Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez attend Fashion Week in New York. (photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com)

Drinking with the Enemy

Every fan of 'Real Time' with Bill Maher has at some point wished they could hang out with some of his brilliant panel members. For Maher, that opportunity comes every week, but the comedian/moderator can't exactly let loose: "There are politicians I do enjoy sitting down after the show and having a drink with. Barney Frank was on recently, a really intelligent guy, fun to talk with. There are plenty of politicians like that, well, maybe not plenty, but a fair number of them. But it's not wise to push that, to socialize, because you want to maintain a level of objectivity when they're in the hot seat."

Speaking of the hot seat, a reporter from Mother Jones asked why Bush and Cheney have yet to appear on the show. "I think they have a restraining order against me, but I'm sure we've invited them," Maher says. "I've called him everything from a retard to...Even when I was on ABC, we almost lost a Houston affiliate in 2000 because I called him a lying sack of s**t and called his mother a bitch." Guess that answers the question. (photo: Alexandra Wyman/WireImage.com)

[Mother Jones]

Kissing's For Girls

You'd think that a guy with Ricky Gervais's physical attractions might jump at the chance to snuggle up to Hollywood co-stars once he got his big break. But the actor has a no-kissing policy which he invoked in his new film 'Ghost Town,' in which he stars opposite Téa Leoni. He explains: "I think what is more important in a romance is that they are soulmates. Not that they are now going to get married, but they are soulmates and should be together emotionally. I think that's so much more meaningful. People get drunk and kiss; that doesn't mean anything." (photo: Jeffrey Ufberg/WireImage.com)

[Cleveland.com]

Emmanuelle Chriqui arrives at 'The Lucky One' premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. (photo: Jason Gemnich/WireImage.com)

Criminal History

David Simon ('The Wire,' 'Generation Kill') is trading cutting edge current events for history with his next project for HBO. He is re-teaming with 'Oz''s Tom Fontana (who helped him create his first series 'Homicide') to write a miniseries based on the book 'Manhunt' about the apprehension of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. (photo: Jordan Strauss/WireImage.com)

[Washington Times]

Distant Relations

Steve Dildarian, former ad man and the creator of HBO's 'The Life and Times of Tim,' punctuates his show's jokes by making Tim an everyday guy. "I was a young guy living in New York working at a big company," he says. "So there's certainly a lot in the show that comes from my life ... Most animated shows want to go to an over-the-top, extreme place. I can watch 'The Simpsons' and say, 'That's an amazing, amazing show.' But personally, I never cared about it. I like things that are relatable." We'll just assume that whole "Angry Unpaid Hooker" episode is one he chose to exaggerate ...

[Ad Age]

Clark Johnson and Ingrid Veninger attend the Match Club Networking Reception held during the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. (photo: Deryck Lewis/WireImage.com)

Poke-Men

Esquire has long co-opted (and turned on its head) the Cosmo-style list of things the opposite sex has always wanted to know but has been afraid (or too dumb) to ask. This month, Debi Mazar serves up the eye-opening '10 Things You Don't Know About Women' and offers more straight shootin' than a VP candidate with a moose in her sights. Filed under the rock-and-a-hard-place category are numbers 7 and 8: "We're not okay with you poking other women on Facebook." And "If you are poking other women, it better be on Facebook." (photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com)

[Esquire]

Blushing Groom

For all the bachelors out there daydreaming of a life devoted to suffering Grade-A verbal abuse, the odds just slipped out of your favor. Comedian Susie Essman — famed for her role as foul-mouthed Susie Greene on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' — spent the weekend getting hitched to Jim Harder, who she's been seeing since Thanksgiving of 2003. Besides being a great guy, Essman says, Harder fit one essential qualification: "He didn't even have HBO, or cable for that matter, and maybe that was a good thing because if he had ever seen me play Susie Greene, he probably would have run for the hills." (photo: Todd Williamson/WireImage.com)

[People]

Chloe Sevigny arrives at the 2008 Creative Arts Emmy® Awards in Los Angeles. (photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

The Figures Are In

HBO led the Creative Arts Emmy® Awards ceremony over the weekend, bringing home a total of 16 statues. 'John Adams' topped the list with eight wins, joined by 'In Treatment,' 'Recount' and Justin Timberlake's 'FutureSex/LoveShow.' A number of HBO documentaries were honored as well, including 'Autism: The Musical.' In addition to HBO's haul, 'Sex and the City' star Cynthia Nixon took the Emmy® for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her work on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.' (photo: Paul Morigi/WireImage.com)

[Reuters]

Opening Weide

Bob Weide (executive producer and director of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm') has a lot of experience with improvised dialogue. Now audiences will get to see how he does with a script when his feature film helming debut 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People,' opens wide on October 3rd. "It felt liberating to direct something where it was just me and the actors and have time to think about how I wanted to shoot something and shape the dialogue and all of the things that come with shooting from an actual script," Weide says. "...'Curb'...was nothing but positive. But directing narrative comedy where everyone's putting their heads together and blocking things out isn't the same." (photo: Jason Merritt/FilmMagic.com)

[Reuters]

Jamie-Lynn Sigler attends the BCBG Max Azria Spring 2009 show during Fashion Week in New York. (photo: Jemal Countess/WireImage.com)

Outed

People often assume that both Matt Lucas and David Walliams, the comedy duo behind the hit UK show migrating to the U.S., 'Little Britain USA' are gay, they tell Out Magazine. This is due to the high proportion of gay, cross-dressing and female characters they play. In fact, Lucas is gay, but Walliams (who has told reporters in the past that he estimates he is 70% gay) is ... not completely gay. "I think I got the percentage wrong," he says. "I've worked out that pretty much everything about me is gay, apart from the fact that I do like having sex with women, which I can wholeheartedly recommend to your readers." (photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com)

[Out.com]

Lost City?

Between 'Sex and the City' and 'Law and Order,' Chris Noth has spent plenty of time in the Big Apple — maybe long enough to declare it rotten? Or rather: "commercialized to the point of no return." The actor, who moved to New York in the '70s golden era of fascinating lunatics and block-to-block-neighborhoods, says, "That's all been washed out; it's very suburban. The art scene really left, except in patches. It's all about sort of a corporate sensibility, and it's squeezed out room for any other kind of sensibility." (photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

[TheImproper.com]