A 'Family Guy' affair
Bob Connors, owner of Connors Farm in Danvers, is a big fan of “Family Guy.’’ How big? He mowed his corn maze into the shape of “Family Guy’’ characters Stewie and Brian. Connors didn’t know that “Family Guy’’ creator Seth MacFarlane had family in the Bay State, but he does now, and he’s hoping MacFarlane will stop by. “We’ve been trying to get in touch with him,’’ Connors told us. “I’d love to have him do the voices here on our busy weekend.’’ In case you’re wondering, Fox, which airs “Family Guy,’’ is cool with the corn maze. “They waived the rights and all that,’’ Connors said. “We have to run everything by them, but they’ve been great.’’ And, really, why wouldn’t they be? It’s acres and acres of free advertising.
Get out of Town
No offense, Ben Affleck, but folks in the North End won’t be sad to see you leave next week. Residents in Boston’s little Italy tell us that because Affleck has been filming scenes for his bank robber movie “The Town’’ around Hanover Street for more than a week, they’ve grown used to traffic, loud noises (including fake gun shots), and bright lights shining in their windows. “For me, the biggest issue is trying to navigate the neighborhood,’’ said Mary McGee, treasurer of the North End/Waterfront Residents’ Association. “Commercial Street was closed, North Washington Street was closed. . . . It’s like, how do you get out of the North End?’’ McGee says it hasn’t helped that the neighborhood has been used as a backdrop in three movies this fall. Beside’s Affleck’s “Town,’’ there’s the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz action film, and Damien Di Paola’s indie movie “Oxymoron,’’ which filmed on Hanover Street last month. McGee joked that the star sightings in the North End don’t make up for the traffic. She’d rather have an easy drive than a run-in with Affleck. “I’m like the age of his mother,’’ she said, laughing. Affleck is set to shoot in the North End through Tuesday.Working overtime
Kevin James and the crew of “The Zookeeper’’ took over a penthouse apartment at the InterContinental Hotel, doing an all-night shoot that bathed surrounding buildings in light. “Very cool,’’ said GM Tim Kirwan of the scene on the 26th floor. The shoot wrapped at 5 a.m., and then James caught a few z’s in the presidential suite.A new chapter for Tyler's $2 million memoir
Can’t wait to read Steven Tyler’s memoir? Neither can his publisher. Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, bid more than $2 million for the flamboyant frontman’s story, but he’s yet to deliver the book. And it could be awhile before he does. We’re told Tyler is unhappy with the results of his work with ghostwriter David Dalton, and is starting over with Mark Hudson and former Hustler editor Lonn Friend. In recent days, the three have been huddled in Sunapee, N.H., trying to salvage something of the book, titled “Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?’’ Tyler has been mostly MIA since August, when he fell off the stage during a show in Sturgis, S.D., breaking his shoulder. Dalton, a respected scribe who’s written about Janis Joplin, James Dean, and Jim Morrison, had been working with the 61-year-old singer for about a year. The new team is friendly with Tyler. Hudson is an occasional collaborator who co-wrote Aerosmith’s 1993 smash hit “Livin’ on the Edge.’’ (He was with Tyler at BookExpo America last spring when the scarf-wearing screamer spoke about his memoir.) Friend, meanwhile, was a Larry Flynt protege at Hustler before becoming editor of RIP, a magazine devoted to metal bands. He chronicled his exploits with the heroes of heavy metal in his own memoir, “Life on Planet Rock: From Guns N’ Roses to Nirvana, a Backstage Journey Through Rock’s Most Debauched Decade.’’ Sounds like the right man for the job.Read the Names blog at www.boston.com/namesblog. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253. ![]()



