A smashing success (on the fifth try)

By Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan, Globe Staff  |  May 13, 2008

Leaving little time for anything but smashing a bottle of Taittingers to christen Puma's new racing boat the Il Mostro, actress Salma Hayek breezed into town yesterday to help the Boston-based shoe and apparel company launch the vessel's racing season. But it wasn't easy. Hayek, who is engaged to Francois-Henri Pinault, CEO of the French conglomerate PPR, parent company of Puma and Gucci, needed five tries - and the help of crew member Jerry Kirby of Newport, R.I., on the final attempt - to break the bottle. "I hope I didn't break the boat," said the "Frida" actress and "Ugly Betty" producer, who made the day-trip to Boston alone to give the black, white, and red vessel a proper send-off while it was docked behind the Institute of Contemporary Art. (Puma threw a swank party for 300 guests in the ICA afterward.) Skipper Ken Read and his crew will compete in the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race.

Judging from ticket sales, at least locally, the NKOTB reunion tour could prove to be pretty profitable for not-so-New Kids Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood, and Jordan and Jonathan Knight. The Boston-bred man band has added a second Boston show, tickets for which went on sale yesterday. Back together for the first time in nearly 15 years, New Kids on the Block will perform Sept. 26 and 28 at the TD Banknorth Garden. At the moment, the band is busy in LA shooting the video for its new single, "Summertime," which is due to drop today.

We're not buying those rumors of wedding bells, but something's up with Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen. We're told the Pats QB and his Brazilian beauty are planning a big - and we mean big - party at the supermodel's surfside Costa Rican compound next month. Word is both Brady and Bundchen's families will be there. Hmm. By the way, No. 12 will be back in town this weekend to serve as honorary chairman of the Audi Best Buddies Challenge, the annual Boston-to-Hyannis Port benefit trek.

So much for Richard Bradley's tenure at 02138 magazine. After a little more than a year at the helm of the Harvard-centric mag, Bradley is leaving to become editor in chief of Worth, a high-end financial/lifestyle magazine. Meanwhile, 02138 has been bought by NY-based luxury publisher Manhattan Media, which is planning to start similar magazine titles for all of the Ivy League schools.

"The Will of Will Wolfkin" by screenwriter Steven Knight will be the first book published by Walden Pond Press, a new children's book imprint set up by Boston-based Walden Media and publishing giant HarperCollins. Knight's epic fantasy set under a glacier in Iceland is expected to be in stores by fall 2009. And because it's all about integration, Walden Media, the studio behind "The Chronicles of Narnia," has tapped Knight to write the script for "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," the third installment of the "Narnia" series. Walden and HarperCollins have already collaborated on books to coincide with the "Narnia," "Bridge to Terabithia," and "Charlotte's Web" film releases.

Looks like Watertown-bred actress Eliza Dushku will be back on TV. Fox's new fall lineup, announced yesterday, included a few "mid-season" picks like "Dollhouse," starring Dushku. That means "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon's new show will air by January - sooner if there are changes in the schedule. Dushku and her costars just finished shooting the first batch of episodes about a futuristic laboratory where workers have their memories erased after they complete their missions.

Pop superstar Madonna's directorial debut, "Filth and Wisdom," will make its North American premiere on June 18 as the opening night movie of the Provincetown International Film Festival. The five-day fest had already announced that Quentin Tarantino will be recognized as the Filmmaker on the Edge, and that Gael Garcia Bernal and Jane Lynch will be feted for their acting careers.

Jimmy Fallon 's kindergarten yearbook at St. Mary of the Snow in Saugerties, N.Y., listed him as "most likely to take over for David Letterman." Letterman's going nowhere, but close enough: Fallon is succeeding Conan O'Brien as the host of NBC's "Late Night" sometime in the middle of next year. Yesterday, NBC made official a plan that's been talked about since 2003, when a network executive first broached the idea of doing a talk show with the former "Saturday Night Live" star. "I've been doing a monologue in my living room the last three years, and it was embarrassing," Fallon joked at a news conference. NBC's plan is to have O'Brien move west to take over for Jay Leno at the "Tonight" show next year. After a break to refurbish the Rockefeller Center studio where O'Brien now works, Fallon, 33, will take over "Late Night."

A judge in London granted a preliminary divorce yesterday to former Beatle Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. If no one objects, the divorce will be final in six weeks. Mills, 40, will emerge from the rancorous divorce with a settlement of $47.5 million but a reputation damaged by her televised outbursts against McCartney. (AP)

Julian Schnabel was feted last night at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where he received the annual Medal Award for his contribution to art and film. A prolific painter during the '80s, Schnabel is focused these days on film, having directed the critically acclaimed "Basquiat," "Before Night Falls," and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." Schnabel was joined last night by his buddy Lou Reed, with whom he recently collaborated on a concert film of Reed's 1973 LP "Berlin." (The MFA screened the movie after last night's reception.) "Lou lives across the street from me and I know the record better than anyone else in the world," said Schnabel, explaining his partnership with the rocker. "And I guess he couldn't think of someone else to do it." The scarved Schnabel - also wearing sweat pants, sneakers, and yellow-tinted glasses - was much in demand during a VIP cocktail reception. At one point, the artist interrupted a conversation with developer/philanthropist Jerry Rappaport and his wife, Phyllis, to answer a call on his cellphone. He returned several minutes later, apologizing to his guests: "That was Javier Bardem. He's in Spain."

'It is my own stupidity to find myself in this embarrassing situation.' Dennis Farina, apologizing yesterday after being arrested Sunday in Los Angeles for carrying a loaded gun on his way to board a plane.

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