with the more drastic of plastic surgeries. "You see some girls up close and they look like androids," she says. "Their skin is all bleached and pulled. It starts to look puffy and weird." (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

[Monsters and Critics]

Sex and the Beach

Willie Garson Goes West

Come June 10, HBO fans will find that 'Sex and the City' favorite Willie Garson has relocated from Carrie Bradshaw's glamorous little island of Manhattan to David Milch's harsher sand-in-your-shorts portrayal of SoCal's beach community in 'John From Cincinnati.'

"The show takes place in Imperial Beach, a real city on the California/Mexico border," Garson tells the Daily News. "It's gritty and real ... [Milch and his writers] they're not messing around. The characters talk how real people talk, which is how I like to work."

Garson adds: "My character is Jewish, already a rarity in that part of the world, and I'm the president of the Attorneys Surfing Association. It's a real thing. There are surfing attorney chapters all over the country." (photo: Michael Bezjian/WireImage.com)

[Daily News]

Dominic West at the De La Hoya vs. Mayweather bout in Las Vegas. (photo: Bruce Gifford/FilmMagic.com)

Street Clothes

A lot of work goes into creating urban decay. Just ask Alonzo Wilson, lead costume designer of 'The Wire,' who outfits the show's enormous cast, shopping according to each character's mindset. Detective Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn), for example, would pull her Ann Taylor suits straight off the rack. "She wants to go to the stores, she wants to buy the whole thing at one time and be done," Wilson says.

On the other hand, drug boss Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector) never appears in the same outfit twice and has amassed a heap of LRG shirts. "I take into account that he could afford to have as many clothes as he wants," Wilson says. (photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com)

[Baltimore Sun]

Divine Inspiration

Cheryl Hines never met Larry David's environmentalist wife, Laurie, before filling her fictional shoes on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' but other nuggets of real life have dropped onto the show. "I was staying with my family," Hines says. "They made a manger scene of cookies and they're walking around the house saying, 'Nobody eat baby Jesus.' And I called Larry and said, 'OK, if you were here, you'd eat the Jesus cookie and my family would be out of their minds mad at you.' So, yeah, there are definitely moments." (photo: Lawrence Lucier/FilmMagic.com)

[Movies Online]

A Different Man

'Sopranos' son Robert Iler dropped so much weight in 2005 that he got the Second Becky treatment. Not recognizing him after the transformation, an interviewer asked how it felt to replace the previous A.J. Soprano. Iler didn't miss a beat: "I told her it was fine — that the other kid was an ass anyway." (photo: Stephen Lovekin/WireImage.com)

[NYLON]