Steve Carell sure has come a long way. Just a few years ago, the guy had bit parts in bad movies -- think 2004's ``Sleepover" -- and now he's grabbed the cover of Premiere's comedy issue. So what do we learn about ``The 40-Year-Old Virgin" in the issue that hits newsstands today? Like any self-respecting Concord native, Carell's a Revolutionary War buff who once played the fife in a reenactment. Need more? He never towels off after a shower. ``I think it's strange that he puts his clothes on after taking a shower without drying off," says his wife, Nancy Walls. ``It's just not part of his regimen." In the same issue, we learn that Peter and Bobby Farrelly want to cast Carell in their remake of ``The Valet," a French film about a dude who's captured in the background of a photo of a mogul and his mistress.
P-town, Nantucket fests pick winners
Audiences named co-directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer's ``Quinceanera" the best feature film at the Provincetown International Film Festival. The audience choice for best documentary was Mike Roth and John Henning's ``Saving Marriage," about gay marriage in Massachusetts, which made its world premiere at the festival. Jamin Winans's ``Spin," an eight-minute film about a mysterious DJ, was named best short film. The honors were announced Sunday night at the close of the festival. . . . Over at the Nantucket Film Festival, Aubrey Nealon's ``A Simple Curve" won the festival's ``best writer/director" award. The ``teen view" award, chosen by students on the island, went to South Africa's Avie Luthra's ``Lucky." And Steven Cantor's ``What Remains" got the award for best storytelling in a documentary. In making the announcements yesterday , festival executive director Jill Burkhart also revealed the viewers' choices: Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's ``The Trials of Darryl Hunt" as best feature, and David Dean Bottrell's ``Available Men" as best short film.Pettie cast for Shrew on Common
The part of Petruchio in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's production of ``The Taming of the Shrew" has finally been cast, and Darren Pettie has landed the plum role. Pettie has performed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Public Theatre, and regularly appears on TV's ``Crossing Jordan." CSC's ``The Taming of the Shrew," starring Newton native Jennifer Dundas as Kate, plays on Boston Common Parade Ground from July 22 to Aug. 13. . . .Ed Schwarzschild, author of ``Responsible Men," read at the Attic in Newton on Sunday night as part of the Progressive Reading Series, sponsored by the progressive political action group LitPac, which is organizing readings around the country. . . . Don't hold your breath for a new Pixies disc. Frank Black tells Billboard.com he's written a batch of new stuff for the Boston-bred band but that the songs ``sounded a little contrived." Black admits he sometimes wishes he could ``just spit out some Pixies-esque songs, but it doesn't really work that way. . . . You write the songs and they come out the way they come out. They might sound like the Pixies, but these days mostly not."
``Gone, Baby, Gone" director Ben Affleck took the show on the road yesterday, shooting scenes at the Silver Slipper Restaurant in Roxbury's Dudley Square. In addition to the cast and crew, Ben's bride, Jennifer Garner, was briefly on the set and gave him a kiss before the crews returned after a lunch break. . . . Actor Alan Alda, who hosts ``Scientific American Frontiers" on PBS, spent Father's Day with his 10-year-old grandson at the Museum of Science checking out the lighthouse exhibit and the area on the human body.
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