For Celts, celebration continues

Kudos to Jimmy Kimmel, who swallowed his Lakers pride last night and had Celts star Paul Pierce on his show. (Last week, after the C's won, Kimmel cracked: "I'm actually glad for Boston. They've gone way too long without a championship. It's been, like, since the World Series last year.") Pierce came on stage in a wheelchair, poking fun at his dramatic return from a knee injury in Game 2. The C's captain also revealed he plans to keep his MVP trophy on an LA rooftop alongside a giant photo of himself. . . . Who better to write a book about the Celts' dream season than former Globe basketball scribe Peter May? We're told May, who covered the Celtics for nearly 25 years, will draw on interviews with Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Doc Rivers to chronicle the '08 season in "Top of the World: The Inside Story of the Boston Celtics' Amazing One-Year Turnaround to Become NBA Champions." . . . Students from Dorchester's Grover Cleveland Middle School spent a memorable day in D.C. yesterday with Celts Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine. The kids, who won the team's Southwest ASSISTS Community Service contest, met Senator John Kerry, and toured the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and several of the monuments on the Mall.

In town for this weekend's race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the folks from Roush Fenway - John Henry's NASCAR team - were at the ballpark last night. Drivers David Ragan and Carl Edwards made a pit stop to take some batting practice, and Ragan later presented pitcher Jon Lester with a Roush Fenway Racing jersey in honor of his no-no earlier this season.

There were promises of celebs aplenty at last night's opening party at BOKX 109. Ed McMahon, Joan Jett, Sammy Hagar, and the Fixx were just a few of the folks on the guest list for the soiree celebrating the restaurant at Hotel Indigo in Newton. (Can you tell that the property's principals Lou Carrier and chef Evan Percoco have a lot of friends in the music biz?) Anyway, we did see Dee Snider and wife Suzette, AC/DC's Cliff Williams and Brian Johnson, the Knack's Doug Fieger, and A Flock of Seagulls's Mike Score. The notoriously crowd-averse Jett didn't make an appearance in the early part of the evening, while Hagar, we were told, was on his way. "When I was offered the opportunity to do something in Boston, I jumped at it," said Carrier, who grew up in Dennis. Cy Curnin, lead singer of the Fixx, said he was happy to lend his friend a hand. "He's the best man on the manor, always willing to help starving artists like us," said Curnin, whose band played a full set last night on the patio beside the hotel pool.

Matt Damon and buddies Brad Pitt and George Clooney have launched an ad campaign aimed at getting more aid into Burma, whose ruling junta has made access to the country difficult since last month's devastating cyclone Nargis. The ad campaign is sponsored by Not on Our Watch, which was founded by Damon, Pitt, and Clooney, among other Hollywood heavies. Yesterday, according to Agence France-Presse, the group bought a full-page ad in the Indonesian newspaper, the Jakarta Post, signed by former Philippine president Corazon Aquino, East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, and former Czech president Vaclav Havel. . . . Damon, meanwhile, is busy filming "The Informant" in Hawaii. He plays an overweight Archer Daniels Midland whistleblower in the movie directed by Steven Soderbergh.

He's the man of a million voices, better known as former WBCN jock Billy West. "I never cared about being on camera," says West, who blew out of Boston in '89 and never looked back. "I just found I could be more effective with my voice." And successful. West, who grew up in Roslindale, has voiced many memorable characters over the course of his TV and film career, including "Ren & Stimpy" and Philip J. Fry on "Futurama." (The DVD of "Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs" is out this week.) "You don't know when you're doing it that something's going to be a cultural phenomenon," said West. "Sometimes lightning just strikes." While he enjoys animated movies like "Toy Story" and "Nemo," that isn't what West does. "Take Tom Hanks. . . . If you're hired to do a character that looks and sounds like you, there's no alchemy there," he said. "I like to have a hand in creating the character."

Celebrity mags are working overtime tattling on local heroes Tom Brady and Mark Wahlberg. Citing an unnamed source, US Weekly reports that the custody arrangement worked out between Tom and ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan has hit a snag. The problem? The Pats QB's plans are always changing, which is making it difficult for Moynahan (inset) to schedule auditions and appointments. . . . Of Wahlberg, In Touch Weekly writes that the former Dorchester juvie is planning to marry girlfriend Rhea Durham at their LA home very soon. The couple has two children, 4-year-old Ella and 2-year-old Michael, and a baby boy is due in September.

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