Strikes with the strike master

The father of Rachel Artz is defending his daughter, claiming she knows Ellen Pompeo’s husband, but didn’t have an affair with him. Blake Artz told us yesterday that Star magazine got it wrong when it reported that his 19-year-old daughter carried on a three-month affair with Chris Ivery. “It’s all malarky, totally erroneous,’’ said Artz, who added that the magazine offered his daughter $5,000 for her story. “They just went and messed with the wrong person.’’ Star claims Rachel Artz, a 2008 graduate of Whitman-Hanson Regional High School who works at Bricco and Umbria, has admitted to the affair. They even quote her saying: “Yes, I had sexual relations with Chris.’’ Not so, insists her dad. “There’s not one bit of photographic evidence,’’ he said.

As it stands now, the lineup for Sunday’s MTV Video Awards includes Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys - and Boston band Gentlemen Hall. That’s good company for Gentlemen Hall, right? MTV will play a recently taped performance by the local indie-funk act sometime during the broadcast for anyone in New England who watches the awards show on Comcast. Gentleman Hall won an MTV-sponsored band competition to get the Video Awards spot. Band member Rory Given admits he doesn’t know when exactly the performance will air during the night, so fans will have to watch from start to finish. “I have not been able to reach them,’’ Given said, laughing, about his new MTV contacts. “They have our footage. They don’t need us anymore.’’ MTV taped three Gentleman Hall songs to choose from for the awards show. The network has told the band it will also use its tunes on MTV2.

Tom Brady’s ex is set to star in a sci-fi war movie that’s being described as “Black Hawk Down’’ meets “Alien.’’ Actress Bridget Moynahan will costar in “Battle: Los Angeles’’ with a cast that includes Aaron Eckhart, Ne-Yo, Michelle Rodriguez, and Michael Pena. (Jonathan Liebesman, whose credits include “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning,’’ will direct.) Meanwhile, the pilot for “Bunker Hill,’’ which Moynahan shot last winter with Donnie Wahlberg, was not picked for the fall season, but could be considered in the future.

Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, the cute cohosts of TLC’s “What Not to Wear,’’ ambushed their latest fashion victim yesterday at Revolution Fitness on Columbus Ave. We were hoping to get a pic of the pair, but TLC wouldn’t let us. Maybe Stacy and Clinton were having a bad hair day themselves. . . . Marriott International CEO Bill Marriott paid a visit to Patriot Place yesterday to check out the new Renaissance Hotel and to spend a little time with Pats brass Robert and Jonathan Kraft. Also there were Mark Streicher and Mark Stebbins of S&S Hotels. . . . The opening of the new Stork Club on Columbus Ave. attracted a few familiar faces the other night, including BeanTown Jazz Festival founder Darryl Settles, Longwood Events owner Jim Apteker, and Hirsh Gardner from Daddy’s Junky Music.

Matt Damon is very much alive, despite internet reports that the Cambridge-bred actor was found dead in the Palo Verde Mountains Wilderness in California. “I don’t know where it’s coming from,’’ Damon’s publicist Jennifer Allen told us yesterday. The bogus online obit said the 38-year-old actor, who’s managed to survived three “Bourne’’ films, had expired while on a solo camping trip. It’s all nonsense. Damon and his wife, Luciana Barroso, were at the Venice Film Festival earlier this week promoting his new film, “The Informant!’’, and he’ll be in New York doing more press Monday. We’re also looking forward to Damon’s appearance Tuesday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.’’

The Travel Channel’s new reality show aims to find the worst driver in the US. And yes, it’s possible that the most menacing driver in the nation is from Boston. Crews from the network were in a Foxborough parking lot yesterday filming some of the state’s worst drivers, who were nominated by their friends and family to appear on what will be called “America’s Worst Driver.’’ Hosts Jill Simonian and Alonzo Bodden (you may remember Bodden from “Last Comic Standing’’) watched as Boston drivers showed off their recklessness on a closed course. On Wednesday, the hosts followed those same drivers as they attempted to drive through downtown Boston to Faneuil Hall. “I can tell you this - we’re not welcome at Faneuil Hall anymore,’’ Bodden said, laughing. “Fun people - not good drivers,’’ Simonian added. The winner - or, better yet, the loser - of the “Worst Driver’’ contest in each city will compete for the national title in LA. The show airs next year.

Kids in the ReadBoston program were at dante restaurant in Cambridge the other day to have a “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’’ party with chef Dante de Magistris and his staff. De Magistris served up meatball subs to the youngsters, while manager Seth Yaffe read the book aloud to the group. The popular children’s story has been adapted as an animated film due out next week featuring the voices of Bill Hader and Anna Faris.

A fund-raiser for Representative Brian Wallace attracted a few of the legislator’s many friends in the film business. Casting director Angela Peri, Mass. Film Office exec Nick Paleologos, and actors John Fiore, Steven Howitt, and Chuck Slavin all showed up to support Wallace, who’s been a big booster of the state’s tax incentive program for TV and movies. Former mayor Ray Flynn also stopped by the event at the Boston Athletic Club.