After appearing in Scarlett Johansson's music video, Salman Rushdie says that acting is an "itch that needs scratching." [Vulture]

Don't call that thing wrapped around Miley Cyrus a bed sheet! It's a "duchess satin stole, Champagne, specially made," says Vanity Fair. [Radar]

Sting likes to tight-rope walk in his garden in England. [P6]  read more »

On Friday, April 25, Redbelt, a riveting David Mamet cops-and-con-men drama set in the world of professional jujitsu, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The cool table at the after-party, held at the Honey nightclub on West 14th Street, included Mr.  read more »

Baby Mama opened the 7th annual Tribeca Film Festival last night at the Ziegfeld Theater, and the temple of Hollywood in New York was packed full of celebrities tramping a red carpet that snaked down 54th Street almost to Sixth Avenue.

It was a comedy-loving crowd, judging from the laughs that started even before the film did, during the pre-movie Tribeca Film Festival promo short about a man as a film junkie (it’s actually funnier than it sounds), and when the lights went up you could see the proof: Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, Chris Kattan, and Molly Shannon were all there to bask in the easy charms of Tina Fey's slight comedy.  read more »

Over the weekend, the first new episode of Saturday Night Live to air since the end of the writers’ strike posted the show’s highest ratings since Feb. 4, 2006, easily topping seven million viewers, Variety reports. SNL hadn’t broadcast since the fall, which made Saturday’s show—the first in four consecutive weeks of new SNL episodes—with Tina Fey as host (see above), guest appearances by Mike Huckabee (he was on Weekend Update, too) and Steve Martin (who, coincidentally, hosted the Feb. 4, 2006 episode), and a musical performance by Carrie Underwood, a highly anticipated event.  read more »

BORN STANDING UP: A COMIC'S LIFE
By Steve Martin
Scribner, 207 pages, $25

… Enjoyment would have been an indulgent loss of focus that comedy cannot afford. —Steve Martin

Being funny isn’t fun. At the height of his great success as a stand-up comedian (crowds of 45,000), Steve Martin suffered from depression, exhaustion and the loneliness of the road. In 1981, at the top of the roller coaster, he walked away, into the movies. And into writing for them, and for The New Yorker, among other things. He’s very good at it; he’s a pleasure to read. But this memoir, one suspects, is something of a magic act. As if Steve Martin had reached into his magician’s top hat and instead of a rabbit, pulled out “Steve Martin.”  read more »

George Clooney. "He's my type."

Two nights ago we watched Good Night and Good Luck. I could just see my wife loving it. After it was over, she said, "It wasn't slick. It was naive in a good way. It got people to care about something they would never care about usually. George Clooney has got all this power in Hollywood now and he's using it for good things."

My wife got upset. She said, "You're like that gospel according to Judas but the other way: You are taking something that's good and heroic and spinning it to be bad and obvious."

While I am sure I'm right, I don't know that I can win this fight. This morning I heard my wife talking about me on the phone: "He doesn't understand, every woman is in love with George Clooney." Later, I had to drive with her somewhere. I said, "O.K. In two words, What is George Clooney's type?"

I had to wheedle a while before she came out with: "Low key, cool, straightforward and handsome. And a little bit simple."