Another successful drive by Pats

Patriot Place was buzzing with all kinds of "Black Friday" and charity activity yesterday. In the afternoon, Patriots ladies, including Laura McDaniels, Dallas Pioli, and Kesha Warren, kicked off a Cradles to Crayons coat drive, rounding up warm jackets they'd collected from player families and coaches. The coats will help keep needy and homeless kids warm this winter. Later, they also raised donations for the charity by wrapping shoppers' presents. Also on the scene: calendar-signing Pats cheerleaders and local musicians Jen Murdza, Sarah Blacker, and Lansdowne, who kept the die-hard shoppers in the spirit.

They share a first name and now they'll be sitting in the front row together at the next LA Fashion Week. Fans of "The Hills" star Lauren Conrad (inset) have chosen Suffolk University freshman Lauren Pelkey as top model in a recent fashion show created by the reality diva/designer at The Estate, and now Pelkey's headed for the left coast. (Fans voted online for the 18-year-old West Springfield student, one of 10 local women to showcase Conrad's designs.) "I literally dropped my phone and fell to the ground," Pelkey said, via e-mail, of the text message she got from the show's coordinator. "And that's when my friends knew I had won." Pelkey is one four national winners from Conrad's recent shows, and she hopes the exposure might jump-start a modeling career.

Ever wonder what Matt Damon's wife, Luciana, thought of Sarah Silverman's hilarious musical tribute to the Cambridge actor, "I'm [expletive] Matt Damon?" "Let's just say Sarah's a friend of the family - we'll just leave it at that," Damon told Extra recently. "My wife is very cool. Actually, someone sent us a T-shirt in the mail that said 'I'm [expletive] Matt Damon' with a note that said, 'Dear Lucy, you're the one who can actually wear this!' " We'll await the paparazzi pictures of her sporting it in Miami. Damon, by the way, has four new movies opening next year and talked about a fourth "Bourne" as being in the works, but still a good ways off.

Not everyone stayed home on turkey day in a food coma. Energetic Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward and his 5-year-old son, Liam, hand-delivered 160 turkeys to four charities on Thanksgiving. Ward bought 80 birds himself, and Stop & Shop kicked in the rest. The birds weighed about 4,000 pounds, but apparently put no strain on the player, who helped his team triumph over the New York Islanders at the Garden yesterday.

The romantic dinner rumors were so rampant that Whitney Houston felt compelled to officially quash the chatter that she and ex-hubby Bobby Brown are making a comeback. The singer's publicist, Nancy Seltzer, called the reunion speculation "a complete fabrication" in a recent statement. Houston has repeatedly said she and Brown are just friends working together to parent their teenage daughter, Bobbi Kristina.

Curt Schilling is using the off-season to do good. The Sox pitcher is taking off "soon" for a weeklong USO/Armed Forces tour of the Persian Gulf, where he'll rub shoulders and talk baseball with soldiers. (USO folks can't say when, exactly, for security reasons.) Schilling, the son of a former Army paratrooper, is a big supporter of the troops and also traveled to Camp Zama in Japan this year.

Rajon Rondo is throwing his weight behind a Shaw's food bank drive next week. The Celts star will meet and greet folks who buy a $15 bag of donation food at the Mansfield Shaw's Tuesday morning. Rondo will also film a hunger PSA at the store at 8 a.m., and is inviting jersey-wearing kids to join in. Pats linebacker Mike Vrabel plans to sign his children's book, "The Hog Mollies and the Pickle Pie Party," at the Canton Shaw's Monday afternoon.

UMass sophomore Leah Maio was in with the cartoon balloons and massive crowds at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday. The champion baton twirler was one of about a dozen Belchertown Twirlers members who made the trip to New York, marching with 150 other national all-stars in red, white, and gold tuxedo-like costumes. "I wasn't really nervous, more excited," Maio said. "It went by so fast, it didn't feel like 3 miles at all." Everything went smoothly, she reported - no out-of-control balloons attacked anyone. Except when they reached Herald Square, someone started their music in the middle of the song, Maio said. "We were a little confused, but there's a place in the music where we knew exactly what to do. So we all got it together really fast."

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