Winning looks

By Mark Shanahan and Paysha Rhone , Globe Staff  |  October 8, 2008

Celts coach Doc Rivers was decked out last night as he and Rajon Rondo hosted a shindig at Saks Fifth Avenue. Put on by Saks and GQ magazine to benefit the Action for Boston Community Development, the party celebrated the store's newly renovated Men's Collections and featured martinis and boutique cigars.

Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin is getting all the press, but "SNL" cast member Jason Sudeikis does a decent Joe Biden. So says Biden's man in Boston, Larry Rasky. The communications director for the Delaware senator's presidential bids in '88 and '08, Rasky says he likes the way Sudeikis's send-up damns John McCain with faint praise. (In Saturday's skit, Biden called his Republican opponent "a raging maniac and a dear, dear friend.") Rasky, the CEO of Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, has no official role in the Biden campaign, but he's keeping a close eye on the race and raising a ton of money. It goes without saying he didn't agree with Pat Buchanan's assessment that Palin mopped the floor with Biden in the VP debate. "Buchanan hasn't been right about anything since the Nixon administration," said Rasky. Asked about the tone of the campaign, he said: "They can't win it on substance so they're going to try to win ugly. God only knows what we're going to hear going forward."

John Mayer is at his alma mater, Berklee College of Music, this week, dropping into classes and working on a songwriting and recording project with a group of 12 students. Today, Jennifer Aniston's ex will discuss his work and his own Berklee experience (Mayer graduated in 1998) at a private talk and gig at the Berklee Performance Center. . . . Senator John Kerry dined at Via Matta the other night with his daughter Vanessa.

Celts owner Wyc Grousbeck teamed up with Harvard Pilgrim CEO Charlie Baker and City Year yesterday to spruce up Boston's Ohrenberger school. Volunteers created a garden area, painted murals in the cafeteria, and beautified the school's traffic circle while former C's star Jo Jo White led a basketball clinic for kids.

A photo contest run by the Daily Hampshire Gazette has Boston Casting warning its "Edge of Darkness" extras to not take pictures on the set of the Mel Gibson movie in exchange for gift certificates from "local news organizations." The movie has been filming outdoor shots in the Northampton area since last week, and Gazette managing editor Larry Parnass confirmed the paper has indeed offered readers $25 gift cards to local businesses in exchange for their best set pics. All the shots will run in the paper - "even the losing ones" - but only the best three will win the prizes, he said. "So far we've received none," he admitted. But he's still hopeful. The paper did a similar contest back in the early '90s when Nicole Kidman was filming "Malice" and hanging out in the area with then-husband Tom Cruise, he said. "The filmmakers aren't liking our little contest," Parnass said. "They asked us to stop it. They said we were encouraging people to become paparazzi." The paper has declined to cancel the contest, which Parnass said isn't expected to disrupt filming, since the locals know how to behave themselves. However, "we did promise not to up the bounty," he said. Film spokesman Blaise Noto downplayed the whole affair, saying he spoke with the paper and it's all good. "There's no issue with it," he said. "It's cool." Noto said lots of folks have gathered to watch Gibson and Co. film outside the downtown courthouse and in nearby Amherst. They just need to mind set protocol, he said. "When they say roll, don't talk. If you take a photo, don't use a flash."

The party was at Game On! again Monday night, as the Red Sox hit it hard after their ALDS win over the Angels. Men-of-the-hour Jason Bay and Jed Lowrie were in the house, joined by teammates Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester, Jason Varitek, Coco Crisp, Daisuke Matsuzaka, J.D. Drew, Justin Masterson, Tim Wakefield, Manny Delcarmen, Mike Timlin, Mark Kotsay, Javier Lopez, and David Ross. Team owner John Henry dropped in with his posse: Linda Pizzuti, Tom Werner, and Ed Kane. Theo Epstein was also in the mix, as was NESN's Heidi Watney, former banking titan Chad Gifford, best-selling scribe Ben Mezrich and his wife, Tonya, Longwood Events owner Jim Apteker and Red Sox VP David Ginsberg. David Ortiz worked the crowd with shout-outs from the mike, while Alex Cora backed him on the turntable. Cora's tune of choice: Notorious B.I.G.'s "Going Back to Cali."

Cambridge author Michael Downing is gathering all his friends for the Oct. 24 opening of "Breakfast With Scot," a film about a gay couple - a former Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player and a lawyer - who take in an orphaned boy. The movie, adapted from Downing's novel, marks the first time a professional sports league has allowed its logos and uniforms to be used in a gay-themed movie, according to Variety. (The National Hockey League has taken some heat from right wingers since the movie premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival.) Downing (inset) said he's glad the couple he created, originally a chiropractor and an editor living in Cambridge, was changed. "I thought it was inspired," he said. And he was really impressed the NHL didn't buckle under criticism from anti-gay activists. "In the end, it was amazing to me that so much progress had been made," Downing said. "Good news about the world."

Robert and Myra Kraft joined Alex and Greg Spier to check out the deluxe new Kraft Family Center at the Invensys Foxboro branch of the Hockomock Area YMCA. The $8.5 million, 58,000-square-foot facility includes the Spier Family Aquatics Center, a community wellness center with a youth fitness area, a gymnasium with a running track, and a teen center, community room, and multi-purpose space.

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