Issue Date: September 27, 2009
I've seen Scott Bakula in TV shows playing the piano and singing. Is it really him?
Paul Thompson, Port Orchard, Wash.
Yes, but you won't see his musical talents in his new movie, "The Informant!," with Matt Damon. Bakula, 54, plays an FBI investigator. But he does tell me that we may see him sing in his TNT show, "Men of a Certain Age," due in December. "When you introduce music on a TV or movie set, everybody has a great day," he says.
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"You can quote me"
"My dad is a super-funny guy."
-- SNL's Kristen Wiig on where she gets her comedy chops
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What ever happened to network news anchor Connie Chung?
Barbara Gregory-Pearlman, Las Vegas
Chung, 63, a longtime TV news correspondent, answered your question via e-mail. She says she's busy raising son Matt, now 14, in western Montana. She also says that her husband, former talk show host Maury Povich, who owns the weekly "Flathead Beacon" in the state's Flathead Valley, is urging her to return to the media; he wants her to write for the paper's website.
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I hear that James Spader will appear on Broadway this fall in the new David Mamet play, "Race."
C.J. Bromberg, Hewlett, N.Y.
True. He begins previews Nov. 21. Spader, 49, tells us he loves theater, but he also admits: "I've always been enormously lazy. I had a lousy work ethic. Maybe I would act a few months out of the year. Things in my life were just so much more important to me than work." That includes his family. He has two sons, 20 and 16, with ex-wife Victoria Kheel, and a 1-year-old son with current love Leslie Stefanson, 38, his co-star in the 2003 film "Alien Hunter." When this play ends, does Spader plan to come back to series TV? "Maybe a cable show," he says. Does he miss "Boston Legal?" "I had my fill, although I miss some of the people some of the time. Everyone involved was ready to move on."
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Mark Pellegrino has appeared in too many TV shows to count, among them "Lost" and "Supernatural." How about some info on him?
Rita Ractliffe, Van Nuys, Calif.
Pellegrino is married with a stepdaughter. He tells us he watches TV rarely; he's a big reader (he has read the Bible four times), and he boxes. Now 44, he got into acting "totally by accident." He wanted to be a marine biologist. Someday, he'd like to return to college so he can become a history teacher.
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How is Jai Pausch, widow of "The Last Lecture" author and professor Randy Pausch?
Carol Stephens, Tucson
"The [three] kids have adjusted to having a single mother and to our new home in Virginia," writes Pausch in an e-mail. She is getting used to running the household and making decisions alone. "I still miss Randy every day, and my heart still hurts." Pausch, 44, has found comfort in friends, family and home repairs: "Painting, wallpapering and plumbing have been nice distractions."
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Who's hot in Hollywood
Get ready to see lots of "Saturday Night Live"'s newest breakout star, Kristen Wiig, right. She has eight films coming. Out now is Extract, which she describes as "a story about marriage and thinking of being unfaithful." Wiig, 36, is divorced and dating writer/actor Brian Petsos. In October, she'll play a roller derby skater in the comedy "Whip It," directed by Drew Barrymore, and in December she's in her first drama, "All Good Things." "It's a pretty heavy movie. I hope to do more like that." ... George Benson, left, says, "I want to make records that are significant." At 66, he's doing just that. On his latest album, "Songs and Stories," Benson -- a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master who has 10 Grammys -- plays the music of super songwriters such as James Taylor, Smokey Robinson and Lamont Dozier. Retirement? "I've tried it, several times," he tells me.
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BIRTHDAY BUZZ
September 27: Gwyneth Paltrow, 37
September 28: Hilary Duff, 22; Naomi Watts, 41; Mira Sorvino, 42
September 29: Bryant Gumbel, 61
September 30: Jenna Elfman, 38
October 1: Mark McGwire, 46; Julie Andrews, 74; Jimmy Carter, 85
October 2: Kelly Ripa, 39; Sting, 58
October 3: Ashlee Simpson, 25; India.Arie, 34; Gwen Stefani, 40; Clive Owen, 45
Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter, Nancy Mills, Steve Thompson
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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