Amy Rice, Edward Norton and Alicia Sams attend the reception for HBO's premiere of 'By the People the Election of Barack Obama' in Los Angeles. (photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com)

Dr. Susie

If you think the authors of 'He's Just Not That Into You' sugar-coated things, you may want to check out Susie Essman's forthcoming book: 'What Would Susie Say: Bullsh*t Wisdom About Love, Life and Comedy.' "Sex should come with a warning, like medication: may cause dizziness, shortness of breath and total inhalation of self esteem," Essman says. Referring to the 'What Would Susie Say' chapter, she explains: "The basic tenet ... is that when you look back at past relationships, a lot of times, you can remember when the red flag went off, when you knew it wasn't going to work. That ding-ding moment. I give a list of those moments in the book — signs you should run for the hills." (photo: Steve Mack/FilmMagic.com)

[ABCNews.com]

Gina Gershon and John Stamos attend the ribbon cutting ceremony at Henry Miller's Theatre on the first day of 'Bye Bye Birdie' rehearsals in New York City. (photo: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic.com)

Fantastic Voyage

The HBO pilot for fantasy author George R.R. Martin's 'Song of Fire and Ice' series is hardly his first brush with Hollywood. He spent five years writing for 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Beauty and the Beast,' though his next half-decade of showbiz was spent in development hell. "You write a movie, you re-write a movie, you spend one or two years working on it, and then they decide that they are not going to make the movie," he says. "So after these years I had much more money, but emotionally it was very unfulfilling. I do not want to write a script, develop characters for one year and then nobody see them except a few executives in a room. So I wanted to be back to books where I know I had a real audience."

Now that he's tackling TV again, he knows what brass ring he's going for: "'Rome' was a wonderful series at every level. It was gorgeous to look at, the acting was superb, and the writing was superb, so hopefully Ice & Fire can be as good."

[freemagazine.fi]

Chris Messina and Amy Adams attend the screening of 'Julie & Julia' in Westwood, CA. (photo: Eric Charbonneau/WireImage.com)

Don't We Know You?

It's a rare actor who prefers to be mistaken for an insurance salesman over being recognized for his latest film gig, but Gary Cole credits his 25 years in the business to being hard to place. The actor who the astute — or uninsured — might recognize as Mike Brady ('The Brady Bunch' movies) Bill Lumbergh ('Office Space') or Andrew Klein ('Entourage') explains: "I've been very lucky to not only work, but to work in different kinds of projects, because being seen in different kinds of roles helps with longevity — which, when you get to be my age, is nice to have in your back pocket." (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

[NY Post]

Anna Paquin and Rutina Wesley attend the 2009 Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego. (photo: Bill McClelland/FilmMagic.com)

A Real Meaty Role

It's hard to be victimized when you're a 1,000-year-old vampire, but Alexander Skarsgard, who plays Eric on 'True Blood,' thinks his character got the short end of the stick at first. "Eric was misunderstood. People would say, 'You're the bad guy,' and I had to defend him. He is a bad ass, but as an actor, you have to have layers. . . . He doesn't care for a lot of people, or vampires either, but the ones he does, he's very loyal to. Eric's been around for a very long time. He's kind of over humanity, then she comes along and there's something different about her. For the first time in a long time, he's curious," says the actor, who appeared on a panel at Comic-Con over the weekend. Some of his castmates also spoke, along with Alan Ball, who announced the real-life Tru Blood — a blood-orange-flavored beverage now on sale at HBO.com. (photo: Chelsea Lauren/WireImage.com)

[LA Times]

Perrey Reeves, Adrian Grenier and Rex Lee unveil the Entourage Bungalow at W South Beach in Miami. (photo: Alexander Tamargo/WireImage.com)

Affirmative Action

About fifteen years ago, some surprised youngsters opened their talking Barbies and discovered they said, "Vengeance is mine," while boys received G.I. Joes who implored, "Let's go shopping!" What started out as social commentary pranks has grown into serious political activism and you can see some of the results on 'The Yes Men Fix the World,' the HBO documentary about the stunts by artists and activists Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum. The film includes the fallout from their 2003 stunt to bring attention to the lack of support for victims of the Union Carbide chemical disaster in Bhopal, India 20 years after the fact. Their next action is scheduled for December and centers around global warming, but they are keeping the details secret. Says Bonanno: "If we believe scientists instead of the no-global-warming PR campaign, the entire future of the planet is at stake now. We can either choose to make the right decision or ignore it, and if we ignore it, hundreds of millions of people will die." (photo: Clayton Chase/WireImage.com)

[TimesUnion.com]