Rockers help kids kick the habit

By Carol Beggy and Mark Shanahan , Globe Staff  |  April 19, 2008

Actor Denis Leary and Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash were among the big-name performers at this week's benefit for Road Recovery, which helps kids kick their drug and alcohol addictions through music. The evening's all-star lineup includes Tom Morello, Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell, Perry Farrell, MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Jakob Dylan, singer Joseph Arthur, and Sen Dog of Cypress Hill.

Add Entertainment Weekly's Jennifer Reese to the list of people who think Augusten Burroughs's books are fiction. In her review of the writer's latest work, "A Wolf at the Table," Reese wonders: "How many lurid memoirs can a writer get away with before we suspect he's full of baloney?" A few years back, you'll recall, Burroughs, who hails from Western Massachusetts, was sued for defamation by the family he wrote about in his best-selling book "Running With Scissors." (The case was settled when Burroughs paid an undisclosed sum.) The new book is about the author's father, who's portrayed as a cruel and unusual character. "I don't want to remember my father as a monster, so I haven't read it," Burroughs's brother, John Robison, told us yesterday. "I want to make people happy while he's more willing to write darker things. . . . But that doesn't make it false."

Northampton novelist Elinor Lipman (inset) was among friends at an advance screening of "Then She Found Me" the other night in Newton. Directed by Helen Hunt, who also stars in the film, "Then She Found Me" is based on Lipman's book of the same name. (And to think it only took 19 years to make it to the big screen!) Several of Lipman's author amigos were in the audience, including Anita Shreve, Mameve Medwed, Stephen McCauley, Sebastian Stuart, Joan Wickersham, Madeleine Blais, Joan Leegant, and William Martin. The movie, costarring Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth, and Bette Midler, premieres Monday in New York. Lipman will be there.

Mitt Romney may want to consider hiring more youthful writers. The expiration date has come and gone on a few of the jokes he delivered at this week's Radio and Television Correspondents dinner. For example, Romney said he dropped out of the presidential race because he "took a bad fall at a campaign rally and broke [his] hair." Cambridge advice columnist Margot Howard found the line amusing, mostly because it was used in a "Saturday Night Live" skit about her late mother Ann Landers - 10 years ago. Quipped Howard: "Romney's gag writers must be pretty long in the tooth."

On temporary hiatus from the Kid Rock tour, former J. Geils frontman Peter Wolf dined at Davio's the other night with Momenta Pharmaceutical exec Richard Shea. (They were joined by "Chronicle" executive producer Chris Stirling and Phoenix exec David Bieber.) We're told Shea won dinner with the woofer goofer at an auction benefiting the Newton Comunity Service Center. When they were done eating, the singer and Shea kept the party rolling at Lizard Lounge, where Wolf performed with Dennis Brennan's ace band. Wolf, by the way, will be back on the road with Pam Anderson's ex in the coming weeks, playing Madison Square Garden May 15. And today he and Brennan will perform at the Newbury Comics in Harvard Square to celebrate National Record Store Day.

Actress Salma Hayek is on her way to Boston. The "Ugly Betty" producer will be here May 12 to christen Puma's racing yacht. (Skipper Ken Read and his crew will compete in the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race in a boat bearing the logo of the sporting goods company. Why Hayek? Her fiance, Francois-Henri Pinault, is CEO of the French luxury goods and fashion conglomerate PPR, which is Puma's parent company.

New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg put his feet up at the Park Plaza the other day, and later posed with the hotel's marketing man Greg Clark . . . WBCN alum Charles Laquidara was back on the air yesterday, if only briefly. The onetime host of "The Big Mattress" morning show lives in Hawaii now, but returned to Boston celebrate the station's 40th anniversary. Laquidara guest DJ'd during the midday show yesterday . . .The publicist for the "Untitled Kevin James Comedy," which has been filming around Boston, e-mailed to say the movie finally has a title. The story of a mild-mannered security guard who saves the day is called "Paul Blart: Mall Cop." We kind of liked the other title better.

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