Fenway before ‘Idol’

Before their show last night at Showcase Live, bluesmen Elmore James, Shor’ty Billups, and Mark T. Small grabbed a bite at Chile Head Barbeque in West Bridgewater. Big fans of Paul Bello’s place, the trio will gig at the restaurant tonight, we hear. . . . Actor Matt Dillon did lunch at Todd English’s Beachside Bistro at Danielle deBenedictis and Peter Karlson’s Summer House in Nantucket. The Oscar nominee was with a friend at the Siasconset hot spot. . . . Shelved Sox star Kevin Youkilis was on the sidelines at the Pats first preseason game. . . . Senator Scott Brown’s daughter Ayla has her next gig booked. The former “Idol’’ contestant will perform at the Marshfield Fair Blues Festival Aug. 23. (The fair runs Aug. 20-29.)

A big welcome back to Laura Small, the Boston-bred esthetician-to-the-stars who’s returned to help open the Skoah, the new “spa-tique’’ on Tremont Street in the South End. We’re told Small worked at a couple of high-end salons in LA, where her Hollywood clients included the likes of Eliza Dushku, “Mad Men’’ siren Christina Hendricks, Colin Farrell, and Carmen Electra.

Those were no ordinary bicycles that senators John Kerry and Scott Brown rode in last weekend’s Pan-Mass Challenge. Brown likes to portray himself as an everyman — remember the humble pickup truck? — but his Trek Equinox TTX 9.5 is a serious ride. The time-trial bike retails for about $3,400, but equipped as it is with Shimano Dura Ace components and Hed wheels, Brown’s bike costs much more. We wondered in particular about the elaborate shoe-retention system attached to the pedals, but Brown’s peeps didn’t return our call yesterday. Kerry’s bike, an orange Cervelo S3, is even pricier, according to the bike dork we consulted. With the custom frame, Shimano Dura Ace components, and a Zipp 404 wheel set, Kerry’s Tour de France-worthy ride would cost in excess of $10,000. Wonder if he stores it in Rhode Island?

Gloucester Stage founder Israel Horovitz has game. An avid golfer, the playwright has hit two holes-in-one in the past few months. Horovitz, whose new short plays will be showcased at Gloucester Stage starting Tuesday, shot his first-ever hole-in-one in June while playing with his son, Oliver, in St. Andrews, Scotland, and he did it again last week on the seventh hole at Rockport Golf Club. Said Horovitz: “I’ve had several messages saying things come in threes. Does that mean I’m about to fall in a hole?’’ The playwright’s other son is Adam “Ad-Rock’’ Horovitz of the Beastie Boys.

Chef Ming Tsai has been busy. A few weeks ago, the Blue Ginger chef and his pals Joanne Chang and Ting San made dinner for Ted and Joan Cutler, who’d bid on a home-cooked dinner by Ming at last year’s Silk Road Gala benefiting the Asian Task Force. (Guests at the Cutler’s Cape house included Task Force director Linda Chin, Dr. Deeb Salem and wife Patti, and Larry and Atsuko Fish.) This week, Ming was back at work, taping the eighth season of his WGBH program “Simply Ming.’’ Joining him were Chang, Rialto chef Jody Adams, “Top Chef Masters’’ competitor Susur Lee, “Hell’s Kitchen’’ finalist Jason Santos, Brass sisters Marilynn and Sheila, Hungry Mother’s Barry Maiden, and John Besh of Besh Steak. The new season debuts Oct. 9.

Things will be heating up for Marcia Cross this fall on “Desperate Housewives.’’ The Marlborough-bred actress, who plays picture-perfect homemaker/businesswoman Bree Hodge on the ABC show, will have her manicured world rocked by Brian Austin Green in the series’ seventh season. The buff former “Beverly Hills 90210’’ star — and new husband of “Transformers’’ babe Megan Fox — will come to Wisteria Lane as a hunky contractor who woos Cross’s buttoned-down character. “I’m still blushing,’’ Cross told us recently during a visit to the “Housewives’’ set, recalling one of the pair’s first scenes together. (Dedicated TV fans will recall that Cross and Green inhabited the same universe when she was on “Melrose Place,’’ the “90210’’ spinoff.) Cross said she’d be taking some time away from “Housewives’’ to work on an indie film written and directed by actress Famke Janssen called “Bringing up Bobby.’’ After getting married and having kids, Cross said this is the first time in recent years that she’s had a chance to work outside the show. “To be able to do a little bit of that and keep this incredible job is like having a sundae with extra cherries,’’ she said.