Affleck's got the cover-boy looks

Ben's kid brother Casey Affleck is on the cover of the new Los Angeles Confidential, and to celebrate the modest achievement, the magazine's publisher, Jason Binn, threw a party at One Sunset in Hollywood. In addition to Affleck, guests included Bai Ling, Sofia Vergara, Irena Medavoy, Elle Travis, and Maya Hazen. . . . Filmmaker Bobby Farrelly and 98.5's Kelly Malone scored tickets to last night's Celts game.

As if it weren't bizarre enough, the story of John Donovan - the former MIT professor who shot himself in an elaborate attempt to implicate his oldest son in a murder plot - just got a little stranger. Publicist George Regan, who flacked for Donovan in his bitter family battle over trust funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars, is suing his onetime client. In a lawsuit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, Regan claimed Donovan stiffed him to the tune of $160,000, allegedly failing to pay for public-relations services related to Donovan's family feud. "We all make mistakes in life," Regan told us yesterday. "I made a real doozy in representing professor Donovan. I should have known a lot better." According to the suit, Regan was hired in September 2003, not long after four of Donovan's five children sued their father. Regan, whose clients include the Patriots, the Celtics, Bank of America, and New Balance, to name just a few, was to be paid $15,000 per month for the first year, and $10,000 per month for the second year. In his breach-of-contract suit, Regan says $160,000 is the minimum he's owed. Donovan, who couldn't be reached for comment yesterday, was convicted in August of filing a false police report in connection with the 2005 shooting. He claimed he was targeted by Russian hit men as he sat in the parking lot of his Cambridge business office. (Donovan, who lives in Hamilton, was sentenced to two years probation.) In the end, he may be sorry he ever hired Regan. Not only is the high-powered publicist now suing him, but Regan also reps Mintz Levin, the attorneys for Donovan's children.

Amy Ryan, whose fine performance in "Gone Baby Gone" earned her a best supporting actress nod this week, says Jill Quigg deserves some of the credit. Appearing on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Ryan said Quigg helped her get a handle on the South Boston accent. (Ryan's pitch-perfect as the mom of a missing 4-year-old in Ben Affleck's Boston-based crime drama.) A product of the Old Colony housing project, Quigg won a small role in the film after she came upon Affleck filming and barked at him: "I should be in your [expletive] movie." Impressed by her authenticity, Ryan recorded Quigg's voice and listened to it repeatedly on her iPod. While everything's coming up roses for Ryan, life hasn't been so kind to Quigg since the movie wrapped. She and her 5-year-old son, Jarrid, were evicted from their Old Colony apartment right before Christmas. "I've been bouncing around, staying with friends," said an emotional Quigg, reached yesterday at a friend's house in Brighton. "I'm basically on the street. I feel like I'm going to just give up."

The creator of "Family Ties" is getting the gang back together - in Boston, of all places. Gary David Goldberg, the hotshot Hollywood producer of "Family Ties" and "Spin City," among other shows, has written his autobiography - "Sit, Ubu, Sit: How I Went from Brooklyn to Hollywood with the Same Woman, the Same Dog, and a Lot Less Hair." To promote it, he's bringing a few of the "Family Ties" cast members to the Museum of Science for a panel discussion. Michael Gross and Michael J. Fox can't make the scene, but Meredith Baxter, Justine Bateman, and Tina Yothers are confirmed for the Feb. 7 event.

Think of it as a fancy food fight. Thursday's Super Hunger Chef Challenge, a benefit for the Greater Boston Food Bank, pitted celebrity chefs Jody Adams of Rialto and Marc Orfaly of Pigalle and TV's Jon Ashton against one another. The judges - former WCVB anchor Natalie Jacobson, WAAF DJ Greg Hill, and philanthropist Ted Cutler - ultimately crowned Orfaly the winner. (An impromptu auction of dinner prepared at your place by Adams, Orfaly, Ashton, and Four Seasons executive chef Brooke Vosika proved even more popular when Four Seasons GM Bill Taylor threw in a night in the hotel's presidential suite.) The event - the intro to this weekend's Super Hunger Brunch hosted by 30 of the area's top restaurants - raised more than $100,000.

Names can be reached at names@ globe.com or at 617-929-8253.

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