Houston, there's no problem

Bobby Brown isn't getting divorced just yet. The rowdy Roxbury native told radio talk-show host Wendy Williams this week that rumors that he and Whitney Houston are history are not true. ''There's no divorce.," Brown said. ''I'm out working and she's home with the baby. I miss you, baby, wherever you are." (A recording of the interview is, or was, posted at www.whitney-fan.com.) Brown had no comment on a recent photo of Houston that showed the singer looking alarmingly disheveled, but he did insist the couple is clean. ''I'm not on dope anymore. . . . Coke? Totally gone. . . . It got to the point that my daughters didn't talk to me for a while. When your kids don't talk to you, it hurts." Brown also revealed that a reunited New Edition -- with Brown, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ralph Tresvant, and Ronnie DeVoe -- will go on a tour in March: ''We're going to do about eight weeks and get a couple of fat checks."

Dream role for this 'actor' is in the bag

It's not a role for everyone, but Chuck Lamb's wish to play a dead body in a movie was granted by Roger Marino, executive producer of the indie film ''Stiffs," which is being shot around Boston the next few weeks. Lamb launched a website detailing his acting ambitions, which led to a New York Times story, which led to a media frenzy. When ''Stiffs" casting guy Kevin Fennessy heard Lamb talking about his dream role on the ''Today" show, Fennessy realized he had the perfect part for him: a dead body in a body bag being taken to a funeral home operated by Danny Aiello. Marino made the offer the other night.

Hotel kitchen will serve all time zones

Just back from a 10-day trip to France and Italy, hotelier Tim Kirwan was short on sleep the other day, but high on concept. The GM of the new InterContinental Boston, rising above the waterfront and due to open this fall, has planned a 180-seat Provencal-themed restaurant with views of Fort Point Channel, a terrace with 60 more seats, an oyster bar, and an herb garden. But most startling for early-to-bed Boston, the restaurant, as yet unnamed, will be open 24 hours a day. Why a round-the-clock operation? ''Because I'm crazy," Kirwan said with a chuckle. He added that such a place -- which he envisions as something between Eastern Standard Kitchen & Bar and Great Bay -- is just what Boston needs. He's heard the comments that ''Boston goes to sleep too early," Kirwan said. For the theater crowd, international guests arriving from other time zones, and other late-night types, the hotel's restaurant can be someplace lively and fun no matter what the hour.

MFA takes on a French accent

John Singer Sargent's ''The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" is one of more than a dozen paintings being readied by the Museum of Fine Arts to be part of a three-city exhibition called ''Americans in Paris 1860-1900." The show will also feature the work of James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Eakins, and will open at London's National Gallery in February and run there until May. The exhibition hits Boston in June before heading to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The other day Rhona MacBeth, the MFA's head of paintings conservation, showed some of the preparations to MFA director Malcolm Rogers and Anne Finucane, Northeast market president of Bank of America.

Wahlberg tees off

Actor Mark Wahlberg was among the celebs who played golf Wednesday in the first round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic at the Bermuda Dunes Country Club in California.

Woods and wife welcome twins

Congratulations to Aquitaine top toque Seth Woods and his wife, Megan, who've just welcomed twins. Dillon Alexander and Jocelyn Nicole join big sis, Ava. The additions don't end there: Woods and gang at the Aquitaine Group are expected to announce plans for another South End eatery. Besides Aquitaine, they already run two others in the neighborhood -- Metropolis and Union Bar and Grill. . . . The Radius Group's Christopher Myers and chef Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery are engaged. . . . More than 3,000 cyclists havesigned up for the 27th annual Pan-Mass Challenge. The August event aims to raise $24 million for the Jimmy Fund. ''The most sought-after of the PMC's eight routes should be filled by the end of the week," said founder and executive director Billy Starr. . . . Federal Reserve Bank of Boston CEO Cathy Minehan, Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole, and Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, medical director of Brigham & Women's community health programs, are among the women the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce will honor at an awards lunch on Thursday.

Alison Arnett of the Globe staff contributed. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.