New & Noteworthy: Brendan?s voyage

Soon, it?ll be easier to list the movies he?s not in (very few) rather than the movies he?s in (seemingly everything).
Gleeson?s next big challenge will be playing Mad-Eye Moody in the upcoming film ?Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.? He can currently be seen in M. Night Shyamalan?s thriller, ?The Village,? and in the Brad Pitt skirt-fest, ?Troy.? He?ll also be in ?Kingdom of Heaven,? alongside Liam Neeson and Jeremy irons, which hits theaters next spring. Not bad for a former schoolteacher who didn?t start acting until the ripe old age of 34.

Halle?s Berry, Berry sad
Add Halle Berry to the list of people who are bummed that Pierce Brosnan is hanging up his tuxedo and bowing out of the ?Bond? franchise.
Halle, who costarred with Pierce and an orange bikini in the last 007 film, ?Die Another Day,? thinks that the hunky Irish actor was born to do the whole shaken-not-stirred thing. And she obviously thinks that the producers, whose hemming and hawing prompted Pierce to bolt, have lost the plot. Literally.
?I?d love it to be Pierce again,? she told reporters. ?I?m so sad it?s not him.?

Would he work with Woody? (Would he!)
Irish actor James Nesbitt is poised to join the the long and prestigious list of actors who have a Woody Allen film on their resumes.
Allen, the former boyfriend (and current son-in-law) of actress Mia Farrow, will film his next project in London. In addition to the ?Bloody Sunday? star, the other players will include Cork-born Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and ?Lost in Translation? star Scarlett Johansson.
An insider told the Sunday World that this could lead to a Hollywood career for the actor.
?If he plays it right, this could lead to other offers,? said the friend. ?Some of the U.S. critics were very impressed with him in ?Bloody Sunday? but being in a Woody Allen film will open him up to a new market.?

Briefings
Kenneth Branagh has played a Danish prince (in ?Hamlet?), a British king (in ?Henry V?), and a German scientist (in ?Mary Shelley?s Frankenstein?), and now, he?s set to play an American president. Irish media sites are reporting that the actor will star in the upcoming screen biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. No word yet on who?s playing Eleanor, but it sounds like the perfect excuse for a reunion with his Oscar-winning ex, Emma Thompson.

Colin Farrell fans need not worry that fatherhood will cause their idol to give up hard-partying lifestyle anytime soon. He said recently that, while he feels ?a greater sense of purpose? now that little James Farrell is on the scene, ?[it] doesn?t mean I won?t have my fun.?
?I just don?t have to be loud about it,? he grinned.

Celebrities have all sorts of weird ways of staying connected to their mates. For Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe, it was licking one another?s wrists, so they could smell one another?s breath when they were separated. (Eww.) For Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton, it was tattoos and vials of blood. (Eww, eww, eww.) For Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron and her Irish fiance, Stuart Townsend, the tie that binds is kumquat jam.
When the Dublin-born actor is away on a location shoot, his sweetie whips up a batch of jam with fruit that grows in their back garden. Which means that, with every morsel of toast, Stuart can spread the love.

Pam Anderson is not even remotely Irish, but this is too good an item to pass up. Plus, some of my male readers have been e-mailing to say that there haven?t been any ?babe? pictures on the page in a while, so this should buy me three straight weeks of George Clooney shots. (Right?)
The bodacious ex-Baywatcher is currently denying the rumor that she named her sons, Dylan and Brandon, after characters on the ?90s teen soap ?Beverly Hills 90210.? The story made the rounds after Jason Priestley, who played Brandon Walsh on the show, approached Pam at a charity event and said, ?I heard your sons? names. Isn?t that a coincidence??
As if. The pneumatic pinup was, like, not amused.
?I?ve never watched your show,? Pam sniffed. But the rumor spread quickly, to the point where her hotheaded husband, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, wanted to change their names immediately.
For the record, the tykes are named after Marlon Brando and Dylan Thomas.
?It had nothing to do with ?90210,?? she said. Though if she has daughters, the smart money?s on Brenda, Kelly and Donna.

Not Aloud Out on the roof
It sounds like Louis Walsh?s newest Girl group shouldn?t be Aloud out of the house by themselves.
The street sweepers of East London were spared a potentially messy cleanup job last week when Nadine Coyle, an Irish member of the prefab pop group Girls Aloud, managed to grab hold of a bandmate before she tumbled off the roof of a hotel.
The girls were swaddled in winter clothes for a fashion photo shoot atop a swanky hotel when Nicola Roberts stumbled and then passed out from the heat. Luckily for her, Derry-born Nadine was able to catch her before the designer clothes got all messed up. (Oh, and before Nicola went splat.) After all, singers are a dime a dozen, but Gucci outfits are expensive.
?I was already feeling faint as we were wearing winter clothes and it was boiling hot weather,? Nicola told London?s Daily Mirror. ?All I remember . . . is Nadine screaming as she caught me in her arms.?
No harm, no foul, as they say — and the Girls were back at work in a flash. Next up for them is a cover of the ?80s hit ?The Power of Love.? No, it?s not the icky tune by Huey Lewis and the News — it?s the version by the late, lamented Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Like, the Girls treasure their street cred, okaaaaay?

Even as a teen, Tom got a thumbs up
At 42, Tom Cruise is a certified hunk: the world?s highest-paid movie star, and the super confident owner of looks that can turn women?s? knees to mush. But, as Shakespeare would say, ?twas not always thus. In his younger days, Tom was pretty shy — to the point where his dates were forced to ignore coaching signs and make a run for first base themselves. If you know what I mean.
?Being raised by women — my mom and three sisters — I?ve always had a tremendous respect for women,? Tom told a reporter.
?It got to the point where one girl said, ?Look, are you going to kiss me?? and I said, ?Would you like me to?? ?
So, apparently, Tom was a bit of a tease. But that didn?t keep the girls away, no siree, Bob.
?I was the kind of guy you?d talk to,? he said. ?And then I?d wait for a girl?s knee to brush against mine.?
Of course, being slow on the uptake can also be hazardous to one?s health, as Tom learned early on when a classmate slammed a chalkboard down on his hand. When he told his family about the incident at dinner that evening, his mother laughed and said, ?She?s got a crush on you!?
?I thought, ?What is the matter with you women?? ? said Cruise. ?They were like, ?Oh, be flattered.? [But] she almost broke my hand.?

He gives them the run-around
The next time you?re jogging around the Irish countryside, keep an eye out for actor Daniel Day Lewis. The Oscar-winning hottie has become quite the amateur athlete, and regularly takes part in charity runs and mini-marathons held near his home in County Wicklow.
The 47-year-old Day Lewis, a member of Parnell?s Athletic Club in Rathdrum, was described as ?a fine runner? and ?a lovely fella? by Charles Lavin, who organized the recent Ballitore 6K Race. The actor takes his celebrity status in stride — if you?ll pardon the pun — and doesn?t get edgy if fans show up to cheer him on.
?He signed a few autographs and was very polite,? Lavin told the Irish Independent. ?But [he] just wanted to get on with his run without publicity. A nice man.?
Next up for Daniel is ?The Ballad of Jack and Rose,? which was directed, and co-written by his wife, Rebecca Miller. She, by the way, is the daughter of legendary American playwright Arthur Miller, whose Marilyn Monroe-centered play, ?After the Fall,? is currently enjoying a Broadway revival.

Quote, Unquote
?You would have to be from the rough side of hell to call [Tramore] a seaside resort.?
— A quote from Irish comedian Graham Norton, which the tourist board will probably not be using in their new campaign, from his autobiography, ?So Me.?

Cheer up, Jim . . . er, Neil
Judging by the sour expression on his face in nearly every photo ever taken of Neil Jordan, the Irish director seems to be a bit of a crankypants when it comes to the media. So it?s a safe bet that he?s really not laughing at a story posted on Ireland Online?s entertainment site headlined ?Sheridan permitted to film comedy in church.?
The article states that the Catholic Church has given permission for Jim Sheridan to shoot comedy scenes from the upcoming film ?Breakfast on Pluto? in a real-life church building. The only problem is that Sheridan is not directing the movie — that honor falls to Jordan. But maybe the name of the Oscar-winning director of ?My Left Foot? springs to mind more readily than that of the crabby helmer of ?The Crying Game.?

Don?t they play the gee-tar on the M-T-V?
The real reason that the U2 guys were raging over the theft of the rough cut of their new CD? Apparently, they were afraid that, in addition to everything else, the sorry incident would eat into their vacation time.
?It would screw up years of work and months of planning,? Bono said after the heist, which took place during a photo shoot in France last month.
?Not to mention [rhymes with ?trucking?] up our holidays,? he fumed. ?But once it?s out, it?s out.?
Happily for the band, the purloined tracks have yet to surface on the internet, so they?re going with the original plans. The album release will go on as scheduled, hitting U.S. stores on Nov. 23. The first single, ?Vertigo,? will air on radio next month. And Bono will, presumably, get his wee break in the South of France.

Blood is thicker than water . . .
The brothers Gallagher have been spending so much time smacking one another around the recording studio that they obviously haven?t had time to answer the phone. (Or maybe they?ve just pulled it out of the wall.) So, Noel, Liam, if you?re reading this: call your cousin Fintan. He?s making a movie. And he wants you guys to write the score.
Now, we?re not talking about some little indie flick here. Fintan Cullen Gallagher is producing a $25 million movie based on the popular ballad, ?The Green Fields of France.? The script has been written, the production crew is in place, casting has begun — all they need now is someone to do the music. And Fintan kinda wants to keep it all in the family. Unfortunately, the Oasis kids are not part of a big, close family, and they?re not particularly close to Fintan?s branch of the family tree.
?We have been finding it difficult to get in touch with Liam and Noel,? Fin told Ireland Online?s entertainment website. ?I only met the pair once and we chatted, but they hardly know me.?
Fintan thinks that, in addition to providing great music for the film, the Gallaghers? involvement would pay other dividends.
?We would like to discuss the possibility of Noel . . . making a cameo appearance as it would give it the height of international flavor of Noel gets involved,? he said.
Fin thinks that the battling brothers might be drawn to the project ?as it includes the U.K. and Ireland and they are of Irish descent.?
On a side note, it?s worth mentioning that the filmmakers haven?t approached ?Green Fields? songwriter Eric Bogle about contributing tracks to the movie. The prolific singer, whose catalog includes such classics as ?The Band Played Waltzing Matilda? and ?Now I?m Easy? also takes credit for n earlier effort, the appalling ditty ?I Hate Wogs.? This seems to have been a heavy-handed attempt at satire, but with lyrics like, ?I hate Wogs, they live like dogs,/Some eat bananas and some eat frogs,? maybe the filmmakers are right to leave well enough alone.