Shriver celebrates 85th at White House

Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver celebrated her 85th birthday in style last night, being toasted at the White House by President Bush and VIP guests, including son Tim Shriver, daughter Maria Shriver, son-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger, figure skater Scott Hamilton, singer Vanessa Williams, and Olympians Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci. . . . He's too injured to play in tonight's All-Star Game, but Manny Ramirez was well enough to stroll with wife Juliana through the Borders at the Cambridgeside Galleria yesterday. . . . You gotta really wonder how reliable Improper Bostonian's new ``best of" issue is. The mag names Regattabar ``best jazz club" -- just days after Grammy-winning pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba canceled his two-night stint there because he didn't like the piano.

Wrentham's Ayla Brown was all smiles the other night when she got together with other "American Idol" alums Paris Bennett and Ace Young.

Ocean State in Hollywood spotlight

Wonder why more movies aren't being made in Massachusetts? Because they're all shooting in the Ocean State. Or so it seems. Not long after lovelies Kelly Lynch and Amber Tamblyn wrapped up work on ``Normal Adolescent Behavior," Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst arrived in Rhode Island to start lensing his first feature, "The Education of Charlie Banks," starring Jason Ritter and Jesse Eisenberg . (Durst, who's 35, does have some experience behind the camera, having written, directed, and starred in a short film no one saw called "The Truth With Evan Jealous .") Today, the heavily-tattooed rocker will be at Brown University -- no doubt the closest he'll ever get to the Ivy League -- shooting scenes in the Wriston Quadrangle . Meanwhile, Belgian director Frederik Du Chau is already at work on "Underdog," starring Peter Dinklage , Jim Belushi , former Miss USA Susie Castillo , and Attleboro's own Frank D'Agostino . Yesterday, we're told, Du Chau was shooting at the State House in Providence. "It's crazy around here," said Steven Feinberg of the Rhode Island film and TV office.

A special interest in ‘Departed’ remake

We're not the only ones eager to see "The Departed," Martin Scorsese's remake of the Hong Kong classic ``Infernal Affairs." Andrew Lau, who directed the original, tells the Associated Press he's honored that Scorsese remade his crime thriller. ``Of course, I want it to be good," Lau said. How couldn't it be? Shot in Boston and New York, the movie, which opens Oct. 6, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg. . . . Speaking of Damon, ``The Bourne Identity" star visited his buddy Ben Affleck on the ``Gone, Baby, Gone" set in Quincy the other night, accompanied by his wife, Luciana, and the couple's new baby, Isabella. . . . Seems Gwyneth Paltrow will not be starring in the Farrelly brothers next film after all. Variety reports that Peter and Bobby have offered the female lead in ``Seven Day Itch" to Swedish beauty Malin Akerman, who co starred with Lisa Kudrow in ``The Comeback."

Regardless of what Seth Mnookin wrote in his controversial new book about the Bosox, Boston Culinary bigshot Joe O'Donnell swears he's no Tony Soprano. Appearing on WEEI yesterday, O'Donnell, the tough-talking son of an Everett cop, laughed at Mnookin's portrayal of him as a made man. ``It doesn't bother me at all," he told Gerry Callahan . ``People who know me know me." In his book, ``Feeding the Monster," Mnookin writes that during O'Donnell's failed negotiations to buy the Olde Towne Team, he took John Henry to the Boston waterfront -- at 1 a.m. There, according to Mnookin, O'Donnell asked that he be made managing partner if anything happened to Henry. ``That," Henry wrote in an e - mail afterward, ``was a little scary." O'Donnell doesn't deny he took Henry to Fan Pier -- he and Steve Karp hoped to put a new ballpark in the area -- but ridicules the suggestion that he put the arm on the Sox owner. Still, O'Donnell says he bears no ill will toward Henry, calling him a ``perfectly decent guy." He even praised -- sort of -- the efforts of Henry, Larry Lucchino, and Tom Werner to fancy up Fenway. ``They've done a better job than I ever could have dreamed of," O'Donnell said yesterday. ``But it's like putting a dress on a pig." The Bosox brass haven't commented on the book but did send out an e - mail instructing Fenway folks to be ``dismissive" of its claims.

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