Let's try it again

The first official photo of the reunited New Kids on the Block surfaced yesterday, and the guys don't look half bad. The Boston-bred boy band, which broke up in 1994, will announce their comeback tomorrow on the "Today" show. In the photo (from left), Joey McIntyre, Jonathan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, and Danny Wood are all dressed in various shades of shiny. The band, which sold millions of albums in its heyday, are expected to hit the road, perhaps as early as summer.

He's cooking up his own show

Shawn DeMartino deserves a shout-out. The Yarmouthport youth, who harbors dreams of hosting his own cooking show called "Cook It Smart," has a fan in Rachael Ray. The diva of the 30-minute meal recently read about DeMartino in the Globe, and invited him onto her show. (Taped a few weeks back, the episode, left, airs April 10.) "It's pretty special because Rachael was the person who inspired Shawn to learn how to cook," his dad, George DeMartino, told us. "It's kind of funny how the world works sometimes." DeMartino, 15, spent untold hours watching Ray and her fellow foodie Bobby Flay before taping a pilot called "Cook It Smart." He's now shopping the show to production companies and public television. Meanwhile, the cooking kid has also been contacted by the American Heart Association about becoming a spokesman.

Hollywood's making so many movies here, the Hub may have to put up a help-wanted sign. With a half-dozen films now shooting, or set to start, producers are having difficulty scaring up enough crew. "It's a good problem to have, I suppose," said Chris O'Donnell, business manager for Local 481 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. "At the moment, if there's a certain level of expertise (producers) need, they may have to go out of state." But the situation is hardly dire, says O'Donnell, who's seen his membership nearly double since Tinseltown started taking advantage of the state's new tax incentives. Movies being made here now include Martin Scorsese's "Ashecliffe"; Jennifer Garner and Matthew McConaughey in "The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past"; the untitled mall cop comedy with Kevin James; Bruce Willis in "The Surrogates"; and "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock, whom we spied dining at the InterContinental Hotel the other night. "Is it a problem that all of a sudden we have six movies when we've never had more than two? Sure," said director Sam Weisman. "But it's not stopping movies from coming here, and it won't."

Now we know times are tough: A descendant of one of Boston's first families is in dire financial straits. The Palm Beach Post is reporting that Melanie Cabot, daughter of Louis Wellington Cabot, the former chairman of Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., has filed for bankruptcy in Florida. "Usually, if someone files for bankruptcy, it's a pretty extreme measure," Melanie Cabot told the Post's super snoop Jose Lambiet. "But life doesn't stop at bankruptcy. I'm still going to galas or doing philanthropic things." What a relief. Cabot, 49, said she filed for bankruptcy because of lawsuits filed in Boston by her would-be partners in a Hub parking guide. (The guide, which includes the rates, hours, and locations of parking lots in Boston, is available at infosage.com, by the way.) Though she lives in Palm Beach these days, Cabot still has ties to Boston: She owns property here, and is a founder of the Boston chapter of The Single Gourmet, a social club for singles focused on dining.

The wife of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is on her way to Harvard. The Institute of Politics said yesterday that Elizabeth Edwards (inset) will be among its Visiting Fellows this spring. Joining the author and advocate will be Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former president of Latvia, and Andrew White, CEO of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, among others. As part of her fellowship, Edwards will give a talk next Wednesday.

Model mogul John Casablancas is hard at work on his life story, and word is he'll have a few choice words for Tom Brady's supermodel sweetheart, Gisele Bundchen. Casablancas, who founded Elite Model Management more than 35 years ago, has apparently never forgiven the Brazilian beauty for ditching his agency for IMG. (He sued Bundchen, unsuccessfully, for $15 million after she made the switch.) In his memoir, Casablancas, father of Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas, has devoted an entire chapter to Gisele, and called it "The Triumph of Nothingness." We're told Bundchen and the brass at IMG are begging Casablancas to leave Gi out of his book. . . . Celtics Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Rajon Rondo have tickets to see Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige tonight at the TD Banknorth Garden.

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