Her 'Girl' has a real Oscar look

Nancy Oliver may not be famous, but her movie is. "Lars and the Real Girl," one of the most talked-about films of the year, has the former Framingham resident up for the Oscar for best original screenplay. "It's all a big surprise," Oliver told us yesterday. "I've been writing for a while - it just took 27 years to get a job." A writer for the late HBO series "Six Feet Under," she earned an Oscar nomination for her story about a man - brilliantly played by Ryan Gosling - who is in love with a life-like blow-up doll. So how does a writer come up with that story? "One of the inspirations was that Boston weather I grew up with," Oliver said. "That, and a weird job I had, put me in touch with a real doll website . . . and that kind of weirdness stays with you." The UMass-Amherst alum said the success is still all sinking in, but it hit her Monday when she went to the Oscar nominees luncheon. "I'm really not a star-struck person, but I tried to angle myself to Javier Bardem whenever possible. . . . And if George [Clooney] is in the neighborhood - all the better." The Oscars are slated Feb. 24.

Recently crowned Miss America Kirsten Haglund (inset) is bringing her message about eating disorders to Harvard. Haglund will speak about her battle with anorexia at the 12th annual Harris Center public forum, "Redefining Perfection: Beauty, Fashion and Body Image," at the Radcliffe Gymnasium on March 11. Joining the 19-year-old aspiring Broadway star will be "The Science of Sexy" author Bradley Bayou and Paige Premium Denim founder Paige Adams-Geller, a former Miss California.

Boston filmmaker Dave McLaughlin's movie "On Broadway" - which stars Joey McIntyre, Eliza Dushku, Will Arnett, and Amy Poehler - is getting a run in local theaters. "After the reception it got at the various film festivals, we thought it deserved an actual shot in theaters," McLaughlin told us yesterday. The film's financial backers are funding a two-week run starting March 14 at five theaters, including West Newton Cinema and the Somerville Theatre. At the March 12 screening to benefit the Joey Fund, McLaughlin and actor-producer Lance Greene will join the film's leading lady, Jill Flint, and actors Mike O'Malley, Lucas Caleb Rooney, and Bob Wahlberg and his son, Oscar.

It's hard to tell who actually lost this Super Bowl bet. Harpoon president Dan Kenary made good on a wager yesterday with Brooklyn Brewery biggie Steve Hindy in which the winning city's beer would pour from the losing side's taps. So Kenary and his Harpoon cofounder Rich Doyle helped Hindy start a keg of Brooklyn Lager that will be served to visitors in the tasting room. It's the first time a non-Harpoon beer has poured from the South Boston brewery's spigots.

If Tom Brady's girlfriend thought heading to New York might be easier than being in Boston, she was wrong. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen was swarmed by paparazzi and a contingent of Giants fans as she arrived at her West Village home Monday night. (Bundchen's neighbors called police on rowdy fans congregating near her place during the Super Bowl.) For his part, No. 12 arrived in Boston with the team Monday night. Now that Brady isn't participating in Sunday's Pro Bowl, the two might get a jump start on a vacation to Costa Rica.

Chef Rene Michelena, most recently of Domani and Saint, is opening a new eatery called Central 37 in the Financial District. The four-story restaurant and lounge is at 21 Broad St., the former site of the Black Rhino, and is expected to open by month's end. Many of the details are under wraps, but we're told the menu will be "modern American." Michelena has been an all-star chef without a restaurant of late. Domani, which he opened with Saint owner Brian Lesser, has been closed for more than a month after a pipe burst during renovation work in the Copley Square Hotel, which houses the restaurant. (Saint has been open in the basement, unaffected by the water damage.) Lesser told us yesterday he expects to have Domani back up and running by late April, when the hotel is expected to reopen.

Former US poet laureate Louise Gluck, historian Nathaniel Philbrick, and novelists Claire Messud and Alice Hoffman will be feted by the local literati tomorrow at the seventh annual Massachusetts Book Awards ceremony at the State House. Gluck won in the poetry category for her collection "Averno," Philbrick in the nonfiction category for "Mayflower," Messud in fiction for her novel "The Emperor's Children," and Hoffman in children's/young adult literature for "Incantation."

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