The Kids are camera-ready

Danny Wood, Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, and Jonathan Knight of the New Kids on the Block performed Sunday night at the 2008 MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto, three months before the Boston-based group drops its first collection of new songs in 15 years. The album, as yet untitled, will be released Sept. 8 by Interscope.

Steven Tyler was spotted yesterday on an American Airlines flight bound for Boston from LA with girlfriend Erin Brady. In late May, Tyler checked himself into a Pasadena, Calif., rehab hospital after he had surgery on his feet. Tyler claimed the foot-repair pain was "intense" and that he "needed a safe environment to recuperate."

Newton writer Alison Bass, who told her share of stories in her years covering mental health for The Globe, has more space in her new gig than she ever had writing for the paper - 260 pages. Bass's new book is called "Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial." It's an investigative yarn about the use of Paxil and other antidepressant drugs in children, the entanglement of a prominent Brown University psychiatrist professor with drug companies, and a sparky New York prosecutor named Rose Firestein who sues a pharmaceutical giant. The author speaks at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge tonight at 7.

What is it about prosecuting crime in Boston that brings out the latent novelist in people? First there was the legendary George V. Higgins, who worked on organized crime cases before beginning his literary career. Last year former local prosecutor William Landay published his second novel, "The Strangler." Now comes Raffi Yessayan, an 11-year prosecutor who became chief of the Suffolk County D.A.'s gang unit before joining the defense bar last year. Yessayan's first novel, officially out next Tuesday, is "Eight in the Box."

When an Iraqi boy helped save the life of Mike Geary, an Army sergeant from Foxborough, Geary was inspired to share the story with TakePride, a group of artists and former military members who use art to illustrate the stories of American soldiers. Now TakePride has created a shirt based on Geary's experience, called "a boy, a bear & a soldier." In 2005 a boy stopped Geary and his squad leader and warned them of a bomb on a Tikrit highway as the men performed combat patrols. Geary had met the boy the day before when soldiers gave stuffed animals to some children. "Art allows us to capture the story in an entirely different way," TakePride cofounder Patrick Gray said via e-mail. The company sells shirts on takepride.com for about $20, with 20 percent of profits benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project. "The shirt not only enables people to communicate the story, but to actually wear the story and feel a meaningful personal connection with the spirit behind it, whether they've met Mike or not," Gray said. Geary, a 2003 Foxboro High graduate, is expected to return home from Iraq this month.

Medford native Maria Menounos of "Access Hollywood," Tedy Bruschi of the New England Patriots, and Hoda Kotb from NBC's "Today" show will be among the boldface names at the Free Health & Fitness Expo in the Hynes Convention Center this weekend. Cosponsored by WHDH-TV (Channel 7) and Partners HealthCare, the expo will feature free health screenings. Meanwhile, Channel 7 has named Wayland native Karen Levy as its director of creative services, in charge of on-air promotion and marketing. No word yet on a successor for Randi Goldklank, who resigned as Channel 7 general manager Friday in the wake of a prescription drug- and alcohol-fueled tirade at Logan International Airport in April.

She's an MTV veejay, the face of Neutrogena, and a former Miss USA. What other hat does Methuen's Susie Castillo wear? Add author to the list. Castillo has written her first book, "Confidence Is Queen: The Four Keys to Ultimate Beauty Through Positive Thinking." In the book, Castillo describes how her Puerto Rican mother taught her to use the power of positive thinking to make her dreams come true. It's obviously working. The former beauty queen made Maxim magazine's list of the world's 100 most beautiful women this year.

Johnny Diaz, David Mehegan, and Don Aucoin of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.