New York, March 28, 2006 – Queen Latifah continues to scale new artistic heights. The hip-hopper turned talk-show host turned movie star now takes on a historical role – prehistoric, actually - as Ellie, a woolly mammoth who thinks she’s a possum, in Ice Age: The Meltdown. A lifelong dream fulfilled, “I get my woolly mammoth on”, she said at the premiere on Tuesday.

According to Denis Leary, one of the best things about being in an animated feature is having toys made of your character. “I’ve got a couple of really young nephews who think that’s the coolest thing.”

The boys in the English band McFly aren’t in Ice Age 2, but they appear with Lindsay Lohan in Just My Luck, shot in pre-Katrina New Orleans. While Lohan is hot in the U.K., “Over here it’s a bit more frantic. When we were filming the movie, it was like, paparazzi everywhere following her around. She just doesn’t get left alone.” We asked the guys which young British actresses are their favorites. “Keira Knightley. Sienna Miller; she’s English as well, isn’t she?”

Los Angeles, March 27, 2006 – Jennifer Aniston may have friends with money, but they didn’t spring for a tent at the premiere of her new film, Friends With Money. So, for the second time in one week, OAN troops faced the elements while on the red carpet. Used to mild weather, the California journalists scattered once Catherine Keener arrived. It’s not that she’s so scary, but that’s when it really began raining hard. (Our New York team stood for hours in frigid temperatures at last week’s Inside Man premiere. Californians may be weather wusses, but New Yorkers are just stupid.) Chicagoan Joan Cusack didn't flinch at the downpour, while Aniston's friend David Arquette parked around back of the Egyptian Theater and dashed inside.

New York, March 27, 2006 – How is it that radio shock jock Howard Stern passed up the chance to see Sharon Stone get naked onscreen at the Basic Instinct 2 premiere? “Howard is in bed, of course. It’s almost 7 o’clock. He’s under the covers watching his Tivo’d episode of The Sopranos that was on too late the night before”, Beth Ostrosky told us, describing her man’s wild nightlife.

Mild-mannered Basic 2 costar David Morrissey called Stone “one of the sexiest women I’ve ever met”. We’d read that he’d hired a personal trainer to get into shape for those nude scenes in the film. “I didn’t. They did.” Morrissey's longtime partner, Esther Freud, seemed to take his nude romps with Stone in stride; perhaps she inherited some inner strength from her great-grandfather, Sigmund Freud.

Less confident was Inside the Actors’ Studio host James Lipton, who, when buttonholed by a reporter from New York Times’ Boldface column, asked, ““Are you going to make fun of me?”

Photographers at the premiere were buzzing that Sharon Stone worked the red carpet like an old-fashioned Hollywood movie star. But she’s not only about glamour; Sharon talked about her recent trip to Israel. “It was really wonderful to be asked, and to get to talk to people principally on the subject of peace and humanity, and holding your own dignity, being in your own spiritual elegance, and knowing if you have an idea, do it. And don’t stop at trying to be good. Go ahead and be great!”

Stone had apparently seen enough of herself being drowned in a Jacuzzi, and didn’t stay for the screening. She arrived so early at Mr. Chow for the after party that she drove away, and returned 25 minutes later, when the place had filled up, and worked that red carpet like a pro.

March 20-26 – Latin pop star Thalia shopped at Kmart this week, she paid cash, and when the paparazzi appeared, she didn’t even try to hide it! And even though she’s married to wealthy music executive Tommy Mottola, the Mexican-born singer then walked – yes walked! - ten blocks to her next destination. But this wasn’t exactly a case of stars being just like us. Thalia was at Kmart to support the work of the March of Dimes, and 100 of her fans got to walk with her to the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, where she rang the closing bell on Tuesday. Maybe tech stocks really are coming back.

You probably won’t get to talk to Cynthia Nixon if you call 1-866-KIDS-NYC, but the Sex and the City alum helped launch the hotline, aimed at improving education for New York City schoolchildren, at City Hall on Thursday.

Friends star David Schwimmer began rehearsals for the play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial this week, and while he allowed the press in for a look, he was his usual less-than-friendly self, and didn’t say much.

Courtney Peldon, sometime Boston Public guest star, fulltime Go Fug Yourself star, was at the Hollywood premiere of the HBO documentary Dealing in Dogs. Peldon confirmed that she is, in fact, engaged to actor Crispin Glover, and held up her ring for us to see. She said she’ll be changing her name to Glover, so keep an eye out for a Courtney Glover page on GFY. Maybe Peldon picked up some style tips from Project Runway contestant Santino Rice, who was also at the premiere.

New York, March 21, 2006 – Just like the women it targets, cable channel Lifetime gets an early start on its busy day. So there we were, yawning, at 7:30 A.M. at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday, for the network’s upfront presentation. (Upfronts are where TV networks pitch their new season’s programs to advertisers.) Why was Fantasia Barrino wearing that slinky red dress so early in the morning? She opened the 9 A.M. event with a performance. If you’ve been wondering what the American Idol alum has been up to lately, she must have been consulting on the Lifetime biopic about her life. It’s hard to believe that it’s taken this long for someone to get around to telling Barrino’s life story; the singer is almost 22 years old, after all. Reba McEntire must be a morning person; she was all energy and perky, like coffee.