Kevin Bacon volunteers at the City Harvest Pre-Thanksgiving Mobile Market in New York. (photo: Joe Kohen/WireImage.com)

Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson and Vince Vaughn attend the 'Fred Claus' European premiere after party at the Dorchester Hotel in London. (photo: Jon Furniss/WireImage.com)

Casino Royale

George Clooney, whose upcoming 'Sand and Sorrow' documents genocide in Darfur, says he's taken on a new — and far less solemn — passion project: Prepping 'Oceans' co-star Matt Damon for his reign as People magazine's Sexiest Man. "There's a lot that goes into it," Clooney says. "He'd come to my house and say, 'Listen, does this move make me sexy?' Brad and I worked with him a lot on his walk and his posture ... I told him this is the next step for him, because after awhile movies get old. How much money and how many accolades do you need? What you really want is this sash and this tiara, and he's got it now and he can retire." (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

[People Magazine via PopSugar]

Swan Song

Landing a hit show on HBO opens doors for any actor, but for comedians, it can be more like an escape hatch. Kristen Schaal, who plays Mel on 'Flight of the Conchords,' recently told The A.V. Club about the kind of work she won't be doing anymore: "When I first started out, one of the first jobs I did was to be in a Denis Leary promo on Comedy Central. Basically, they panned the camera up on this model's body, and you see him getting excited, and then it's my face looking all... [Laughs] It's like night and day. Now I can get auditions for a thing here or there, but not just for the ugly girl's head on top of the model's body." (photo: Todd Williamson/
WireImage.com)

[A.V. Club]

Jennifer Hudson and Clive Davis attend the Vacheron Constantin Watch Launch in New York. (photo: Soul Brother/FilmMagic.com)

Off the Market

Bad news for anyone out there nursing a late-90s crush on Julianna Margulies — Tony Soprano's real estate agent has tied the knot. Margulies and her new husband, lawyer Keith Lieberthal, married in Lenox, Mass., and are expecting their first child in January. Unfortunately, their honeymoon was over before it started: Margulies had to jet back to California to work on her upcoming courtroom drama, 'Canterbury's Law,' for Fox. (photo: Theo Wargo/WireImage.com)

[People Magazine]

The Gospel According to Black

When a guy like Lewis Black writes a book titled 'Me of Little Faith,' it's not hard to divine its contents. But, believe it or not, the famously irate comic found himself commiserating with the man upstairs during an interview with Cleveland's Free Times. "In the course of my lifetime, the level of greed is ridiculous," Black says. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if God said, 'That's it,' and opened up the skies and fireballed people. I would get it." (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

[Free Times]

Steven Schirripa and friends in the Vegas Va-Voom Variety Spectacular at HBO & AEG Live's 'The Comedy Festival' 2007 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

Riding a Wave of Support

Butchie Yost may have resisted hocking his boards for smack on 'John From Cincinnati,' but now they've hit the auction block — albeit for a much worthier cause. Wildcoast, a conservation non-profit that worked with the show to monitor water quality during production, has placed surf boards ridden by Butchie, Kai and Shaun for sale on eBay. JFC has donated to Wildcoast in the past, and executive director Serge Dedina responded predictably to scoring the boards: "We are stoked." (photo: Jesse Grant/WireImage.com)

[WildCoast.net]

Feets Too Big

Jay Johnston got his start on HBO's 'Mr. Show' and has gone on to do 'Morel Orel' and 'The Sarah Silverman Program.' In a lengthy interview with Starpulse, he riffed on his career in improv, why "if there's an asshole around I'm the first one he's talking to," and strange reactions to his moustache. When probed about the time he was once arrested for attempted murder, the loquacious Johnston set the record straight:

"Basically, seven of us went out into the woods built a bonfire, brought some beers, having fun, doop-dee-doo blah blah blah. These cops were driving through the forest on these roads that we couldn't see, which surprised us because we thought we were in the middle of nowhere. ... The woods get lit up, and we all scatter. Then more and more cops come and ambulances too, and we have no idea what's going on. We're running around, I get separated from the guys, and now I have no idea where I am and I'm all alone, so I ended up running roughly 10 miles into town. Turns out a couple, someone broke into their house and shot the guy in the neck and tied the wife up and got like 40 bucks and got away. We had boots on and flannels, like real hillbillies, so most of us fit the description of the suspects. But nobody matched the size of the feet, thank God, so they let us off."

[Starpulse]

A Night to Remember

Richard Lewis may have waited 57 years to find Mrs. Right, but he pulled out all the stops when the stars aligned and he was compelled to pop the question. "I was in these boxer shorts with long, black socks, it was like a Jewish porn movie," he told the Pittsburgh City Paper. "I was facing out of my bedroom window, she was reading, and my proposal was, 'We probably should.' She glanced up momentarily and said, 'Yeah, OK.'" (photo: Steve Granitz Archive 1/WireImage.com)

[Pittsburgh City Paper]

Elle MacPherson and Adrian Grenier attend the after party for the New York premiere of 'I'm Not There' at the Bowery Hotel. (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

Working Girl

How did Amy Ryan — who plays cop Beadie Russell on 'The Wire — react when she snagged a role as a hooker? "I couldn't get the smile off my face," she says. Perhaps we should have mentioned that Clint Eastwood is directing the flick, called 'The Changeling,' which also stars Angelina Jolie. "It was like getting invited to the adult table at Thanksgiving," Ryan says. "It was strange to have a conversation with Clint Eastwood. You wanted your best friend to be standing there to turn to (and say) 'Can you believe this? ... My God, this is cool.'" (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

[Cape Cod Online]

XXX-tra XXX-tra

Jeff Garlin supports the writer's strike

The pen is mightier that the sword — or is it? With film and television writers laying down their writing implements, just what are they going to do with all that free time? Jeff Garlin had an idea. To show his solidarity, Garlin arrived at a 3000-plus rally of picketing scribes in Los Angeles last week, bearing gifts for idle hands: porn videos for everyone! (photo: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com)

[NY Post]