'Daily Show' tackles Cape Wind

Why aren't we surprised that the kerfuffle that is Cape Wind has caught the eye of "The Daily Show"? We're told host Jon Stewart recently sent one of his intrepid reporters to get the scoop on the controversial wind farm, and the segment is tentatively scheduled to air Aug. 2. "It was like a lamb going to slaughter," says Barbara Hill of Clean Power Now, a grass-roots group that's gung-ho on the wind farm. "I knew they were going to poke fun at me, but there's no way we'd get this kind of exposure otherwise." Hill said she spent some three hours with "Daily Show" correspondent Jason Jones and a producer, and it was mostly enjoyable. "They talked to people on the beach, and it was hysterically funny." Audra Parker, whose Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound opposes the renewable energy project, was not so amused. "I wouldn't say it was pleasant," said Parker, who has never seen "The Daily Show." "But the idea was to get both sides of the issue to be heard." The proposed 25-square-mile wind farm, to be located off the Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Cape, is opposed by many prominent types, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., historian David McCullough, and LA Dodgers co-owner Jamie McCourt. Supporters include countless enviros and authors such as Bill McKibben and Annie Dillard

The boys in Buffalo Tom say it's a mixed blessing being on the road promoting "Three Easy Pieces," the band's first collection of new tunes in nine years. While it wasn't much fun playing in the thigh-high mud at Denmark's Roskilde Festival, Bill Janovitz e-mailed us to say BT has been invited to be on David Letterman's show Friday. "Of course," he wrote, "we could get canceled or bumped, and I could be embarrassed."

Claire Danes knows something about being young, famous, and fetching. So when she heard yesterday about Lindsay Lohan's latest arrest, it kind of affected her. "It was pretty valuable for me to stop acting for a period of time and go to college," said Danes, who was just 15 when she starred on the late, great TV drama "My So-Called Life." "I needed that time to figure out what kind of grown-up I wanted to be." In town yesterday to promote her new movie "Stardust," the Yale grad said it will take Lohan, whom she doesn't know, "time and discipline" to get her act together. Asked if she's ever seen 30 Seconds to Mars, the band fronted by her "So-Called Life" costar Jared Leto, Danes said she hasn't. "I would like to," she said. "I see [Jared] occasionally at parties and things, but, no, we're not really in touch."

To moms and dads with wee ones of a certain age, he's the Yellow Wiggle. But to us, he's Sam Moran, the guy who made the front page of The New York Times last fall when he became a member of the Wiggles, the chart-topping children's group from Down Under. (Sam got the gig when founding member Greg Page got ill and had to retire.) "I'm having an absolute ball," Moran told us. "As much fun as I'm having on stage, I'm having even more fun offstage." As a full-fledged Wiggle, Moran makes his maiden voyage to Massachusetts Aug. 2, when he and Murray, Jeff, and Anthony will dance around the DCU Center in Worcester. So, we wondered, were fans of the band skeptical when he first stepped in for Greg? "To be honest, I was a little worried about it early on," he said. "But people started congratulating me."

'You're not going to survive very long in this business if you internalize every rumor that is out there.' Paula Zahn, announcing that she's leaving CNN, where she'll be replaced by Campbell Brown.

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