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JoJo (left) and Jordin Sparks leaving the Bardot Lounge in Hollywood on Tuesday night. (Hellmuth Dominguez/Pacific Coast News) |
Names
JoJo in LaLa Land
Foxborough-bred pop star Joanna Levesque - better known as JoJo - has started her freshman year at Northeastern University, but that doesn’t mean she’s spending her nights around Mission Hill. The “Too Little Too Late’’ singer, who’s recording a new album, was spotted out in Los Angeles the other night with “American Idol’’ winner Jordin Sparks. According to Sparks’s Twitter page, she and JoJo were out with Robin Williams’s daughter Zelda for a night of dancing at Hollywood’s Bardot Lounge. JoJo appeared with Zelda’s dad in the 2006 movie “RV.’’
Encouraging girls to become leaders
Who better than former Girl Scout Bianca de la Garza to give pointers to wannabe broadcasters at the Girls Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts annual Leading Women Awards shindig, held yesterday at the Seaport Hotel. The Channel 5 anchor emceed the event and at one point improvised with spoons to demonstrate the proper mike-holding etiquette. First lady Angela Menino was in the house, as were Entercom’s Julie Kahn, Girl Scout CEO Ruth Bramson, former lieutenant governor Kerry Healey, state Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, Arnold Worldwide president Pam Hamlin, and philanthropist Barbara Lee.Director not all a Twitter
Unlike, say, Jason Reitman, who tweets his every move, “Napoleon Dynamite’’ director Jared Hess (above) has no use for social networking sites Twitter and Facebook. “No, man, I don’t do that,’’ said Hess, who was in town yesterday hyping his new movie. “That’s like science fiction come to life. I want to keep things private, man.’’ Called “Gentlemen Broncos,’’ Hess’s latest (co-written and directed with wife Jerusha) is about a home-schooled teenage outcast and aspiring fantasy writer whose idea is ripped off by an acclaimed novelist. Boston-bred Jennifer Coolidge, best known as Stifler’s mom in “American Pie,’’ plays the mom again. “One of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life,’’ said Hess. But this time Coolidge isn’t a sexed-up cougar. “I based the character on my mom, who’s the furthest thing from that, so we see the sweet side of [Coolidge] in this film.’’A little M & M
It seems that Michael and Michael have found themselves a good tour guide. Funny men Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter, who star in “Michael & Michael Have Issues’’ on Comedy Central, will be shown around Boston before their gig at the Wilbur Theatre tonight by their comedian pal (and opening act) Eugene Mirman, who was a local for years before he moved to New York. Mirman, who’s now on HBO’s “Flight of the Conchords,’’ plans to take the Michaels to M & M Ribs on Hampden Street (he says he wants to treat M & M to M & M), and to the old standard - the Bull & Finch Pub, a.k.a., the original Cheers. No word on when the trio will be stopping by the eateries, but true fans will figure it out. Tonight’s Wilbur show is at 9.‘Leo Frank’ screening
Newton homeboy Ben Loeterman hosted a screening of his film “The People vs. Leo Frank’’ at the ICA the other night. The film is about the 1913 murder of a child laborer and the subsequent lynching of Frank, a Jewish factory supervisor wrongly convicted of the crime. The crowd included Anti-Defamation League of New England regional director Derrek Shulman, ADL regional board chair Esta Epstein and her husband, Celts co-owner Bob Epstein, philanthropist and event sponsor Joanne Egerman, “The Red Tent’’ author Anita Diamant, and the film’s producer Laura Longsworth. The film premieres on PBS next week.Eisenberg is the cat’s meow
“Zombieland’’ star Jesse Eisenberg, who has been in the area shooting a movie about Facebook called ’’The Social Network,’’ took a break from production this week to film a public service announcement for the Washington Animal Rescue League. Eisenberg filmed the spot at the InterContinental Hotel, where he held a cat on his lap and spoke about the benefits of helping critters in need. Eisenberg told the Rescue League that he’d be proud to help their cause - he actually cares for two rescued cats at home in New York.Standard setting
Eastern Standard was the place to be following this week’s fund-raiser for the BU Culinary Program. ES owner Garrett Harker hosted a party for a few hundred folks, including BU doyenne Rebecca Alssid, legendary chefs Jacques Pepin and Mary Ann Esposito, and culinary kings Jamie Bissonnette, Andy Husbands, Jeremy Sewall, Stan Frankenthaler, Jeffrey Fournier, and Louis DiBiccari. Wahlberg is a ‘Pags’ man
Who do you figure Donnie Wahlberg is backing for Ted Kennedy’s former senate seat? Celts co-owner Steve Pagliuca, of course. DDUB, as Wahlberg refers to himself on Twitter, tweeted his intentions during the C’s home opener, and then followed with the tweet: “Pags is the man!!!!!!’’ Sox GM Theo Epstein, meanwhile, hosted a fund-raiser this week for candidate Alan Khazei.The man behind the mask
Actor Tony Moran was Michael Myers only briefly. He played the horror villain for just minutes in the original “Halloween’’ and turned the role down by the time there was a sequel. “I did ‘Halloween’ when I was 21, and quite frankly, when I did it, I was kind of embarrassed to do the movie,’’ Moran (inset) told us by phone the other day. “I didn’t take it very seriously. I figured the movie would be in drive-ins for maybe two weeks. I didn’t even go to the premiere.’’ More than 30 years after the original “Halloween’’ premiered, Moran who’s now 52 has learned to embrace his horror past. He’s happy to sign autographs and chat with fans about what it was like to play a young Michael Myers for acclaimed horror director John Carpenter. He has embraced the world of horror fandom, which is why he’ll appear at SpookyWorld/Nightmare New England in Litchfield, N.H., this weekend. Moran will be signing autographs and mingling at the Halloween theme park tonight and tomorrow from 6 to 9 p.m. Moran, who’s the brother of “Happy Days’’ star Erin Moran, says it was his fans who found him online and pulled him out of hiding. “That’s how I came to know that I was an icon, which I didn’t even know,’’ Moran told us. Moran’s followers have even pushed him back into the entertainment world. He recently wrapped shooting a movie in Rockland that was written specifically for him by one of his “Halloween’’-loving admirers, Kevin MacDonald. The movie, “Beg,’’ costars Tony Todd of “Candyman’’ and “24’’ fame, Michael Berryman of “The Hills Have Eyes,’’ and Kristina Klebe, who was in Haverhill native Rob Zombie’s recent redo of “Halloween.’’ Moran said that even though he hadn’t acted since his 30s, he felt the need to do the film and to work with his horror family. “I loved the script. [MacDonald]’s a horror guy.’’ “Beg’’ should be out by early next year.
‘Clean’ slate
As we reported yesterday, the Style Network show “Clean House’’ is filming an episode in Taunton this week. Reps with the show told us yesterday that there’s a new location for tomorrow’s yard sale, where Taunton clutterbug Susan Crites will be selling her unnecessary belongings. The yard sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Memorial United Methodist Church on Somerset Avenue in Taunton. If you don’t mind being on a reality show, feel free to attend.
Read the Names blog at www.boston.com/namesblog. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253. 
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