Them's the breaks

Oscar winner Chris Cooper and his actress-writer wife, Marianne Leone Cooper, stopped by House Speaker Sal DiMasi's office yesterday to support a bill to provide tax breaks to moviemakers. (Supporters say the Bay State could benefit to the tune of $450 million if it gives tax incentives to filmmakers who work here.) ''This legislation is about one thing -- creating jobs," DiMasi said in a statement. ''If we can put Massachusetts back on the movie industry's map, then we stand a much better chance of reaping the financial and cultural benefits we miss out on every time a production decides to set up shop elsewhere." The House plans to take up the measure today. Martin Scorsese's ''The Departed" is an example of a movie that is set in Boston but is being shot largely in the Big Apple because of tax breaks.

He’s got a killer instinct

When his career as a quadriplegic rugby player is over, Mark Zupan, star of the documentary ''Murderball," will not be taking up wheelchair fencing. ''Not enough contact," he said yesterday, ensconced at the Ritz-Carlton while he promotes the new movie. Zupan, who's touring with Newton native and ''Murderball" filmmaker Dana Adam Shapiro, may have an easygoing style, but his competitive spirit would make Pats linebacker Tedy Bruschi proud. ''These are very competitive athletes who play very hard. Very hard," Shapiro said. (Don't believe him? Check out Zupan jousting with cattle prods on an upcoming episode of MTV's ''Jackass.") While he was chatting with us yesterday, Zupan paused and looked at his blue Reebok sneakers. ''I don't walk, but these are . . . so, so comfortable, and it's so, so cool to be part of the same campaign as 50 Cent, Allen Iverson, and Curt Schilling."

What, no Diaper Genie?

Some minor league baseball teams will do anything to put people in the seats. Witness the ''Jen and Ben Baby Shower Night" held Saturday at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston, W.Va. In honor of hometown gal Jennifer Garner, the West Virginia Power threw a baby shower for the mom-to-be and her new husband, Ben Affleck, and then gave the gifts to charity. Team officials invited the newlyweds to the game, but Affleck and the ''Alias" starlet couldn't make it. ''We had contact, but it didn't happen," said Matt Thompson, an account executive with the Milwaukee Brewers' Single A affiliate. ( They missed out. Power second baseman Hernan Iribarren is a future superstar.) In the end, 4,248 baseball fans did show up, and donated 410 items, including diapers, a car seat, and baby food. ''She's a real big deal here," Thompson said of Garner. ''Whenever something happens with her, it's on the front page." Married June 29 at the Parrot Cay resort in the Caribbean, the couple skipped their honeymoon and went back to work.

Here and there

The word among 20-somethings on Nantucket is that Jessica Simpson was sunning herself on The Rock over the weekend, but it's not so, insists her publicist, Brad Cafarelli. . . . That was Pats pooh-bah Robert Kraft and wife, Myra, dining at Siena Italian Grill & Bar in Mashpee over the weekend. . . . Aerosmith's Joe Perry played an impromptu set Sunday at the Fancy Food Show in New York, tearing through ''Johnny B. Goode" for an audience that included former Windows on the World chef Michael Lomonaco, ''Iron Chef" Masaharu Morimoto, and Boston foodie flack Marlo Fogelman. . . .

Sox GM Theo Epstein and Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz jammed yesterday to prep for Saturday's ''Hot Stove, Cool Music: The Fenway Sessions," a benefit for Epstein's A Foundation to Be Named Later.

His prerogative

When you look at celebrity playlists on iTunes, you sometimes wonder whether it was the celebrity's publicist who put the thing together. Not so with Bobby Brown, who's got a list of favorite songs on iTunes now. While most celebs choose tunes that are rockin' or romantic, Brown applies a different test: Did I sing it? With the same narcissistic flair that he displays on his new reality TV show, Brown has put together a playlist that includes a bunch of his own songs, from solo stuff (''Sunday Afternoon" and ''I'll Be Good to You") to New Edition (''Home Again" and ''Oh Yeah, It Feels So Good"). Almost as an afterthought, he includes tunes by Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Michael Jackson. Of ''Paid in Full" by Eric B. & Rakim, Brown writes, ''That's my anthem." Sure it is, Bobby, that's why you haven't started education funds for your kids with Kim Ward.

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