The folks congregating for the races this weekend at Alabama's 175,000-capacity Talladega Superspeedway will have some interesting visitors on hand -- Will Ferrell and company, shooting scenes for the yet-untitled Columbia comedy in which he plays a NASCAR driver named Ricky Bobby.
"It's going to be fun, probably pretty rough and hectic," guesses Leslie Bibb, who's playing the highly manicured wife of Will's character.
She makes it clear they're not mocking NASCAR. Leslie is convinced "The people in NASCAR are going to love the movie; they're an integral part of it. We're not spoofing them -- this huge, fastest-growing sport in America. It's definitely getting their OK stamp."
The flick also features John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G), Michael Clarke Duncan, Gary Cole and a string of star cameos.
As for Will's stock car driver, "He knows how to drive fast. That's all I'll say about Ricky Bobby," says Leslie. Her own character, Carley Bobby, "probably didn't graduate from high school, but she's got herself this guy who ended up making it as a driver, and now she has everything -- and a lot to lose. She's mean, but it would be boring to just play her mean. She's definitely Southern. I grew up in the South," says the actress, who was raised partly in Virginia, "and my mother and I have a favorite joke you could never print about Southern women who have a pursed smile and say, 'How nice.'"
Leslie's playing an entirely different character -- a Ph.D.-holding psychologist, who is Jerry O'Connell's character's new love interest -- on "Crossing Jordan." "They're so nice, they're letting me go do this movie and come back in November."
BACK ON THE JOB:
With production having resumed in Los Angeles for the big-screen "The Last Time" -- which shut down in New Orleans as Katrina threatened -- supermodel-cum-actress Amber Valletta admits, "You feel kind of silly going back to work after such a major disaster and everything's so sunny here." She feels especially bad about New Orleans production staffers who lost their homes, and/or "didn't get to continue to work on the film because we didn't have enough money to bring them out here." The company, including Brendan Fraser and Michael Keaton, got out on "buses and private planes. It was every man for himself," she says. "It was crazy, but everyone is OK." Interestingly, Amber also notes that the company on her currently in release "Transporter 2" had to deal with four hurricanes in Florida.
Meanwhile, Valletta is serving as celebrity spokesperson for Oceana's Seafood Contamination Campaign. "We're trying to warn people, because it's a big issue," she explains about mercury poisoning in various seafood, "and it can make you very sick."
STARCH THIS:
OK, we can't really explain what it is about "That '70s Show's" Wilmer Valderrama that makes him such a magnet for the likes of ex-girlfriends Lindsay Lohan and Mandy Moore, or sometimes date Ashlee Simpson. But now, we can, perhaps, understand why Mr. V. has trouble keeping those romances alive. People en Espanol's annual 25 Sexiest Bachelors issue comes out Monday (10/3), and Wilmer -- who scored No. 5 -- tells the magazine he's back to looking for Ms. Right. Asked whether his mother has to approve his girlfriends, he revealed, "No, but she does have to meet them. The only thing my mother does say is that the girl should know how to cook and do laundry."
MAKING LEMONADE:
Actress Cheryl Chase, a.k.a. the voice of the one and only Angelica Pickles in all things "Rugrats," has launched an online dating service for actors, artists and others in the entertainment industry -- CreativeMates.com. But don't get excited about signing on unless you think you can pass rigorous standards required to enter the service. "We are exclusive, and we do background checks. Our members, especially those who have public and private lives, must be protected," she says.
Chase, whose "Rugrats -- Tales From the Crib: Snow White" DVD hit stores this week, traces the beginnings of CreativeMates.com back to a time when "a lot of things in my life were not so great" -- including her boyfriend's decision to marry someone else. After hatching the idea of her highly specialized website, she talked it over with her manager. "Three days later, we got the funding.'" With the site newly up, she already has a sizeable waiting list for her service.
(With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster)
The Beck/Smith syndicated newspaper column includes exclusive in-depth, behind-the-scenes reports on the stars, on the business of television and movie-making, and on the recording, publishing and media beats.
©2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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