For the Crisps, Middleton will be home

It didn't take Sox center fielder Coco Crisp and wife, Maria, long to settle on a new spread. The Crisps have paid nearly $1.8 million for a 6,292-square-foot manse on three acres overlooking the Ipswich River in Middleton. (The new digs on Devonshire Road are some 23 miles from Fenway.) The Crisps bought the house from contractor Brent McKenelley and his wife, Gina, who built it in 2001. The place, which went on the market for $1.85 million, boasts five bedrooms -- each with a walk-in closet and bathroom -- four fireplaces, a four-car garage, and, for those rare off nights during the summer, an inground pool with a cabana. For now, Crisp's on the DL with a busted knuckle on his left hand.

Gloucester stylist gussies up first lady

Arriving at the Four Seasons yesterday, Leslie Griffin felt like Jonathan Antin, the celebrity stylist and star of Bravo's ''Blow Out." But Griffin's client wasn't a famous movie star, it was first lady Laura Bush. ''She was so nice," said Griffin, who cuts and curls at Deborah Coull Salon in Gloucester, where Paula Cole and Lindsey Crouse are customers. Griffin, who styles Liv Ullmann's locks in the summer, said she blow-dried Bush's hair and then neatened her up. ''It was an awesome experience," she said. ''Something I can tell my grandchildren." For what it's worth, the first lady looked lovely eating lunch later at No. 9 Park.

Kerouac house on Cape has new owner

The Cape Cod crib where Beat writer Jack Kerouac once crashed has been sold for $300,000, though the new co-owner admits she wasn't too familiar with the ''On the Road" author. ''He has a fan now," Ida Perry told the Cape Cod Times. The 1,344-square-foot house on Bristol Avenue in Barnstable was put on the market last year by James Upton, who paid $115,000 for the place in 1986. Kerouac married his third wife, Stella Sampas, at the single-story house in 1966. Since then, it's been owned by at least three other families, according to county records.

Faces around town

Boston Ballet dancers last night kicked up their heels in a ''Dancing With the Stars"-like competition featuring weathergal J.C. Monahan, Pats cheerleader Meg DeAvilla, and ''Phantom Gourmet" host Dan Andelman.

Al Gore was in town yesterday for a screening of ''An Inconvenient Truth," Davis Guggenheim's film about Gore's crusade against global warming.

Paul Rusesabagina, the subject of ''Hotel Rwanda," was in Cambridge last night touting his book, ''An Ordinary Man."

Actor John Malkovich was in the audience at Monday's performance of Guila Clara Kessous's play at BU.

Actress Lili Taylor answered questions at the Boston Independent Film Festival.

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