Celtics team up for Boston charities; Aerosmith gets airborne
SEEING GREEN "Hey, commish, glad you could make it," said Celtic forward Paul Pierce, shaking hands with NBA commissioner David Stern at Monday's fund-raiser for the Boston Celtics Charitable Foundation. Held at the team's practice facility in Waltham, the event drew an A-list of current and former Celts, including Bill Russell, Bill Walton, Bob Cousy, Cedric Maxwell, K. C. Jones, Vin Baker (looking lean but still not mean), and rookies Marcus Banks and Kendrick Perkins. Not wanting to dwell on the Antoine Walker trade, we asked Stern about Kobe Bryant's legal troubles. (Earlier in the day, the Lakers star was ordered to stand trial for rape.) "This summer, we sent players to Africa, to Kuwait City, to Baghdad, but the summer was defined by 10 minutes of . . ." said Stern, his voice trailing off. "We can't do anything about that." Wednesday night's auction and dinner, which also attracted a few notable nonplayers, including Governor Mitt Romney and Mayor Tom Menino, raised more than $500,000 for three Boston charities.
MAKE MORE SPACE ON THE SHELF Yes, insists author Christopher Andersen, the world does need another book about the Kennedys. What do you expect him to say? He's already written three books about Hyannis Port's first family, and a fourth hits stores today. Predictably, the dust jacket for "Sweet Caroline: Last Child of Camelot" -- Andersen's biography of JFK's daughter, Caroline Kennedy -- promises "new details" about the Kennedy White House, a "spellbinding account" of Caroline's years as Aristotle Onassis's stepdaughter, and the many times she "cheated death." And even though Caroline didn't cooperate with the book, many other people did, including Kennedy cronies Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Ted Sorenson, and the late George Plimpton. "Caroline didn't talk because she never will," Andersen said. "Just like her mother, she'd rather live life than write about it."
COOKING ON THE TOWN There were more chefs than you could shake a spatula at Monday night at Hamersley's Bistro in the South End. They gathered to celebrate the publication of chef Gordon Hamersley's new cookbook, "Bistro Cooking at Home," which hit bookstores last week. A sampling of folks from the food world were on hand, including Darryl Settles, Jody Adams, Ana Sortun, Moncef Meddeb, Dave Dubois, restaurant designer Sandra Fairbank, and Cooks Illustrated's Chris Kimball.
BEAM MY DINNER UP, PLEASE Currently serving as the captain of "Enterprise," the latest TV show in the "Star Trek" franchise, Scott Bakula brought a large contingent of his family to dine at Skipjack's in the Back Bay the other night. One spy told us, "He is quite a hottie, signing autographs and being very nice." Officially, all the restaurant would tell us is that "he was very pleasant" and seemed "to have a great time." No captain's platter or the like for dinner. Bakula enjoyed Skipjack's tuna sashimi and the lobster.
DON'T THEY KNOW THEY'RE ROCK STARS? The boys from Aerosmith have done just about everything in the world of music, but no one can say they got to the top without a lot of hard work. In the new issue of Guitar World, Joe Perry tells a story of how the band just had to get out and give a push -- to its airplane. "We'd just finished a show in Iowa, and we were taking off from a little airport. It had been raining, so the runway was slick. Next thing we knew the pilot had slid off the runway and into the muddy field," Perry told the magazine. "We had to pile out of the plane in the dark and literally push it out of the mud and back onto the runway. Real rock stars, huh?" . . . Lending a hand for a benefit to help the Spiral Foundation at Occupational Therapy Associates-Watertown next Thursday will be Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton, who will serve as the evening's MC. The dinner with auction, at the Charles Hotel, will benefit OTA-Watertown's programs for children with disabilities.
PHOTO FINISH This year's winner of the Museum of Fine Arts' Maud Morgan Prize is photographer Ranee Palone Flynn. Palone Flynn, who has had a long career in the fashion industry, was chosen for her intimate portraits of youth. The prize, which includes $5,000, is given to a Massachusetts woman whose art celebrates the spirit of adventure embodied by the late Morgan. The MFA will acquire four of Palone Flynn's color photos, and an exhibition of her work will be on view in the museum's Lower Rotunda Nov. 6-30.
FOR ART'S SAKE Four Boston-area artists whose works won "Vortex, a Juried Exhibition by Blue Man Group," will have their pieces installed later this month at the Charles Playhouse, where Blue Man Group has been performing since 1995. The works -- by Suzanne Gainer of Cambridge, Mark Lynott of Quincy, Jen Fries of Somerville, and Heather Burke of South Boston -- were chosen by a jury that included a Blue Man, gallery owner Bernie Toale, artist Annette Lemieux, and Gilbert Vicario, assistant curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
COMMUNICATIONS ON THE GO Senator Ted Kennedy has appointed a new communications director for his Senate office. David M. Smith, who replaces Stephanie Cutter, has previously served as communications director and senior strategist for the Human Rights Campaign, the country's leading gay advocacy organization, a position he held for nearly nine years. Cutter recently moved to Boston to run communications for the Democratic National Convention.
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Stargazing
Pamela Anderson says hepatitis C, with which she was diagnosed in 2001, will probably kill her in a decade. "I think I've got a good 10 years left in me, which is sad, too. Maybe 15, if I'm lucky," Anderson tells Us Weekly magazine in a first-person story for the Nov. 3 issue. The 36-year-old actress also says she's no longer planning to marry singer Kid Rock, to whom she got engaged in April 2002.
Elton John has signed a three-year deal to perform 75 shows at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas beginning in February. The 56-year-old singer will perform five times a week for five weeks a year in a deal reported to be worth more than $50 million. Tickets for the first performances, scheduled for Feb. 13-22, go on sale today and are priced at $250, $175, and $100.
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