On location in Boston

What Boston lacks in glamour, says Pat Moscaritolo, it more than makes up for in sophistication. And that, according to the head of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, is why moviemakers from Gus Van Sant to Martin Scorsese choose to shoot here. (All the red brick probably helps.) Moscaritolo was among several civic leaders and film types who gathered yesterday outside Tom Kershaw's ''Cheers" bar to promote the Boston Movie Mile, a new walking tour of some, though not all, of the locations featured in Boston-based films and TV shows. (The gritty neighborhoods of ''Mystic River," for example, are among the missing.) Taking the tour yesterday were ''Crossing Jordan" actor Ken Howard and Michael Badalucco from ''The Practice," who confessed a love for the Hub even though he's a native New Yorker. ''I can see why David E. Kelley sets so many of his shows here," Badalucco said, referring to ''Ally McBeal," ''Boston Public," and ''Boston Legal." Conceived of by Jeff Coveney, the tour meanders around Beacon Hill and mixes memorable locales -- the swank pad where Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway snogged in ''The Thomas Crown Affair" -- with not-so-memorable turf -- George Peppard's province in the 1970s TV series ''Banacek." It's hard to say how many people will pay $13 to see where James Gandolfini stood in ''A Civil Action" or where the gang from ''Real World: Boston" got takeout, but Mass. Film Bureau boss Robin Dawson, who was hoofing it yesterday, is optimistic. ''This kind of attention is priceless," she said.

Toro is making a run at the South End

News that Kenneth Oringer of Clio is opening a restaurant in the South End has been circulating for months. Now Oringer has firmed up the details about Toro, which will serve classic Spanish fare from tapas to paella to suckling pig. The restaurant, on lower Washington Street, will sport a menu on a 6-foot-by-6-foot chalkboard, big communal tables in front of a fireplace, an all-Spanish wine list, and a very casual ambience, Oringer said, comparing it to places in Barcelona. The chef de cuisine will be John Critchley, who is the sous chef at Clio. A late September-early October opening is planned for the restaurant, named as a play on the Spanish word for bull and for Oringer's love of raw tuna belly, or toro. He promises to sneak some toro onto the menu.

A can-do attitude

Just before the start of yesterday afternoon's win over Tampa Bay, the Red Sox players' wives presented a check for $21,382 and 8,772 pounds of nonperishable food gathered from Sox fans during the 14th Annual Fenway Park Can & Cash Drive to the Greater Boston Food Bank. And then, the food bank's CEO, Catherine D'Amato, not only accepted the check, she sang the national anthem.

Among those spied around the park yesterday was former supermodel Christie Brinkley.

Tour de farce

''Monty Python's Spamalot," the Tony Award-winning musical that has been one of Broadway's hottest tickets, will start its national tour in Boston in March. The show, which creators say is ''lovingly ripped-off" from the movie ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail," is scheduled to open at the Colonial Theatre on March 7 and run through April 15. Created by Monty Python troupe member Eric Idle and composer John Du Prez, the show is directed by Mike Nichols, who's often spied on Martha's Vineyard with his wife, ''Good Morning America" host Diane Sawyer. When the show opened in New York last year, the cast included stars David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria, Tim Curry, and Sara Ramirez. The cast for the touring production -- along with ticket information -- was unavailable yesterday.

Alison Arnett of the Globe staff contributed. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.