Dermot Mulroney, Carly Schroeder and Andrew Shue at the premiere of 'Gracie' in Los Angeles. (photo: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com)

Lunges & Dragons

'Six Feet Under' alum Rachel Griffiths has found a job tougher than grappling with death every Sunday: raising children amidst an eternal shooting schedule. To deal with 12 months on the set of 'Brothers & Sisters,' Griffiths sacrificed eight-minute abs for an hour with her kids. "I have no personal trainer because I feel too guilty," she says. "I have an hour with my kids, so it's like, 'Am I going to stay with the kids and play the dragon game in the garden, or am I going to go off with Charlie and work on my abs?' I am afraid the dragons win." (photo: Danielle Abramowicz/WireImage.com)

[Daily Telegraph]

Rough Country

The dust-choked settlement of 'Deadwood' shouldn't feel like such a hostile environment to John Hawkes. Raised in Alexandria, MN, the actor caught a taste of real danger — and not at the nose of a six-shooter. "Growing up there, if you weren't prepared for it, you'd perish," he says. "Blizzards used to be phenomenal back there. Every year, you'd hear stories about a farmer going out to milk his cows and not finding his way back to the house. They'd find him in the yard the next day, frozen." (photo: Jason Merritt/FilmMagic.com)

[LA Weekly]

Making Book

Uncle Junior, Artie Bucco and Bobby Bacala had a sit down this week. Fans of 'The Sopranos' lined up early in the morning to attend a signing of a new behind-the-scenes tome. 'The Sopranos: The Book' tells the history of the show — from creator David Chase's upbringing in New Jersey to original interviews with cast members and on-set photos of the favorite hang-outs. There's even a food glossary for fans who don't know their mortadella from their mozzarella.

[HBO Store]

Jerry Ferrara, Kevin Dillon, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Connolly and Adrian Grenier at the Cannes Film Festival. (photo: George Pimentel/WireImage.com)

Full-Court Press

Carla Gugino has racked up back-to-back projects for the past year and a half, and after benching Vince on 'Entourage,' she's steering a new squad in 'Our Lady of Victory.' At the helm of a failing girls' basketball team, Gugino says her playing time as coach Cathy Rush gives young women a real star athlete to emulate: "They'd been taught to be humble, that girls are the lesser sex. She told them, 'Girls, it's OK to apply yourself, to believe in yourself, to play to win.' I think this story has a lot to say about something I think is very important — the equality of dreams." (photo: Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic.com)

[L.A. Daily News]

Lost and Found

Ian Somerhalder may have been voted off the island when his character Boone was the first regular to be killed off on 'Lost,' but he's found dry land. The actor will be playing the title role in 'Marco Polo' on the Hallmark Channel, airing June 2nd.

Somerhalder, who lost 20 pounds during the arduous 8-week shoot in China says he identified with Marco Polo's wanderlust. "I've had these feelings since I was a kid," he told the Associated Press. "Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to travel to new cities, new hotel rooms. I should have been a damn rock star."

He'll also be starring in HBO's forthcoming series 'Tell Me That You Love Me' which he describes as "...sexually graphic, but not gratuitous." Though he adds, "It's definitely not what you want your girlfriend's parents watching." (photo: Lester Cohen/WireImage.com)

[Associated Press via Ohio.com]

A Lot of Bull

Apparently there's a rumor going around the Internet that Gabriel Byrne (HBO's forthcoming series, 'In Treatment') was once a matador. "Let's just put that down to myth," the actor told the Belfast Telegraph, explaining that he'd once taken some bullfighting lessons from an inexperienced teacher while living in Spain. "He was completely hopeless. There were 10 students — three women and seven men, equally as bad as he was. We never actually came in contact with a real bull. It mostly consisted of him with a pair of fake horns running at us — and we paid a lot of money for this. I was foolish enough to think that you could study bullfighting in 12 weeks with an Englishman who was never in the bullring." (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

[Belfast Telegraph]

Mark Ruffalo, Chloë Sevigny and Jake Gyllenhaal at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival permiere for 'Zodiac.' (photo: Gianfranco Calcagno/FilmMagic.com)

1-800-Jimmy Choo

Some guys send flowers after a night of romance — but James Gandolfini made a pre-emptive strike when he sent Sarah Shahi a bouquet before they'd even met for their "love" scene on 'The Sopranos.' Shahi, who played Christopher's Vegas stripper friend who ends up spending time with Tony and doing peyote, would have preferred stilettos but she was pleased: "[James Gandolfini] did something really nice: On my first day of work, he sent me a big bouquet of flowers with a note on it that said 'Don't be nervous, I suck.' That was really really sweet, but I gave him shit about it the next day, saying, 'Why couldn't you bring me Jimmy Choos or something I could have taken back with me on the airplane to L.A.? I can't take flowers!' But he was great." (photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com)

[Radar]

Concrete Jungle

Surf star bids Aloha to L.A.

Keala Kennelly pressed pause on her surfing career to play Kai on 'John From Cincinnati,' but joining the new David Milch series meant giving up more than big waves — namely, Hawaiian paradise. Still, she's encountered a few pleasures in contiguous country: "I like rooftop pool decks, watching the sunset. I like frou frou cocktails (lichee-infused dragon fruit martini with cucumber mint juice in a chilled martini glass, frosted with a citrus sugar rim and just the slightest squeeze of shnazzberry)."

Also, scenes besides the hipster variety have kept Kennelly on her toes. "David has only written the script up to where we are filming," she says. "So nobody ever knows what is going to happen next." (photo: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com)

[L.A. City Beat]

Private Party

George Carlin entertains himself

Recently when George Carlin was asked if he had many friends in Hollywood, the legendary funnyman responded, 'I've never had show business friendships. I've had acquaintances. That's fun and nice...I don't have a big circle of friends."

Then the comic curmudgeon added "You know what's nice? I love saying to people, 'We don't go to people's houses for nothing and we don't have anybody over here.' I love the tone of that. If you don't need all that diversion, if you have a satisfactory thing going on inside your head that keeps you entertained, satisfied and challenged, you don't need lots of other people."

And how does the acerbic 68 year-old, famous for pushing the intensity envelope, keep from losing it in performance? "I don't give a crap. I'm way out past the orbit of Pluto in my mind. It's all a distant event. It's a drop in time. You know that none of this matters at all." (photo: James Devaney/WireImage.com)

[Free Times]

Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Steve Schirripa at Kids for Kids 2007 – The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Carnival (photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com)

John Frieda, Sarah Jessica Parker and Serge Normant at the opening of Serge Normant at John Frieda in New York. (photo: Shawn Ehlers/WireImage.com)

TV on the Radio

Some celebs leverage fame to cross the rope at Hyde; others promote the Prius lifestyle. 'Sopranos' star Steve Van Zandt prefers to resurrect rock'n'roll with a 24-7 feed on Sirius. "I'd listen to the radio, and I'd say to myself, 'I'm not hearing my favorite songs anymore, and I'm not hearing the songs that I feel are important,'" Van Zandt says. "You have more celebrity capital at certain times, and I basically took mine and said, 'What do you want to do with it?'"

Serving up Iggy and the Stooges alongside Green Day via satellite, the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band plans to school youngsters in rock — quite literally, as it turns out. "Right now, I'm writing a high school rock'n'roll curriculum," he says. "And if that works out, I'm meeting with a bunch of teachers' associations over the next couple of months. I think it's important." (photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage.com)

[Great Falls Tribune]

Cross-Country Flight

The stars of HBO's new series 'Flight of the Conchords' are about to take off for tour stops in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle. The New Zealand folk parody duo will also play sets at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee and their adopted home of New York City.
(photo: Djamilla Rosa Cochran/
WireImage.com)

[MySpace]

Powerful Reception

Thanks to 'The Wire' cast member Wendell Pierce's Broadway production of 'Radio Golf,' renowned playwright August Wilson has received yet another New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play. The story, set in 1997 Pittsburgh, explores themes of political power, neighborhood gentrification and, of course, golf.

This latest honor for the deceased writer, who counts the Tony and Pulitzer among his awards, makes him the Critics' Circle's most celebrated playwright with eight wins. (photo: Leon Bennett/WireImage.com)

[AOL Black Voices]