Spinning with the stars

The NBA All-Star Weekend attracted stars of all stripes to sunny Phoenix. While the Eastern Conference team didn't exactly, uh, win, Celtics Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett did tear it up on the court in front of a slew of glittery folks such Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Eva Longoria Parker, and Ludacris. (Even John McCain and wife Cindy were in the stands.) Jay-Z hosted the swanky Two Kings party, along with Lebron James Saturday night. Allen popped up at the Jordan Brand Fabulous 23 Cocktail Party with his wife, Shannon. And Boston actress Eliza Dushku was spotted at several bashes, including a T-Mobile promo party, where she rather adeptly spun a basketball. Other party people on the scene: Common, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Fabolous, Katy Perry, and Young Jeezy. . . . Speaking of Dushku, the star of the new Joss Whedon show, "Dollhouse," wants fans to redesign her MySpace Celebrity profile. The winner of the contest, which runs through March 6, will be flown to LA to hang with Dushku and personally present his or her snazzy new profile. Details can be found on the "Dollhouse" My- Space page. BTW, the show's premiere attracted 4.7 million viewers Friday, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Cambridge star Matt Damon joined famous history professor (and his former baby sitter) Howard Zinn for a special screening of "The People Speak" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York last week. The documentary, based on Zinn's "A People's History of the United States," features readings and performances by lots of famous folks, including Viggo Mortensen, David Strathairn, Marisa Tomei, John Legend, and Kerry Washington.

Ben Affleck has penned an essay for Time magazine about his work in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The actor has traveled several times to the African country, where he filmed a short documentary, "Gimme Shelter," for the United Nations. In his Time piece, he writes: "It is common in the West to read about African lives in grim statistical terms, so we've become inured to these huge numbers of deaths. Making matters worse, the conflict in Congo is often seen as a hopelessly byzantine African tribal war, encouraging the damning notion that nothing will ever change. . . . That should not be the case in Congo." When Ben runs for public office, we'll be saying we told you so.

Just when we thought all Tom Brady was up to was canoodling . . . the Pats QB will be at the West End House Boys & Girls Club in Allston tomorrow to announce his donation of 1,000 laptops to kids in New England and 31 countries. Brady is donating the computers through the Cambridge-based One Laptop per Child, which provides low-cost laptops to children in some of the world's poorest countries. He'll be joined at the ceremony by Patriots Charitable Foundation president Josh Kraft and One Laptop per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte. Kids at the club will also chat live with peers in Uganda to establish virtual pen pals.

Bill Viola, an internationally recognized video artist, will receive the $75,000 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts from the Council for the Arts at MIT at a ceremony at the school March 10. Viola will spend a week at the university, working with students.

We hear Harvard student Hillary Dobbs (inset) competed in the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Fla., last week. Hillary, daughter of CNN money guy Lou Dobbs, rode in both the Battle of the Sexes event (in which women ride against men) and the Gambler's Choice event, despite being sick with the flu and having just soldiered through exams. The 20-year-old also belted out a few tunes on stage at a fund-raiser for the Equestrian Aid Foundation. Ah, the energy of youth.

The trailer for the filmed-in-Boston flick "The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" is out, and it sure looks wacky. See Michael Douglas walk straight through Matthew McConaughey like he's not even there! Watch McConaughey fall into a wedding cake! Witness him try to stop a wedding-veiled Jennifer Garner from getting married! The movie opens May 1 and we're praying to the movie gods it's better than "Bride Wars" and "My Best Friend's Girl."

BSO conductor James Levine was spotted enjoying some pasta at Via Matta on Valentine's Day. . . . Everett's Ellen Pompeo was expected to pay a visit to "Late Show With David Letterman" last night.

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