Business and pleasure

On the Paige

A party in Lexington to celebrate Larry Tye’s new book, “Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend,’’ attracted three former Sox pitchers with a special connection to Satchel Paige. Bill Monbouquette, who opposed Paige in his last game in the majors (when Paige was at the ripe old age of 59 years and 2 months), Ted Lepcio, who was with Ted Williams when they discovered Satch bringing three bottles of beer to the bullpen, and Dennis “Oil Can’’ Boyd, who met Paige and considered him a mentor. Tye, a former Globe reporter, previously wrote “Shock’’ with Kitty Dukakis, who also stopped by Tuesday’s party at The Depot.

So much for Sean Penn playing Larry in Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s film “The Three Stooges.’’ Variety reports that Penn, citing “personal reasons,’’ has pulled out of both “The Three Stooges’’ and director Asger Leth’s drug drama “Cartel.’’ It’s not clear who will replace Penn in the Farrellys’ long-gestating comic romp, or if the funny filmmakers will wait for the Oscar winner to return to work. (Last fall, before Penn was on board, Peter Farrelly told us that Jeff Daniels, who was in “Dumb & Dumber,’’ would make a good Larry.) The Farrellys are hoping to shoot the film in their native Rhode Island, and the stellar cast includes Jim Carrey as Curly and Benicio Del Toro as Moe. The nature of Penn’s problem hasn’t been identified, but the actor and his wife, Robin Wright Penn, have twice recently announced their intention to divorce only to reconcile. Penn has two movies already in the can - “Fair Game,’’ about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, and Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life’’ - and was rumored to be looking at roles in two other films, including Paolo Sorrentino’s “This Must Be the Place’’ and Jim Sheridan’s “Black Mass,’’ the Irish filmmaker’s movie about Whitey Bulger.

Former state senator Jarrett T. Barrios has been named the new president of GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). Barrios, 40, who will be the youngest director in the organization’s history, has resigned from his job as president of the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts to take the position. Barrios told us yesterday that even though GLAAD’s offices are in New York and Los Angeles, he won’t be giving up his Bay State status. “My God, are you kidding me? My kids are Red Sox fans!’’ said Barrios, who explained that his family will be based here, but he’ll travel to New York and LA for work. “Los Angeles will be fun. New York will be hard during baseball season.’’

New Kids on the Block fans who live Down Under are sad today. That’s because our hometown boys - Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, and Danny Wood - canceled their upcoming tour dates in Australia. Their excuse? The recession. “We can only assure you that when the recession’s stranglehold on the world’s economies eases up a bit we will find a way to make this work,’’ Wahlberg blogged on the New Kids website. “Thank you for understanding and please trust that we will do all we can to continue to give The Fullest Of Service to all of our amazing fans WORLDWIDE.’’ Local fans can rest assured; the recession has not affected Friday’s New Kids on the Block show at the Comcast Center. It’s still on. And yes, Jesse McCartney is still opening.

On Saturday, you can tell Wade Boggs to beer you. Really. As part of opening weekend festivities for the Lowell Spinners, the Red Sox great and Hall of Famer, who has always been public about his love of hops and barley, will pour cups of Miller High Life for fans during the first hour of the Saturday evening game against the Vermont Lake Monsters. He’ll be stationed at the Miller/Coors Hut on the first-base concourse. The party continues with an appearance by Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski on Sunday. Gostkowski will kick autographed footballs into the crowd.

It was all in a day’s work for Shannon Black, pastry chef at Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro. While taping a segment for “TV Diner’’ yesterday, Black sliced open her hand and had to be taken to the Beth Israel emergency room. But Black didn’t head to the hospital until she finished doing her dessert for “TV Diner’’ host Billy Costa. Quoting Dan Aykroyd as Julia Child on “SNL’’: “Save the liver!’’

By the time Barack Obama arrives on Martha’s Vineyard this summer, “Fly’’ will have flown. The play, about the celebrated African-American fighter pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen, opens Saturday at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse. Originally commissioned by the Lincoln Center Institute, the play is written by director Ricardo Khan and Trey Ellis, and Weymouth’s Jim McLaurin, one of the airmen, is consulting with the cast. “Jim’s an amazing guy and represents the spirit of the Tuskegee Airmen,’’ says Khan, cofounder of the Tony Award-winning Crossroads Theatre Company of New Brunswick, N.J. The show closes in July, before Obama’s expected arrival on the island in August, but Khan said the cast could always reconvene. “If there’s any chance we could perform for him, there are many ferries each day, so we could get our butts out here,’’ he said.