In this article: Lou Taylor Pucci Deidre Hall Suzanne Kay Julie Bowen Birthdays Last week's Who's News Also: Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!

Britain's Prince Harry appears to have taken on Princess Diana's personality, while Prince William seems to be taking more after his dad. What's the consensus?
M. Drescher, Jacksonville

Royal biographer Robert Lacey says, "They're not as different as everyone thinks." Both about 6-foot-3, they are a blend of their parents and are close. William, 23, and Harry, 21, "represent a wonderful and fruitful outcome of an unhappy marriage," Lacey tells us. "In his recent birthday interview, one of the touching things Harry said is how close he felt to William and how they operated as a team."

I watch WB's "Gilmore Girls" and would love to know about Scott Patterson, who plays diner owner Luke Danes.
M. Acosta, El Paso

Patterson, who is 47 and single, won't talk about his off-screen love life (we asked) but says, like Luke, he'd prefer to "wear the pants" when it comes to marriage proposals. He loves to travel, and he's athletic. A former baseball player, he's now into extreme skiing because it forces "focus on just that activity, clearing the mind of any worries and distractions in life."

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Lou Taylor Pucci, star of the new teen angst movie "Thumbsucker," was 10 when his model mom and musician dad "pushed me to be an altar boy or be in a show." He was an altar boy for seven months. "Then my mom said she'd give me money for each audition I did. I fell into a lot of things really fast." Among his recent work was HBO's "Empire Falls," in which he was an outcast who brought a gun to school. At 20, Pucci looks about 15, so he may well have a long screen life as a troubled adolescent.

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As NBC's "Days of Our Lives" marks its 40th year, Deidre Hall is getting ready to celebrate an anniversary of her own. "It's a job I never tire of," says Hall, 58, who in January will mark 30 years with the show. As for her character's longevity, Hall says fans relate: "In the '70s, [Marlena] was struggling to begin her career; in the '80s, she was struggling with career and marriage; in the '90s, she was divorced with kids, and she's had tragedies along the way."

I look forward each night to Keith Olbermann's Countdown on MSNBC. What's his story?
Debbie Hill, Scottsdale, Ariz.

He's all work and no play, and he swears that has been his story since Countdown began in 2003. But he admits he's learning to cede some control to his staff. When we spoke, the avid reader was just back from an all-baseball vacation. As for Countdown's appeal, Olbermann says it's because "I take work seriously but don't take myself seriously. There's a lot of pretension out there."

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Suzanne Kay, 45, turned her life upside down a few years ago, and the result is "Cape of Good Hope," opening Friday. The daughter of Diahann Carroll, Kay and husband Mark Bamford went to South Africa to vacation but stayed; they made their new film there. Kay, who wrote and produced, says, "I learned from my mother. She [went] her own way." Carroll says, "Suzanne was an observer, and the observation was profound."

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Julie Bowen, who played a teacher on NBC's Ed, is now a lawyer on ABC's Boston Legaland relying on her two best friends, both attorneys, to help her play the part. "They get a lot of phone calls," she says. "They are askedfrequently, 'What does this mean, and how do I pronounce it?' " Another change for Bowen, 35: She's a homeowner. "I've always been a nomad. I kept all my belongings in a duffel bag to take off when I wanted to. For the first time in a long time, I'm putting down roots."

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BIRTHDAYS

Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!

November 6: Ethan Hawke, 35
November 7: Joni Mitchell, 62
November 8: Jack Osbourne 20
November 9: Nick Lachey, 32
November 10: Brittany Murphy, 28
November 11: Leonardo DiCaprio, 31; Calista Flockhart, 41; Demi Moore, 43
November 12: Sammy Sosa, 37

Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter, Evelyn Poitevent, Brian Truitt