Brady's mail call

Has Pats QB Tom Brady become Gisele Bundchen's errand boy? So say the paparazzi, who've taken to teasing No. 12 while they trail him around New York City. Last week the signal-caller was doing some business in Mail Boxes Etc., and the shutterbugs outside speculated that the football star was fetching his girlfriend's mail. But who wouldn't want to be the supermodel's servant? And what else does Brady have to do in the off-season? Bundchen, meanwhile, is keeping very busy. Last week she sat for famed photographer Patrick Demarchelier to shoot the cover of Spanish Vogue and for Peruvian fashion lensman Mario Testino for the new Vogue Eyewear campaign. Next week she's off to Spain to launch Vogue Eyewear's worldwide campaign. Looks like Tom will be bringing in the mail for a while longer.

Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong talked to Boston Common magazine about his decision to run next month's Boston Marathon. "Some say you haven't done a marathon till you've tried Boston," Armstrong says in the April issue. "So I'm looking forward to giving it a try. Speaking of the marathon, I probably ought to be training for it. Oops." Armstrong also talks about raising more than $210 million through his foundation for cancer research and advocacy, and whether his jogging partner, Matthew McConaughey, will play the cyclist in the movie version of Armstrong's life. "Whoever's most passionate about the script," Armstrong says, "someone who has a personal interest in me. You really need to be into the things I'm into."

At 81, Chuck Berry doesn't answer the bell every time it rings. But he did when Woody Giessmann came calling. "I guess lady luck's on my side," said Giessmann, who got Berry to play at next month's benefit for Right Turn, the Arlington-based nonprofit for artists and entertainers dealing with drug and alcohol problems. "I said, 'Why don't we get the father of rock 'n' roll to perform,' and he said yes." Berry - whose hits include "Johnny B. Goode," "Maybellene," and "Roll Over, Beethoven" - will be backed by something approaching a supergroup, including Giessmann, who used to be the Del Fuegos drummer, Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Rolling Stones session players Chuck Leavell and Tim Ries, former Doobie Brother guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Joan Jett's onetime ax man Ricky Byrd, Barry Goudreau, formerly of the band Boston, and singer Kate Taylor. Berry's getting paid, of course, but not a lot. "Chuck Berry doesn't come for free, man," said Giessmann. "But he's bent over backwards to help us because he knows this is a worthy cause." The show takes place April 13 at the Berklee Performance Center.

If Caitlin McCarthy has anything to say about it, Steve Guttenberg may end up winning the new season of "Dancing With the Stars." An aspiring screenwriter, McCarthy's a Worcester high school teacher who's got all of her students voting for the guy she calls "the Gutte." McCarthy met the "Police Academy" actor last fall at the Hamptons International Film Festival, where Guttenberg and actress Alysia Reiner did a staged reading of McCarthy's play "Wonder Drug." The two have kept in touch, and McCarthy's confident he'll be able to out-foxtrot the likes of Adam Carolla and Penn Jillette. "He's such a positive person. What you see on 'Dancing With the Stars' is exactly what he's like in real life," says McCarthy. "I've got the phone number to vote for him on speed dial."

Kevin James whirled around on a Segway at the Burlington Mall yesterday as several hundred extras milled about on the first of a few days of filming for a comedy that "The King of Queens" co-wrote. Formerly called "Mall Cop," the untitled film is about a security guard who must thwart an organized gang that is taking over the mall. Directed by Steve Carr, the comedy counts Adam Sandler among its producers.

What we can tell you is that chef Ken Oringer - whose Boston eateries include Clio, Toro, and La Verdad - will face off against Cat Cora in the "Iron Chef America" episode that airs April 6. But we can't tell you the secret ingredient or who wins because neither Oringer nor the Food Network types are spilling the beans. Oringer picked Cora during the taping in New York last fall, we're told, because he thinks her style best suits his. One other detail we can reveal: Oringer is planning a local viewing party for when the knives start to fly.

Baritone James Westman, who opened as Belcore in the Boston Lyric Opera's "L'elisir d'amore," became ill and couldn't finish the show's run. Luckily, Earle Patriarco, whose previous BLO credits include the same role about 10 seasons ago, was able to fill in on Sunday and again tonight. Patriarco was in rehearsals for the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Philip Glass's "Satyagraha" when he got the call and the New York company cleared his schedule.

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