Still producing
Film producer Frank Muggia is hanging in the hinterlands of western New York these days, but the Winchester native and BC Law grad is still in the game. His latest project, a feel-good family film called "Moondance Alexander" starring Kay Panabaker and Don Johnson, was picked up by 20th Century Fox and will be in theaters Oct. 19. "We're absolutely thrilled because it says a lot when a small independent film is picked up by a major studio," said Muggia, a partner in Orchard Park Productions, named after the Buffalo suburb that happens to be home to the Buffalo Bills. His company's last project was a sexy thriller, starring Carmen Electra, Diora Baird, and Randy Spelling. ("Hot Tamale" took home a Best Feature award at the 2006 Boston International Film Festival, but it made a beeline for the DVD racks.) "We have two other family-focused projects in the works because there's a real market out there," Muggia said. Wonder if Electra's in either of those?
Upstaging Pitt
It's being billed as Brad Pitt's picture, but judging from the trailer for "The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," we'd say it's Casey Affleck's film. The Cambridge-bred actor plays Robert Ford in the movie based on Ron Hansen's book. (View the trailer)
McNeeley comeback
"Hurricane" Peter McNeeley is a has-been no more, or at least he hopes not. Word is the Boston-bred pugilist, who lasted 89 punishing seconds against Mike Tyson in 1995, is making a comeback of sorts. TheSweetScience.com scored an interview with McNeeley, and he's clear about his motivation: Money. (Keep in mind, this is the same guy who was arrested last year after allegedly driving the getaway car used in a drugstore robbery in Stoughton.) Says McNeeley, who lives in Norwood: "Do I know the clock has passed me by? Yeah. But I have a small window. I don't want to look back at what might've been and be drinking over it." The fighter also reveals he's about to be a father. "I slipped one past the goalie," says McNeeley, mixing his metaphors about as well as he mixed his punches.
A D-list date
Marty Weber was flying high when he found out he won "Seduce a Celeb," GoFish.com's contest pairing a schlub with a sultry Hollywood starlet. But the 23-year-old Allston resident didn't know that his date would be a D-list actress named Mirelly Taylor. "It kind of defeats the purpose of bragging if it takes 10 minutes to explain who the celebrity is," Weber told us before jetting to LA yesterday. "I don't want to knock her. I don't want her to slap me." Taylor, a Penelope Cruz look-alike picked the Boston College grad because she liked the video he posted on the site, which included a little tap-dance routine. "I'm doing this for the everyman," said Weber.
Garner's baby talk
If actress Jennifer Garner is looking curvy, it's not because she's having a baby. The former "Alias" star told the Globe yesterday that despite what you may have seen or heard, she's not pregnant. "Do I look pregnant?" asked Garner during an interview in LA to promote her new movie, "The Kingdom." "Is it just because I don't have the flattest stomach in the world that people keep asking?" Ben Affleck's better half said she's far too busy to become a mom again right now. "I'm going to work for a while," she said. Garner goes on a junket to Japan in a few days, and then returns to New York to begin rehearsing for her Broadway debut in the revival of "Cyrano de Bergerac." (She's playing Roxanne to Kevin Kline's Cyrano in the production, which runs from Nov. 1 to Dec. 23 at the Richards Rodgers Theater.) Garner said the trip to Japan will be her first away from her daughter, 20-month-old Violet, leaving Ben home alone as Mr. Mom. "He's ready," she said. Asked about Ben's directorial debut, "Gone, Baby, Gone," Garner said she's seen "every inch of it," and gets emotional when she watches it. "I cry in a different place for a different reason every time," she said. The movie, based on Dennis Lehane's book, is about the search for a missing child. So, will she attend the movie's Boston premiere Oct. 15? "If it's a Monday, I will," she said, referring to her Broadway schedule. Guess what? Oct. 15 is a Monday.
Starry days in Boston
"The Women" took a powder yesterday as the Diane English movie motored to New York for a single day of shooting outside Saks Fifth Avenue. The crew and cast, which includes Meg Ryan and Annette Bening, is due back in Boston Monday. . . . Meanwhile, pre-production continues for "Pink Panther 2," the big-budget sequel that's set to start shooting here next month. The movie starring Steve Martin is filming at the moment in Paris. . . . Remember the "The Game Plan," the football flick that shot here last fall? It opens Sept. 28 and billboards for the feature starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson have begun going up around Boston.
Meeting a Legend
Before all the shouting started at last night's Hot Stove show at Fenway, a few big spenders got the chance to say hello to headliner John Legend and organizers Theo Epstein and Peter Gammons. The meet-and-greet with the muckety-mucks cost a mere $2,000 for two, and included batting practice.
Globe correspondent Lynda Gorov and Michael Saunders of the Globe staff contributed. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253. 
