In this article: Laurie David George Clooney Melina Gerosa Bellows Birthdays Last week's Who's News Also: Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!

Idina Menzel was amazing in the Broadway musical "Wicked," for which she won a Tony award. Why is she not in the movies?
Flo Munoz, Kapolei, Hawaii

She is now. And I have a feeling we'll see her in more movies after the musical "Rent," which opens Wednesday. Menzel, 34, re-creates the role of Maureen Johnson, which changed her life. It made her a Broadway star, plus she met her husband, Taye Diggs, there. Menzel is appearing off Broadway now in See What I Wanna See. She's also in filmmaker Robert Towne's "Ask the Dust," for which there's no release date yet.

My favorite male celebrity is John O'Hurley. I watched him on "Dancing With the Stars" every week. What will he do next?
Jan McCanless, China Grove, N.C.

O'Hurley has book, stage, music and TV projects in the works, although he really wants his own sitcom. On Thursday he hosts NBC's National Dog Show, airing just after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade at noon (all time zones). "I'm just there to be light-hearted and funny," O'Hurley, 49, says. A dog lover and owner since he was 4, his book concept is "everything I need to know in life I learned through my dogs." Come January, he'll make his Broadway debut as "Chicago's" Billy Flynn.

Go to top

Laurie David, wife of Larry David, says her counterpart on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," played by Cheryl Hines, is her husband's "fantasy wife. She's so much nicer to him and pays so much more attention to him than I do." Like the fantasy wife, however, Laurie David is an environmental activist, and she's the producer behind Sunday's comedy special on TBS, "Earth to America!" She confesses she sometimes feels bad for her husband, who puts up with environmental pet peeves. Like what? "Straws."

NBC correspondent Campbell Brown is such a professional. What do you know about her private side?
Joseph Slavish, Rehoboth Beach, Del.

Brown, 37, is single but "working on it." She has little personal time but uses it to be with family and to pursue her passion of outdoor sports: canoeing, hiking, biking, kayaking and her latest challenge, rollerblading. She's a Louisiana native, and she still has friends and family there. She tells us her parents, who weren't journalists, "always made sure we were engaged in what's happening in the world."

Go to top

George Clooney was born too late. He should have been part of a more glittering Hollywood age, when people met for cocktails, dressed for dinner and went to Las Vegas for adult play. More than any star I've ever met, Clooney, 44, has a respect for the past -- obvious in his latest film, "Good Night, and Good Luck," but less apparent in his latest business venture: a $3 billion hotel, condo and casino complex to be built just off the Vegas strip. Business partner Rande Gerber says their aim is to bring old-time "glamour, sophistication and elegance" back to Vegas. Gerber and Clooney will own condos in the complex, as will some famous friends, but Gerber can't name names yet.

Go to top

Melina Gerosa Bellows, like me, got some of the best advice from celebrities while writing for entertainment magazines. Perhaps the most lasting lesson came from Oprah: "The stuff that doesn't go your way in life is an opportunity to learn." Bellows weaves her celebrity and life lessons into her new novel, "Wish." Her young heroine struggles with many problems, but "in every chapter, she learns something," says Bellows, 40. She wrote "Wish" in quiet predawn hours, but she's expecting her second child in January, so quiet may be a thing of the past. Bellows' "Wish" comes true.

I enjoyed Matt Damon in the Jason Bourne spy movies. Will he make another one anytime soon?
Tom Dean, Mesa, Ariz.

There's talk of a third, "The Bourne Ultimatum," but Damon, in "Syriana" opening Wednesday, is now making "The Good Shepherd," about the CIA, with Robert De Niro directing. He's also got Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" opening next year. Most important is his engagement to Luciana Barroso. Damon is hoping to follow friend Ben Affleck into fatherhood. Just days before Damon proposed to Barroso he told us, "I'd love to be a dad. I hope I'd be great at it."

Go to top

BIRTHDAYS

November 20: Bo Derek, 49
November 21: Nicollette Sheridan, 42
November 22: Scarlett Johansson, 21
November 23: Bruce Hornsby, 51
November 24: Katherine Heigl, 27
November 25: Barbara Bush, 24; Jenna Bush, 24
November 26: Tina Turner, 66

Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter, Nancy Mills, Brian Truitt

Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!