Cynthia Nixon and Laura Linney attend the 28th Annual Muse Awards in New York City. (photo: Bobby Bank/WireImage.com)

Knockout Career

Larry Merchant has become synonymous with HBO Boxing, and the commentator's contribution is about to be officially recognized. Alongside Lennox Lewis and a number of the sport's other luminaries, Merchant will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. When the journalist got his chance to deliver a react quote, he answered: "Television is the medium of show and tell. The show, meaning the fighters, are the most important by far. I'm just one of the tellers and I am deeply honored to be a footnote of all the great fighters that are in the Hall of Fame." (photo: K. Terrell/WireImage.com)

[ABS-CBNnews.com]

Best Man?

Blake Robbins got his first big break on 'Oz,' when he landed the role of officer Dave Brass. Recently he was pleased to play John Krasinski's brother, Tom Halpert, on 'The Office.' While it's not a regular role, Robbins is hoping for some Halpert family events he can get invited to in the future. "As a fan of the show, I'd really like to see Jim and Pam get married," he said. "As an actor, I really, really hope they get married."

[BostonHerald.com]

Lukas Haas and Kim Basinger arrive on the red carpet of the Los Angeles premiere of 'While She Was Out.' (photo: Todd Williamson/WireImage.com)

Cultural Shift

It was one thing for Bubba Smith to blaze a trail for black athletes in the 1960s, but when the Texan football player (featured in the HBO doc 'Breaking the Huddle') joined his new team in Michigan, he found an entirely different form of adversity waiting for him: "Mother made sure that we had grits and eggs, bacon and toast, and I get up there ... uh, hash browns? What the hell are hash browns, for breakfast? And I'm looking for something to eat. And I saw these things that looked like Saltine crackers and I grabbed one, I bit on it, and it tastes like paper. I said, 'What is this?' Matzo. 'Matzo? They've got food named Matzo?' After that I asked about everything before I stuck it in my mouth." (photo: Tony Tomsic/Getty Images)

[Freep.com]

Playing the Wife

Shohreh Aghdashloo thought twice before deciding to take on the role of Saddam Hussein's first wife in the HBO miniseries 'House of Saddam.' The Iranian actress, known for her Oscar®-nominated turn in 'House of Sand of Fog,' as well as '24,' in which she played a Muslim terrorist, says: "But then I thought, it's such a meaty role, and it's so powerful. She's a very powerful woman." (photo: Daniel Novisedlak/WireImage.com)

[Kentucky.com]

Danny Glover and Adrian Grenier attend the 24th Annual International Documentary Association Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles. (photo: Brian To/FilmMagic.com)

Wig Party

A lot of actresses of a certain age might have balked at being aged up to 74 as Laura Linney was for her role as Abigail Adams in the HBO miniseries 'John Adams.' But Linney is a glass half-full kinda gal when it comes to prosthetics. "They wizened me all up and I thought, you know what? Not bad. If that's how I'm going to look that's fine by me. And then you take it off at the end of the day and you go, 'Oh my God, I'm young!' It's actually sort of refreshing."

Linney says her jobs tend to come in waves, but when her interviewer asked if that meant offers to play women with bad teeth were rolling in, she replied: "I hope not. But I've got a bunch of women who have potentially very funny-looking hair. After those wigs in John Adams, they know I can carry off the bouffant..." (photo: FilmMagic Inc/FilmMagic.com)

[Telegraph.co.uk]

Home for the Holidays

As 'Six Feet Under' alum Freddy Rodriguez showed reporters around his native Chicago, where he just finished shooting the Latino Christmas flick 'Nothing Like the Holidays,' he harkened back to his acting roots in the city. "I was pounding the pavement at 14 years old looking for work as an actor, but completely failed drama class," he says. "They were going to kick me out of the drama program, but because I was out there working, they kept me ... We're like hustlers by nature. We just get in there and get it done." (photo: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com)

[Chicago Tribune via TradingMarkets.com]

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Viola Davis, Amy Adams and John Patrick Shanley attend the premiere after party for 'Doubt' in New York City. (photo: Jemal Countess/WireImage.com)

Tough Crowd

Any new audience is a little intimidating for a filmmaker, but director Alex Holmes faced more than just peers and critics when 'House of Saddam' premiered. "I have to say I was a little nervous," he says. "I didn't know how Iraqis would respond. In a way, this was made by the BBC, a British Broadcaster, and HBO, an American broadcaster, [and] there was a danger that it might have been perceived even before it reached the air as a sort of coalition film. I'm pleased to say that the reaction from Iraqis who've seen it in the UK has been almost universally positive. They're fascinated by it and I think that it really gets to the nerve of the central theme of politics and the cruelty of Saddam's regime. I think they also appreciated the fact that it was a complex, ambivalent portrayal of a man rather than just a one-side caricature." (photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

[TheFutonCritic.com]

'Escape' Hatched

Writer Kirk Ellis won an Emmy for the HBO miniseries 'John Adams,' about America's founding fathers. Now he's putting quill to paper for a new project, 'Escape,' about a woman fleeing polygamy (no, not a 'Big Love' spin-off). The project, starring Katherine Heigl, is the true story of Carolyn Jessop who fled her church and polygamous marriage with her eight children. (photo: Mathew Imaging/WireImage.com)

[Reuters.com]

Melissa George attends the Avakian Beverly Hills Boutique opening. (photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic.com)

Blind Drunk

John Mahoney may have "cantankerous old coot" down pat, but he's branching out in terms of nationality and class. He's been in New York shooting the next season of 'In Treatment,' in which he plays a CEO. Meanwhile back in Chicago he's in previews for Colin McPherson's 'The Seafarer,' at Steppenwolf Theatre in which he plays, "a filthy old drunk, recently blind, chronically hung over." He's been closely listening to his co-star Gabriel Byrne's Irish lilt in preparation for the part. "Does it help!" Mahoney says. (photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com)

[PioneerLocal.com]

In Wolf's Clothing

When Eamonn Walker — who played Kareem Said on 'Oz' — took the role of a blues legend in 'Cadillac Records,' he had to pick up a Mississippi accent, a singing voice and the manner of a man born almost 100 years ago. "I went straight to YouTube and put in Howlin' Wolf, and POOF, it kind of exploded with stuff," he says. "Then I knew straight away from watching that, that his voice, his movement, his weight, all sorts of things were going to have to shift in me fairly quickly. So the first thing I stopped doing was exercising because I had to get bigger. The next thing I did is I found a jazz singer called Cecilia Stalin who works with you on breath control, and expanding your voice because I knew that if I spoke like that for too long I was going to go like (snaps fingers)." (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

[ComingSoon.net]