Veterans are Kerrys' guests on Nantucket
Just days after Senator John Kerry made headlines by calling for a deadline for pulling US troops out of Iraq, he and his wife, Teresa, opened the guest house of their Nantucket compound to some antiwar veterans who are featured in the documentary ``The Ground Truth," which was part of the Nantucket Film Festival. Perry O'Brien and Kelly Dougherty, who are both in the movie, and O'Brien's friend Daniel Paulson, a vet who is not in the film but has also become an anti war activist, attended a sold-out screening early in the festival. ``People had a lot of questions about what they could do to become involved," said Dougherty, a former medic and military police officer. The documentary, by Patricia Foulkrod, screened again last night before the festival's close. With the senator expected on the island to spend Father's Day with family, the vets said they hoped Kerry might attend. O'Brien, a medic who was discharged as a conscientious objector, said: ``I'd really like to meet him."
He doesn’t know a merlot from a pinot
Actor Paul Giamatti was at the Nantucket Film Festival to honor Oscar-winning ``Sideways" screenwriters Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne, so he expected a few questions about wine might come up. ``No, I really don't know much about wine, although people assume I do," said Giamatti. ``And there are a lot of guys who will crack a joke about merlot or a wine list -- and yes, they all think they are the first ones to think of it." But his ``Sideways" costar Thomas Haden Church actually does knows his grapes. ``I helped a restaurant near my house in Texas . . . with its wine list," said Church, who gave us a wine suggestion: a Sea Smoke Cellars pinot noir. Church, who is still associated with his role on ``Wings," which was set on Nantucket, said it's only his second visit to the island. Actor Jimmy Smits said he would be happy if his trip to Nantucket would include meeting Senator Kerry. Smits played a Democrat who wins the election and takes office as ``The West Wing" ended its run. ``I think he'll get another chance," Smits said of Kerry. And in a twist of reality, Nantucket's zany selectman Doug Bennett, who is running for state Senate and worked the crowds throughout the film festival, got Smits to pose with him and a ``Bennett for Senate" brochure. Asked if he missed the presidential entourage, Smits said, ``Believe me, you leave that behind. At home I have to take out the garbage."
A ‘Top Chef’ on Nantucket
Tiffani Faison, the ex-Boston redhead who was cast as a villainess on Bravo's ``Top Chef," has decamped from Las Vegas to Nantucket, where she's cooking on the line this season at Straight Wharf Restaurant. ``She's somewhat of a cult figure around town," said chef Amanda Lydon, who is running the kitchen with boyfriend Gabriel Frasca. Case in point: After the restaurant hosted a wedding party recently, the best friend of the bride's mother returned the next day with a camera to snap Faison's picture. . . . Spotted at another Nantucket hotspot, the Pearl, on Saturday night were former GE chief Jack Welch and his wife, Suzy; Al Franken and the makers of ``Al Franken: God Spoke," D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, and Nick Doob; and in a different part of the Federal Street eatery, MSNBC chat guy Chris Matthews.
Dwayne ``The Rock" Johnson, star of ``The Game Plan," which will begin filming in Boston next week , was joined by his costars Roselyn Sanchez and 7-year-old Madison Pettis and the film's director , Andy Fickman , at the closing night performance of the Royal Ballet's ``Manon" at the Wang Theatre Saturday night. Yesterday, Johnson and his wife, Dany, and their daughter, Simone, made a stop by the New England Aquarium. And on Friday night, Johnson and some of the guys who portray his teammates on a fictional pro football team had dinner at Bricco in the North End. Other eateries Johnson checked out include Prezza in the North End and chef Tony Ambrose's Blackfin Chop House & Raw Bar in the Back Bay.
Joe Yonan of the Globe staff contributed. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253. 
