Damon returns to South Boston
Matt Damon was sipping a Dunkin' Donuts coffee yesterday, looking relaxed between takes of ''The Departed" as it continued filming in the Mary Ellen McCormack public housing development in South Boston.
After pausing to chat with director Martin Scorsese, Damon and actor James Badge Dale were back in action on a side street where laundry was hanging and garbage was piled in the street. Asked by reporters if the area had been transformed for filming, one resident said, ''It's garbage day, but I'd never hang my clothes on the line." With trailers and production trucks lining Moakley Park along Old Colony Avenue, a corner of Southie was the set for ''The Departed." (Although signs warned people not to park along Old Colony Ave., more than three dozen cars were reportedly towed) Film crews also were spied yesterday near the L Street Bath House, a few blocks from the L Street Tavern, where Damon's breakout movie, ''Good Will Hunting," was filmed.
Nicholson hits the links
Thanks to investment adviser/novelist John Spooner, Jack Nicholson finally made it to The Country Club in Brookline. Nicholson was Spooner's guest at the prestigious course Sunday afternoon. ''Brutal conditions" is how Spooner described the punishing heat, but Nicholson wore long pants because, he told his host, he believes in ''high standards." When the Ryder Cup rolled into town a few years back, Nicholson was rumored to be among the guests, but he never made it here. Spooner said Nicholson, who said he's only been golfing for about 15 years, isn't that bad. ''Jack's got game," Spooner said. So what did they talk about? ''The nature of work," said Spooner. And what was the writer's take on the actor? ''You cannot, in life, beat the combination of funny and smart."Extra! Extra! Read all about him
Richard Finn's ready for his close-up. Today, theNot quite a reality jackpot
Alas, Susannah Locketti of Plymouth is not ''The Next Food Network Star." And she's OK with that. On the way home yesterday after the live finale in New York, Locketti said she doesn't blame viewers who voted to give Chicago catering couple Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh their own cooking show. (Locketti made the final four.) She said she's ''entertaining a lot of fun offers in the Boston market," including a possible gig as a TV food and fitness reporter, and she's still hoping for a slot at the Food Network. ''I know I have a lot to offer the network . . . there's an audience for me," she said. ''I'm just waiting for somebody to snatch me up."Support group
The Boston premiere of the movie based on Scott Heim's novel ''Mysterious Skin" attracted a slew of literary types to the Kendall Square Cinema over the weekend, including ''Little Children" author Tom Perrotta, ''Mrs. Kimble" novelist Jennifer Haigh, Michael Lowenthal, Jayne Anne Phillips, Elizabeth Searle, and candy man Steve Almond. The bunch of them, including Heim, enjoyed a frosty beverage afterward at Flattop Johnny's.They said it
'No, I don't. No, come on man, you see how big my hands are? I could hurt her. . . . Me and her are like this. She hits me more than I hit her.' Bobby Brown, asked by Matt Lauer if he hits his wife, singer Whitney Houston. Globe staff writer Joe Yonan contributed. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253. 
