Pomp, circumstance and a bit of jazz

By Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein  |  June 5, 2009

Wynton Marsalis got an honorary degree at Harvard's commencement yesterday and then, with president Drew Gilpin Faust standing beside him, the jazz trumpeter played "When the Saints Go Marching In."

While she waits for the second season of Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" to start shooting, actress Eliza Dushku is staying busy. We caught up with the Watertown native this week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in LA, where she was hyping Wet, a new video game in which the 28-year-old actress plays Rubi Malone, an acrobatic, whiskey-guzzling, sword-swinging, gun-for-hire. Created by Bethesda Softworks, the Maryland-based company that also developed The Elder Scrolls series and the award-winning Fallout 3, Wet is a stylized action game that looks like a Quentin Tarantino movie. Dushku, who lends her voice to the game, said she enjoys playing tough. "It's awesome, and I love that 'Kill Bill' look," said the actress, calling her character a "Jack Daniels-confident, hard-as-nails girl." Dushku told us she'll be back in Boston soon to make a movie with Ben Barnes and Brenda Fricker. And about her relationship with former Celtic Rick Fox? Dushku wouldn't dish.

How touching. During an appearance at a noisy Las Vegas nightclub this week, Bobby Brown announced that he is a father for the fifth time. The wobbly Roxbury-bred R&B singer was on the mike at Rok Wednesday night when he said his girl- friend/manager Alicia Etheridge had given birth to a boy named Cassius four days earlier. Here's hoping Brown restarts his singing career soon so he can support his burgeoning brood. . . . Bobby's ex, meanwhile, is at last set to make a comeback. Arista Records says Whitney Houston's long-awaited new album will be released Sept. 1. Houston hasn't put out a CD in seven years.

Hizzoner Tom Menino was in the house Wednesday night for the President at Pops concert, an annual event chaired this year by Putnam Investments's Robert Reynolds. The evening's special guest performer was trumpeter Chris Botti, who's become a fan favorite at Symphony Hall over the past few years.

We're told that Martha's Vineyard chef Ben deForest is shopping a reality TV show that would feature a few of his buddies, including Dan Aykroyd, Bruce Willis, Jimmy Fallon, and Rolling Stone Keith Richards. Perhaps because TV's already chock-full of cooking shows, deForest's foodie foray would be on the Web.

Boston Casting's Angela Peri continued her search for would-be stars yesterday, holding an open call for men and women who could pass for "crack addicts" and "tough broads" in "The Fighter," a film about Lowell-bred boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and his half-brother Dicky Ecklund. To be directed by David O. Russell and costarring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, the movie is set to start shooting in the Mill City in July. More than 400 people showed up for yesterday's call.

Mass. Film Office boss Nick Paleologos and Touchstone Pictures hosted a preview screening last night of "The Proposal," the new made-in-Massachusetts film starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Though set in Alaska, the movie was shot almost exclusively in Rockport, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Gloucester, and Cape Ann. Guests invited to last night's screening included state Senator Stephen Brewer, state Representative Brian Wallace, production supervisor Adam McCarthy, North Shore Chamber of Commerce director Peter Webber, Cape Ann chamber exec Bob Hastings, and assorted crew.

Kingston's Chris Cooper, who just wrapped work on "The Company Men," is never out of work for long. According to Variety, the Oscar winner just signed to costar with vampire it-boy Robert Pattinson in "Remember Me," a drama about a young man numb after his brother's suicide, and a young woman, played by "Lost" actress Emilie de Ravin, who lives life to its fullest. Cooper, by the way, was among several familiar faces at Wednesday's MGH event honoring people for their contribution to fight cancer. Also there were Cooper's wife, Marianne, the PGA's Jay Monahan, Dr. Howard Weinstein, MGH president Dr. Peter Slavin, Bruin Aaron Ward, Elizabeth Edwards, and "The Truth About Cancer" filmmaker Linda Garmon.

Globe correspondent John M. Guilfoil contributed to the column. Read the Names blog at www.boston.com/namesblog. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.