People: Her ‘Betty’ is a pretty good gig
Actresses often relish roles that allow them to look glamorous. America Ferrera, who plays dowdy assistant Betty Suarez in “Ugly Betty,” isn’t one of them.
“It takes me an hour to become Betty. But I love that she’s so different from me,” says the 22-year-old star of ABC’s hit new Thursday night series.
“I can (keep) a bit of myself private.”
Ferrera’s character, who also wears braces and eyeglasses, works at a high-fashion magazine called Mode.
“Sometimes letters come addressed to Betty,” she says. “They’re like, ‘Dear Betty, I hope things at Mode are OK.’
“It’s a little creepy. These are from people who are, like, 32! I’m serious.”
Ferrera is a fan of Rosie O’Donnell, whom she met during a visit to “The View.”
“(S)he was just so sweet. … As I was leaving, she told me, ‘Don’t ever date anyone who’s been in People magazine. Find a normal sweet guy from home.’ I was like, OK!”
Acting globally
George Clooney, People magazine’s two-time “sexiest man alive,” is more than just another pretty face.
Clooney, accompanied by fellow actor Don Cheadle, has been on a globetrotting trip lobbying foreign governments to help protect victims of the increasing violence in Darfur.
He was in China last week and met with Egyptian officials on Wednesday.
Thinking locally
Leonardo DiCaprio knows global warming is a problem, and he wants answers.
That’s why he posted a question on the “Yahoo! Answers” site, asking Web surfers to share their solutions.
“We can all be environmentalists,” says DiCaprio. “Creating communities online that are interested in discussing and embracing smart, simple and serious solutions reminds us we can all take action in our own homes and where we work.”
Rolling with the punches
Despite having to use a wheelchair and voice synthesizer because of his debilitating Lou Gehrig’s disease, physicist Steven Hawking hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
He told an Israeli TV interviewer this week that “the only advantage of my disability is that I do not get put on a lot of boring committees.”
Added Hawking: “The downside of my celebrity is that I cannot go anywhere in the world without being recognized. It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away. People want to be photographed with me, but it can be a nuisance when I am in a hurry.”
She’ll never forget it
Longtime animal-rights activist Bob Barker is pledging $300,000 toward a new home for an elephant from the Los Angeles Zoo.
The pledge would match other donations in support of sending Ruby, a 45-year-old African elephant, to a sanctuary in Northern California.
Concerns have been raised about the zoo’s treatment of elephants, two of which have died there in the past two years.
The birthday bunch
Jazz trumpeter Clark Terry is 86. Actor Hal Williams (“227,” “Sanford and Son”) is 68. Actress Patty Duke is 60. Actress Cynthia Gibb (“Fame”) is 43.