Rachel Weisz, Abigail Breslin, Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks and Adam Brooks attend the 'Definitely, Maybe' premiere in New York. (photo: Soul Brother/FilmMagic.com)

A Doctor in the House?

On the exacting 'Sex and the City' scale of male evaluation, a good doctor ranks as an entry-level boyfriend. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, the standards favor survival over status. Kristin Davis, who played Charlotte in the series, recently visited the area as a humanitarian ambassador and spoke out when she visited a community that had no nearby health clinic. "These people are inspirational but they can't win the battle on their own," she said. "These communities need nurses and doctors. These wonderful people are holding up their communities and need our support." (photo: Michelly Rall/WireImage.com)

[POZ.com]

Secret Passages

Christo and Jean-Claude's massive art installations involve years of intricate preparation, but still, you can't just show up at Central Park with 7,503 giant orange gates and hope the plan works. To test their materials and design against real-world conditions, the artists erect mini-versions in clandestine locales — in the case of the Gates, they fabricated an 18-piece test run in Seattle. "It stayed there for seven months," Jeanne-Claude says. "Nobody said anything." (photo: Eugene Gologursky/WireImage.com)

[The Gazette via Canada.com]

Sir Ben Kingsley and his wife Daniela Lavender attend the 'Elegy' premiere as part of the 58th Berlinale Film Festival in Germany. (photo: Anita Bugge/WireImage.com)

Jersey Boy

James Gandolfini's fellow Jersey-ites are pleased to see him back at work on native soil. Gandolfini has been shooting his first film role since finishing 'The Sopranos,' an indie film called 'Kiddie Ride' co-starring Famke Jansen. The movie's screenwriter Sandra Jennings observed that on-set, the actor is "earthy," not a word usually associated with Tony Soprano. "After sitting on the freezing beach and getting pelted with sand and the wind, James certainly just wanted to get back inside to warm up. But when he saw parents with their kids and firemen waiting at the fence to talk to him and shake his hand, he went right over to them, rather than warming up," Jennings said. (photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage.com)

[Courier Post Online]

Rock the Vote

Chris Rock took a break from the tour of his current stand-up act to offer up some ideas for voting reform: "Why is it easier to vote for 'Dancing With the Stars' as opposed to the president of the United States? When I last checked, teachers and civil servants are off [on Election Day]. Everyone else works. It's hard. Make the voting go the whole weekend. Make it like a movie and we'll check the numbers on Monday." (photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com)

[The Cleveland Free Times]

Megan Sikora, Michael Park, Mario Cantone, Kate Burton and Chip Zien at the opening night celebration for City Center Encore's production of 'Applause' in New York City. (photo: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic.com)

For Your Consideration

If the cheers from the 'Gone Baby Gone' section are particularly loud for Amy Ryan when her name is read as a nominee for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars® this month, it may be because many of them are also HBO alums. The film was scripted by Dennis Lehane, a writer on 'The Wire,' and her co-stars include Amy Madigan ('Carnivale'), Ed Harris ('Empire Falls'), Titus Welliver ('Deadwood'), Michael Kenneth Williams ('The Wire') and Matt Maher ('John from Cincinnati'). In a recent TV Guide interview, Ryan muses: "Maybe as actors we all have something in common, and we end up in the same world over and over again."

Ryan, who tried to avoid reading anything other than her own part for the final season of 'The Wire' in order to watch the show spoiler-free, insisted she was being merciful to readers by not giving up any details: "I did go snooping through one script, and I was like, 'Oh, no! I ruined one of the biggest things.' I was so bummed." (photo: Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage.com)

[TV Guide via seattlepi.nwsource.com]

Getting Lucky

Ricky Gervais has a new best friend. Louis C.K. ('Lucky Louie') has taken on the role of Gervais' loser pal in 'This Side of the Truth.' The film is Gervais' directorial debut and tells the tale of an average guy (Gervais) who learns to lie and uses the new skill to woo a woman who's out of his league (Jennifer Garner). (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

[Hollywood Reporter]

Best Actor Daniel Day Lewis and Best Actress Marion Cotillard in the press room during The Orange British Academy Film Awards in London. (photo: Jon Furniss/WireImage.com)

Fiennes' Next Role?

Ralph Fiennes is known for his attention to detail in fleshing out his characters, from nailing an accent to deciding what kind of watch the person would wear. Whether he's playing a gangster-boss in Martin McDonagh's hit-man comedy 'In Bruges' or the effete butler to tobacco-heiress Doris Duke and 'Bernard and Doris,' Fiennes inhabits his roles. But could the culmination of such focus be more than a fully-formed performance? "I realize now that I'm very interested in choices directors make," Fiennes says. "I think about directing a lot." (photo: John Stanton/WireImage.com)

[LA Times]

Gotta Dance

When you think of Omar Little busting a move, chances are you're not imagining a kick-ball-change. But Michael Kenneth Williams, the actor who brings 'The Wire' 's resident Robin Hood gangster to life, loves to dance. The self-described "huge house head" used to perform and tour with dance-music singer Crystal Water and would love to do a musical one day.

Right now the actor's dance card is full with upcoming big screen roles, something that Williams is pleased about. But he's not one to shut the door on future TV roles, or even more thug roles. He's open to whatever opportunities come his way: "I'm pretty much happy go lucky, I don't even try to stress too much about any one thing but anybody that knows me knows that Mike is cool. That'll probably read on my tombstone: Here lays MKW, a cool a** dude." (photo: Shareif Ziyadat/FilmMagic.com)

[LA Times]

Idris Elba (center) of 'The Wire' DJs at a party for Essence Magazine in New York City. (photo: Mychal Watts/WireImage.com)

Comedy Gold

It's not over til the two skinny guys sing. It's been 24 years since New Zealand's opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa brought home a Grammy for the motherland, but last night, the country's 4th Most Popular Folk Parody Duo, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie (aka Flight of the Conchords), snagged a trophy once again. Clement and Mckenzie won the Grammy for best comedy album for their EP 'The Distant Future.' The two folksters were vacationing in their homeland and not on hand to pick up the award so fans missed out on a Conchords' glitzy production number. But groupies can check out the cuts 'Business Time' and 'If You're Into It' on the Grammy-winning EP; in April, the duo will put out their first full length album, which includes 'The Prince of Parties' and 'The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room).' (photo: Christopher McLallen/Corbis)

[Reuters]

[Buy the award-winning EP]

Vanity Fare

With her hair in pin curls, flashing her manicured nails while being transformed into a classic screen siren, Ginnifer Goodwin confides: "The cover of Vanity Fair! I used to collect the Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair every year. Like, I have a stack, like, from when I was, like, growing up, of every year's Hollywood Issue." Given that the actress is only 29, and this is the magazine's 14th special issue, she may have the full set. Check out Goodwin and her nine fellow cover girls (Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, Jessica Biel, Anne Hathaway, Alice Braga, Ellen Page, Zoë Saldana, Elizabeth Banks, and America Ferrera) on stands — and online — now. (photo: Duffy-Marie Arnoult/WireImage.com)

[Vanity Fair's behind-the-scenes video]

Gigging with Mel

The Flight of the Conchords' fan has a gig, but we doubt Bret and Jemaine will return the fervor. Kristin Schaal (who plays Mel) will be performing on February 12th at Ars Nova in New York in a night of music from composer Eli Bolin's ('I Sing!') oeuvre. Schaal performed the title role in the music video of the song 'Abby Is Sile' (a collaboration between musician Bolin and six-year-old songwriter Sophia Morales Bello-Barcelos, hence the spelling of "silly'). In the video, Abby's friends sing: "Abby's mom doesn't let Abby have sleepovers at my house because she is too silly." Check out the video, or the live show, to see what happens when Abby turns seven. (photo: Jason Kempin/WireImage.com)

[Get tickets to the Ars Nova show]

[Watch the music video]