Everything's Ducky for Pops

Members of the Boston Pops hopped on a Boston Duck Tour boat yesterday morning outside Symphony Hall for a quick spin around the city. The musicians were filmed while playing for a segment that will be shown during this season's concerts. Pops maestro Keith Lockhart was filmed as he rode as the coxswain for a Harvard crew team on a quick trip up the Charles River.

Did Parade magazine doctor its cover picture of Patrick Dempsey? That's what the "Grey's Anatomy" actor insisted while chatting this week with Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. McDreamy said the magazine added gray highlights to his hair - and changed the color of his shirt - in a photo that ran on the front of Sunday's magazine. Hmmm. Parade spokeswoman Alexis Collado told us it's true that the mag changed the color of Dempsey's T from charcoal to red, but said the designers didn't touch his hair. "Either he's kidding or he's trying to convince people he doesn't dye his hair," said Collado. "I can assure you, we did not manipulate that picture." For what it's worth, Dempsey, a Lewiston, Maine native, showed up at this week's New York premiere of his new movie "Made of Honor" without a touch of gray.

All went well Tuesday night at the world premiere of Scituate native Peter Tolan's film "Finding Amanda" at the Tribeca Film Festival. "It was an amazing night," said composer Brad Hatfield, Tolan's brother-in-law who wrote music for the comedy. "I was so glad to see how the audience responded to the finished work." In addition to the film's stars, Matthew Broderick and Brittany Snow, the premiere and its after-party at 1 Oak in Manhattan drew a number of people with Boston connections including "Rescue Me" actress Callie Thorne and star Denis Leary, who created the FX show with Tolan.

It's good to be Jeffrey Donovan. The Amesbury-bred actor, who'll celebrate his 40th birthday with a big party May 10 at Miami's chic Delano Hotel, is very much in demand these days. His new movie, "Changeling," is premiering at this month's Cannes Film Festival and the second season of his TV series, "Burn Notice," is filming now in South Florida. Directed by Clint Eastwood and costarring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, "Changeling" is a 1920s-era thriller. The announcement that it'll screen at Cannes is surprising since it won't be in theaters until November.

Thirteen years after they released their last record, Extreme is ready with something new. Singer Gary Cherone writes on the band's MySpace page that the CD is all but done. "Nuno [Bettencourt] is working overtime finishing up the mixes, and believe the hype! These are the best performances of the band . . . ever!" says Cherone, adding that the Boston-bred band is shooting for a late summer US tour. The missive is signed: "our humble and lovable shoeshine boy, Gary."

Time magazine's annual - and highly arbitrary - list of the world's 100 most influential people includes a few folks from Cambridge. Isaac Berzin, founder of GreenFuel Technologies, and Nobel Peace Prize winner and Harvard Medical School prof Eric Chivian both make the grade. So, too, do Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, creators of the computer games Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Guitarist Steve Van Zandt says the pair have made an immense contribution to pop culture. "Rock Band is initiating [kids] to the pleasures of whammy bars, bass runs, and clubbing tom-toms." The list, which will be released Friday, also includes usual suspects George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, Judd Apatow, Dalai Lama, and five-time honoree Oprah Winfrey.

Already confirmed to perform at the KISS 108 concert May 18, New Kids on the Block will be back Sept. 26 at the TD Banknorth Garden. Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Jonathan and Jordan Knight, and Danny Wood broke up 15 years ago, but they've reunited and are set to tour in support of a new CD. The first single, "Summertime," is out May 13.

French filmmaker Irena Salina will be at Brandeis tonight with her new documentary "FLOW: For Love of Water," about the threat to the world's water supply posed by politics and pollution. We're told she'll answer questions after the screening.

Whatever you think of Tom Brady and his girlfriend Gisele Bundchen's globetrotting exploits, you have to admit they are a good-looking couple. But the duo don't make People magazine's annual list of "100 Most Beautiful," which hits newsstands tomorrow. Although the mag's editors single out "Bride Wars" star Kate Hudson as their cover girl, the other 99 aren't ranked. The list also includes "The 40 Year Old Virgin" star Elizabeth Banks, who hails from Pittsfield, New Hampshire native Sarah Silverman, Marlborough native Marcia Cross, and actress Lauren Ambrose, who spent summers studying at Tanglewood. Getting a nod as people who do good and look good are Ben Affleck's better half, Jennifer Garner, for her work in support of education, and Maine native Patrick Dempsey, who raises money for cancer research. Neil Diamond's inspiration for "Sweet Caroline," Caroline Kennedy, also made the cut.

Had his travel agent not made an error booking his flight, "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane says he would have been on one of the planes that struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. "I was actually booked on the first flight that hit. . . . I missed it by about 10 minutes," MacFarlane said in an interview slated to air last night on the TV show "Extra." MacFarlane, a Rhode Island native who also created "American Dad," arrived at Logan airport after the plane left the gate, he told interviewer Carlos Diaz. "It was a combination of a typo on the part of my travel agent . . . and a bit too much of the JD the night before." MacFarlane continued: "I don't think everything happens for a reason. I think there are coincidences. There are accidents. I can't afford to attach too much to it . . . because then I wouldn't be able to write comedy anymore."

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

• Searched
• E-Mailed