Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Amber Tamblyn at NYLON Magazine and MySpace's international music issue concert in New York. (photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com)

It's Over

James Gandolfini may be one of the only people on the planet who feels closure about the end of the 'Sopranos.' "I was told that it would be a transition," James Gandolfini told the AP. "Not much. It's very calming to move on." The actor is relieved: there are other characters to play. And while he liked Tony, he admits it was getting harder to really love the guy. "I used to," he says. "But it's difficult toward the end. I think the thing with Christopher might have turned the corner." (photo: Jim Spellman/WireImage.com)

[AP via NY Post] [The Associated Press via nypost.com]

Off the Boat

Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement have paid their dues. And in the category of Worst Job, Bret wins. "We both had pretty bad jobs when we were roommates," Clement told EW Online. "Well, [Bret] once had a job where he had to dress up as a boat. Like a tugboat, and give out fliers for rides on the boat. I haven't done anything as embarrassing as that."

Luckily, frustrated by not getting any good acting parts, they decided to start a band. "We were students, and we wanted to learn how to play guitar, so we started writing songs, 'cause we weren't capable of playing other people's songs," McKenzie explains. "Most of our early songs are based on one chord. As the years have gone on, now we're up to seven chords."

[EW Online]

First Lady

Bill Paxton may have turned marriage into a team sport on 'Big Love,' but his real-life wife tops even Barb's time in the league with 20 years. "I don't advertise that," Paxton says. "I find people who advertise themselves as virtuous family people usually get caught splitting up the next day." (photo: Mike Guastella/WireImage.com)

[Gannett News Service via Lansing State Journal]

Jeremy Piven and Kevin Connolly outside MTV's 'TRL' in New York. (photo: Soul Brother/FilmMagic.com)

Good Intentions

Don't expect 'Big Love' actress Ginnifer Goodwin to join Paris in the clink anytime soon. Despite her rising star and Hollywood romance with Chris Klein, she has no desire to grace the cover of Us Weekly: "I want to be an actress. I'm not going after this to be a celebrity. If I never reach movie stardom, it really is irrelevant to me. I just want to keep working on projects (in which) I am in love with the material." (photo: Thomas Concordia/WireImage.com)

[Zap2it via FortWayne.com]

Rain Date

Ricky Gervais will be playing his first open air show on August 26th when he takes his stand-up act to Edinburgh Castle. But it's not the 8000-person crowd that scares him. "There might be owls, there might be storms. That worries me," Gervais told the Sunday Herald.

"I will be angry if it rains — the thing about weather is it makes me angry and it makes me angrier that there is no-one to blame as I'm an atheist. You can't get annoyed at no-one, I need someone to fire." Those who aren't atheists, he urges to pray. "And if you are an atheist, bring an umbrella." (photo: Sylvia Linares/FilmMagic.com)

[Sunday Herald]

Food for Thought

On HBO Films' 'Gracie,' actress-producer Elisabeth Shue displayed great teamwork, working with her husband-director Davis Guggenheim. But when Shue brought Guggeheim home to meet her family, it was every man for himself. "When we came to the door I forgot to introduce him to my father, so I just left him on his own with my father. And then when dinner came, we all passed around a big bowl of spaghetti and when the bowl came to him, there was none left," Shue told Bend Weekly. And no one bothered to get him any. As the only girl with three brothers, Shue learned to fight for her food. "In my family, the boys would eat all the cereal and never care if there was none for me." (photo: Jim Spellman/
WireImage.com)

[Bend Weekly]

Carla Gugino at the 61st Annual Tony® Awards. (photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com)

That Outback Guy

After this weekend, Jemaine Clement hopes to no longer be known as that guy from the Outback commercials. He has two star vehicles bowing this weekend: 'Flight of the Conchords' premieres on HBO on Sunday and the comedy film 'Eagle vs. Shark' opens on Friday. But even so, it was his bad Australian accent that first gave him wide exposure to U.S. audiences. "I can't really do the accent," the New Zealander explains, "even though my father's Australian, he doesn't talk like how people would think an Australian talks. So I'd say, 'Is that accent okay?' and they didn't notice that I was putting on an accent. Even though the accent I do [on the commercial] is how we do it in New Zealand, like a comedy accent, making fun of Australians, rather than an accurate accent." (photo: Fred Hayes/WireImage.com)

[Comingsoon.net]

The Game Is To Be Sold

Vial of crack? $10. BBQ with Bubs? Priceless.

When characters on 'The Wire' talk about "fundraising," it might be a good time to duck and cover. Instead, philanthropists flocked to 'A Night at The Wire' to tour the show's set, meet the cast and get their hands on unique memorabilia.

An auction to benefit the Ella Thompson Fund — honoring the Baltimore woman who spent her life supporting the city's children after losing her own daughter to murder — included everything from a speaking role on the show (which went for $11k) to autographed scripts and set pieces. A few highlights: Dinner with McNulty; signs, buttons and bumper stickers from Carcetti's mayoral campaign; a stickup by Chris and Snoop for a victim of your choice; Omar's duster and prison shank ... Though the live event has ended, an online auction continues at the Ella Fund web site. (photo: Lisa Lake/FilmMagic.com)

[Ella Thompson Fund]

Only the Shadow Knows

There's drama, and then there's drama. Irish newcomer Marty McCann won his role in the upcoming Band of Brothers sequel 'The Pacific,' after a nerve-wracking audition with director Steven Spielberg himself. Or at least he was told it was Spielberg — along with a roomful of HBO execs. "There was this huge sort of window with the sun beating down behind them, they all looked like silhouettes, these shadows of people, which is so intimidating," the 23-year-old actor explained. Still, the shadows must have been impressed. "I got a chance to meet and work with them both [Spielberg and Lord Attenborough] at the age of 23, me from Belfast, from Divis Flats on the Falls Road." (photo: Lisa Lake/FilmMagic.com)

[BBC News]

Felicity Huffman and Cynthia Nixon at the 61st Annual Tony Awards in New York. (photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com)

Happy Ending?

There were at least some members of the audience at the 'Sopranos' finale screening at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino who were satisfied. "I think it's a great ending. It's a good way to go out," said Michael Imperioli. James Gandolfini, sporting an un-Tony-like beard didn't rat out his feelings on the ending. But Lorraine Bracco broke confidentiality: "[Dr. Melfi] ended a strong confident woman and I loved that." Still, some were in mourning. "We're all heartbroken. We could go on forever. Me and Edie Falco wanna die on the set," said Tony Sirico. (photo: Jeff Daly/FilmMagic.com)

[AP via Newsday]

Fractured Logic

Austin Nichols, the title character of 'John From Cincinnati,' took an old showbiz adage a bit too literally before shooting began: "I broke my leg skateboarding while getting ready for the show. I told them I twisted my ankle, which was a massive lie. I was worried that if I was hurt they would try to get someone else."

Nichols managed to fake his way to recovery, earning his chance to work with series creator David Milch. "I have this incredible respect for him and at the same time anger for him," Nichols told The LAist. "I think a good way to describe David would be to call him a 'Gentle Dictator' — he really is both sides of the coin." (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

[LAist]

Eastward Ho

John Hawkes is trading west for east. The 'Deadwood' thespian has signed on to HBO's 'East Bound and Down," a comedy from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

The show is about a former professional pitcher whose limited post-baseball career opportunities land him back in his hometown as a substitute gym teacher. (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

[Zap2it.com via Salt Lake Tribune]

Steve Van Zandt, Michael Imperioli, Arthur Nascalarello, Lorraine Bracco and Tony Sirico at a finale viewing party for 'The Sopranos' at The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Florida. (photo: Jeff Daly/FilmMagic.com)

Ginnifer Goodwin and Chloë Sevigny at the season two premiere of 'Big Love.' (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

Chemistry Set

Whether or not you believe in love at first sight, Adam Beach and Anna Paquin made it real in 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.' Like any perfect couple, each credits the other for the feat. "It was very easy," Beach says, "because she let me in just from looking at her. I was just trying to seduce her too much." Paquin adds: "It really just isn't hard to create that connection when you have someone who is sort of vibrant and connects with what he is doing, and Adam is." (photo: Jim Spellman/WireImage.com)

[MovieWeb.com]

The Real, Real World

He may have been the boyfriend who broke up with Carrie over a Post-it, but the reason that was so devastating was he seems like such a good guy. Now Ron Livingston will be showing a different side in Neil LaBute's new play 'In a Dark, Dark House,' running off-Broadway. The Yale grad had to live through some strange auditions before he got his break. After moving from Chicago to LA, he took a crack at being on 'The Real World': "I remember sitting in the room and listening to them try to explain it, and I had no idea what the f**k they were talking about. You had to be in this room with, like, another 20 people shooting your mouth off about something. I walked out of there, and [actor/director] Shawn Levy, who I also went to school with, was there, and I remember being like, 'Wow, it sure is weird out here.'"

In the play, he'll be taking on another kind of real world: "If this was just a dark house, you'd know what went down," he told The New York Observer. "But this is a dark, dark house, so there's still a little bit of dark left over at the end." (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

[The New York Observer]

Fever Pitch

Vanessa Redgrave and Ethan Hawke hosted a private screening of HBO Films' 'The Fever' last week, in honor of UNICEF, UNHCR and The Alex Fund. Also in attendance were Joan Didion, Tony Kushner, Julianna Margulies and Robert Sean Leonard, among others. 'The Fever' grapples with the question of how to live in a morally consistent way in today's world; the organizations honored all work to ease suffering.

[UNICEF]

[The UN Refugee Agency]