Playing with their food

Early yesterday morning Rustic Kitchen, Jim Cafarelli's Park Square restaurant, was already bustling with plates of food being sent out to happy diners. But the several dozen people gathered weren't just any patrons - they had already been through the makeshift hair and makeup department and were ready to begin filming a pilot episode of a TV cooking show "In the Kitchen With Alissa Bigelow." The eatery's in-house studio has been used for special demonstration dinners and to film a previous version of the show -with Bigelow as host - that ran on the Internet. Cafarelli got nibbles from national outlets, but that required a slicker and bigger show. (And that meant hiring a full crew to film three shows over the weekend.) Bigelow, a former actress who worked for NESN for two years, called upon her friend "House, MD" director Deran Sarafian to work as a consultant and co-producer for the pilot. "Alissa's a natural. She's the kind of presence in the kitchen people can relate to," said Sarafian, who signed on before the writers' strike was settled. When Bigelow flubbed a bit about wine with her onscreen sidekick, Carlos "Pepé" Flores, and Rustic Kitchen's chef, Tom Holloway, which on any other cooking show would have meant the director yelled cut, Cafarelli just stood back and smiled. The restaurateur said: "That's it. That's our gold right there. That's what this show is all about. Fun in the kitchen with regular people."

Bruins center Phil Kessel really didn't need an assist from professional auctioneer Dan Flynn to ratchet up the bidding on items at the ninth Boston Bruins Charity Auction. With more than 300 pouring into Mantra throughout the evening Sunday, Kessel had a steady stream of those willing to part with their money. A chance to watch a Red Sox game with Glen Murray hit $5,500, so the veteran B's winger stepped in and offered a second set of tickets for the same bid. Dinner with Patrice Bergeron proved to be so popular that No. 34 offered up a second date, raising a total of $5,000. The event raised more than $115,000 for Bruins charities.

Yes, there was the big game, but when NBA players gathered in the Big Easy for the league's annual All-Star tilt there was even more taking place off the court over the weekend than inside the New Orleans Arena on Sunday night. Celtics captain Paul Pierce was a blur in the Crescent City. No. 34 participated in an 8-ball tourney for charity hosted by Magic Johnson and Alonzo Mourning and donned a rain slicker and got his hands dirty helping the NBA Cares program build homes for those who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. While Pierce was outside, teammate and fellow All-Star Ray Allen was at a New Orleans school helping City Year volunteers paint classrooms. (We're told the young workers marveled at Allen's ability to finish a wall so quickly, to which he replied that he had it easier because he "didn't need a ladder.") And even Cs mascot Lucky got in on the action, clowning around throughout the weekend with courtside celebs including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, actress Gabrielle Union, and singer Ne-Yo.

As a cofounder of Nantucket Nectars, Tom First knows that quirky things happen when celebrities like your products. But First, who now runs owater out of his Concord office, wasn't prepared for the fallout of being part of "Step Up 2," the dance movie that was released late last week. "I didn't know anything about the movie, but there was our bottle - right on one of the movie's posters," First told us yesterday. "What the heck, they're people dancing and sweating and drinking our water." First ran Nantucket Nectars for some 15 years with Tom Scott before the duo sold the juice company to Cadbury Schweppes in 2002. "I learned from us doing our 'We're the Juice Guys' ads that people pick up on your product in different ways," First said from his Concord office. The movie was sent cases of owater from an LA company that helps with promotion, First said, but "you never know if they want to drink it or if it will be part of anything bigger." First, who uses bottling plants in three locations around the country to lessen the environmental impact, counts chef Ming Tsai and Celtics player Kevin Garnett, who signed on before coming to Boston, among owater investors. "But it's always a kick to see your product in a movie," First said. "I guess this means I have to see 'Step Up' One before I do anything else."

And while we're on the subject of water, Pepsi has tapped Matt Damon to help promote the soft-drink giant's Ethos water brand. Pepsi has entered into a partnership to give $2.5 million to Damon's H2O Africa, an on-the-ground nonprofit that sets up clean water projects in Niger, Mali, Senegal, and other African countries, according to a company release. However, Brandweek .com, a New York website that tracks the advertising world, reports that the Oscar-winning Cambridge native will be out pitching for PepsiCo to help the company fight the image that bottled water has been bad for the environment. Quoting a source, Brandweek.com says we could see the Damon print ads by next month.

Max Mutchnick, the Emerson alum who teamed up with a high school friend to create "Will & Grace," is returning to TV. Mutchnick and David Kohan's untitled, half-hour comedy pilot was given the go-ahead by ABC. The deal was one of the first of what the trade publications believe will be a wave of deals made now that the writers' strike is settled. The show is reported to be about two best friends - one gay, the other straight - whose relationship is tested when they both wind up with serious significant others at the same time. The story is loosely based on the lives of the show's creators: Mutchnick is gay and Kohan is straight. A member of Emerson's board of trustees, Mutchnick has donated the living room set from "Will & Grace" to his alma mater and the college's Boylston Street campus center bears his name.

And speaking of Emerson alums, the college's communications fraternity Phi Alpha Tau presented its Brudnoy Award to Peter Meade, a '70 grad who is chairman of the board of trustees. Meade, who was a close friend of the award's namesake - late WBZ radio talk show host David Brudnoy - was honored by the award's first recipient, Mayor Tom Menino, at a ceremony over the weekend. A former WBZ chat-meister himself, Meade is the chairman of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy and a VP for Blue Cross Blue Shield. "Throughout his distinguished career as a public official, broadcaster, and business and civic leader, [Peter] has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the city and to values such as inclusion, participation, and civil rights," Emerson prez Jacqueline Liebergott said in making the presentation. "I can think of no more worthy recipient of this award."

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