Crash pad

Roxbury bad boy Bobby Brown found himself resting his cowboy boots in the back of an ambulance Thursday afternoon, after he and "Gone Country" costar Maureen McCormick (yep, Marcia Brady) were involved in a minor car crash outside Newport, Tenn. Police confirmed the wreck, but provided few details yesterday - including who was behind the wheel - saying only that the two were taken to the Baptist Hospital of Cocke County and released soon afterward. Brown and McCormick, along with costar Carnie Wilson, are filming a new reality show in rural Newport, "Outsider's Inn," in which they run a Southern bed-and-breakfast nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains. The inn is reportedly McCormick's brainchild; Wilson, who knows her way around some biscuits, is her master chef, and Brown provides the, uh, entertainment. We bet. The show is set to air on Country Music Television on Aug. 15.

Given her reputation for saying exactly what she means, even if it bruises people's big egos, we couldn't wait to read Debra Winger's book. Alas, "Undiscovered" isn't the dishy tell-all we were hoping for. "I was offered a lot of money to do that book," the actress told us yesterday with a grin. "Sure, I love to tell stories over dinner, but I didn't want to write them down." Instead, Winger's written a series of essays - vignettes, really - about her life on and off the screen. Her fans don't seem to mind: The 53-year-old actress (inset) did a Q&A for a big crowd Thursday at Brookline High School. "I'm at an age when a lot of women start to feel invisible, and I wanted to write about that." In the book, Winger doesn't dwell much on her fame or infamy, largely overlooking her three Oscar nominations and the Hollywood rap that she's difficult to deal with. (We won't waste any more ink on her tiffs with directors and costars, notably Richard Gere.) "That's boring," she said. "And, really, anyone who doesn't get it, [expletive] them." Formerly married to Timothy Hutton, with whom she has a 21-year-old son, Noah, Winger wed actor/director Arliss Howard in 1996. The couple have a son, Babe, who, much to his mother's chagrin, is a huge Yankees fan. "It's one of the deepest tragedies of my life," said Winger, a diehard Sox fan. She harbors particular hatred for Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, who never responded to a letter her son sent him. "Babe still goes to the mail box everyday," she mutters. Winger's next project is a movie based on T.C. Boyle's book "Drop City," and helping to get Barack Obama elected president. "I'm not a big Hillary [ Clinton] fan," she said. "I want a woman to run the country, just not that woman."

Drivers might catch a glimpse of something rather curious today - a 10-foot, shrink-wrapped Trojan horse, en route from Kennebunkport, Maine, to a grand unveiling at Tanglewood's opening soiree next Saturday. The horse, constructed from plywood and timber shingles, will serve as a majestic backdrop for partygoers before they take in the James Levine-directed Berlioz opera "Les Troyens." (Sadly, no tiny soldiers will leap out of its hollow stomach, said Boston artist Jane Miller, who'll tow the beast to Lenox behind her Toyota Land Cruiser. Co-designer and Louis Boston creative director Matthew Keller will copilot.) Spokeswoman Bernadette Horgan promised the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2008 Tanglewood season opener, complete with a lavish Grecian feast, will be "a party unlike any the BSO has thrown." Folkie James Taylor and wife Kim are honorary chairs and Governor Deval Patrick and wife Diane are expected, along with other sparkly Bostonians. Togas not required.

Pssst . . . While you're waiting for the new record to come out, check out Extreme's MySpace page. The Boston-bred rockers have begun streaming two songs from their forthcoming CD, "Saudades de Rock," which is the band's first new CD in 13 years. Websites frequented by metalheads generally like the new material. Said MetalSucks.net: "The only thing that strikes me as missing is the thunderous, stomping, slamming drums of Paul Geary, who has been replaced by Kevin Figueiredo since trading in his sticks for a pen and briefcase." (Geary's busy as a band manager these days, but singer Gary Cherone, guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, and bassist Pat Badger are all back in the fold.) Extreme is at the Bank of America Pavilion July 31 and the record is out Aug. 12.

Andover doesn't give the key to the city to just anyone. Since the town was incorporated in 1646, just two people have been deemed worthy of the honor. Make that three. Michael Chiklis, the chrome-domed actor who plays tough-talking LA cop Vic Mackey on "The Shield," was given the key to the city yesterday. "Michael Chiklis Day" was marked with a ceremony on the steps of Town Hall. "I don't think these people know what they've done. Whatever this opens, I will be through that door," Chiklis, 44, told us afterward. "This is incredibly flattering and humbling. It was wonderful to see my parents crying, and to see some people I haven't seen for 25 years." The actor, whose film credits include "The Fantastic Four" franchise, played football at Andover High, and when he'd made a little bread, donated generously to the school's athletic department. "He's a loyal son of Andover and he never forgot where he came from," said town manager Buzz Stapczynski.

The sprawling Brooklyn indie-rock collective Stars Like Fleas has a new album with a perplexing title: "The Ken Burns Effect." What's up with that? First a bit of background for folks without access to PBS: Ken Burns (inset) is a famous filmmaker who makes lengthy historical documentaries about wars, sports, and music. The Ken Burns Effect is a feature included in Apple's iMovie and iPhoto software that enables users to display images with slow zooming and panning effects, and fading transitions. It's a technique used extensively by the New Hampshire-based Burns (and most of the planet's screensavers), hence the name. We reached multi-instrumentalist Shannon Fields, Stars Like Fleas' main brainiac, on his cellphone in New York recently and made a few inquiries.

Q. Are you a Ken Burns fan or a Ken Burns Effect fan?
A. Neither.

Q. So why did you name your album "The Ken Burns Effect"?
A. Montgomery Knott, [Fields's bandmate] named it that. He's a filmmaker and runs a space in New York that showcases video art, but we're both interested in the idea of an aesthetic choice becoming a plug-in for after-effects. We feel that struggle making music. Every choice you drift to always feels canned, and it's hard to get away from. There are also lots of silly connections to Ken Burns. Montgomery went to Hampshire College; so did Burns. Sam Amidon, who plays fiddle and banjo with us, his father is an old Brattleboro folk revivalist who played on the "Civil War" soundtrack. Additionally, there are several musicians in the group with free jazz backgrounds and Ken Burns is the Antichrist to some of those guys because of his jazz documentary. Without taking a position myself, I think a lot of people felt that he just focused on the Wynton Marsalis view of the world, jazz as a museum piece, told in the language of commercial success.

Q. So the album title is something of a dark homage.
A. I wouldn't call it homage. I'd rather preserve the confusion about the intention.

Q. What kind of reaction have you gotten so far?
A. Most people I know hate the album title.

Q. Have you heard from Mr. Burns?
A. No. I'm still waiting to hear from him or Apple's lawyers, although I can't imagine they'd care about us.

Rhode Island's singular country music star Billy Gilman (above, second from left) this week dropped by Camp Florian, the Muscular Dystrophy Association's summer camp for kids with neuromuscular diseases. A longtime supporter of MDA, Gilman, whose song "One Voice" was a Top 20 hit on the Billboard country music charts a few years back, played golf, designed T-shirts, and enjoyed a barbecue with 60 children.

Joan Anderman of the Globe staff contributed to this column. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.