Japan's best friend

UMass grad Richard Gere was the man of the hour at the Japan Society of Boston's annual dinner the other night. The actor, whose new film "Hachiko: A Dog's Story" is based on the true tale of Japan's most famous canine, spoke at length about his love of all things Eastern, including religion. We're told that Gere, a Buddhist who's good buddies with the Dalai Lama, came close to tears during his talk. (The guy's obviously got some emotional range: As the 2006 Hasty Pudding Man of the Year, Gere donned a blond wig and a bra.) In "Hachiko," by the way, the actor plays a professor who takes in an abandoned dog, and the pair form an unbreakable bond.

Joyce signs off and looks ahead

When WBZ-TV's arts and entertainment reporter Joyce Kulhawik says good-bye to her colleagues today, she brings to a close a 30-year run at the Allston station. Kulhawik, a former Brookline High English teacher, was the first to cover the arts beat on a local station after starting on WBZ's "Evening Magazine." Kulhawik and sports anchor Bob Lobel were among a few dozen people at the CBS affiliate to lose their jobs in a recent round of layoffs. We spoke to her about what's next.

Q: So, this is it?

A: [Yesterday] is my last day on the air. I will do a 5:20 movie review - "Sex and the City." I really wanted to do my regular report. And then I'll talk directly to the viewers, who I feel really are my extended family.

Q: What's next?

A: What am I going to do? Anything I want, is what I'm going to do. I will formulate some specifics and yes, I'm thinking about what the next move is. So many people have offered to share their ideas and pitched their ideas. I've been quite busy finishing up. I'll talk to people I trust, use them as a sounding board and reconnoiter. But not today.

Q: Forgive me, but you seem kind of upbeat for someone who ends a 30-year career by being laid off.

A: I'm a realist. It's a business and I knew it would end at some point. I thought when I started it might only last six months and look. I absolutely did not see this coming. But it is a business and I have had, no kidding, the best career.

Q: Sounds like you are leaving with happy memories. What were your best interviews?

A: Yes, I can't really say I like any one thing more than the others or any one interview. I can remember the bookends. My first interview was Bill Murray, who was difficult. And my last interview was Barbara Walters. I took that as a good sign. There's a woman who has reinvented herself.

Q: Other highlights?

A: There's Meryl Streep. Paul Newman showed me that he was bowlegged. Robert Redford. Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn. Giants. Truly giants. The year I cohosted ["Siskel & Ebert"] with Roger Ebert, also was amazing. . . . Rudolf Nureyev sticks out as well. It actually was one of the funnier experiences of my life. I fell over in my chair after interviewing the most graceful man on the planet. I've never tipped over a chair before in my life and I did it then.

Q: OK, Joyce, we get it. You're nice. But you have to share some dirt. Who was your worst interview?

A: That would be John Travolta. He got angry when I implied that maybe he had made some career mistakes. He was out doing press for a film called 'Perfect,' that wasn't so successful. He said he hadn't had any failures and I reminded him of his film 'Moment by Moment.' He wasn't happy.

Q: Do celebrities often give you grief?

A: No, recently I talked to the New Kids on the Block again, and Donnie Wahlberg told me 'If we're back, you can't go anywhere.' So he asked me to be in their video.

Q: What's your legacy then?

A: I started this beat. I was the first one to do local reporting for all arts and entertainment, not just movies, and I guess now I'm signing off as the last one on the beat. I'm very proud of that and deeply grateful to 'BZ for supporting it for as long as they did. But I'm deeply saddened by the loss of the beat. Clearly I'm supposed to be doing something else now.

Q: When will we see you again?

A: When I make my Broadway debut. God, I don't know. Who knows? I'm looking forward to a dazzling Act Two.

The fine art of basketball

Most people were insulted when, during the first round of the playoffs, Atlanta Hawks guard Mike Bibby badmouthed Celtics fans by calling them "bandwagon jumpers." Not so Ricardo Gomez. The Dorchester graffiti artist readily admits he didn't pay much attention to the C's until this season. "They weren't very good and, hey, I was an artist, not a basketball fan," says Gomez. But that changed with the arrival of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and the emergence of Rajon Rondo. Now, Gomez can't get enough. "I haven't stopped watching these guys," he says. So inspired by Gang Green is Gomez that he put down his spray paints and picked up a brush and some charcoal to create a series of pictures of the C's. "I've always been able to draw," says Gomez, who has no formal art training. "Dorchester was kind of tough growing up, so my mom kept me cooped up at home and I drew." His paintings are on display now at Johnnie's On the Side, John Caron's restaurant on Portland Street, not far from the Garden. "It's weird," says Gomez. "I've lived here my whole life, but I'm just getting into the Celtics now."

Hizzoner Tom Menino, Channel 5's Liz Brunner, Room to Grow exec Saskia Epstein, former AG Tom Reilly, and Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley were among the 900 people who attended this week's Voices & Visions Gala benefiting the Home for Little Wanderers. The event raised nearly $1 million to support the children and families in the home's 20 programs across Southeastern Massachusetts.

What Billy Crystal did with the Yankees, Denis Leary would love to do with the Red Sox. The Emerson alum, who has a plum role in the new HBO movie "Recount," tells Time magazine he'd like to play in a Sox game. (Crystal, you'll recall, whiffed in his one at-bat during a Yankees spring training game.) "It would be so awesome to actually walk out on the field and play, just for one inning," says Leary. "I'd also steal everything I could get my hands on in the clubhouse." In "Recount," which is about the Florida recount in 2000, Leary plays Michael Whouley, national field director for the Al Gore campaign.

Lynn residents may want to keep an eye out for Bruce Willis. We're told the cast and crew of "The Surrogates" are setting up shop today at LynnArts Community Arts Center on Exchange Street. Willis, the star of the sci-fi thriller, has kept a very low profile during the film shoot. Unlike virtually every other Hollywood actor now working in Boston, Demi Moore's ex isn't routinely photographed at Celtics or Sox games.

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