Here's to the ladies who lunch (to quote Stephen Sondheim)!

Anne Hathaway, Sigourney Weaver, Christina Aguilera, Jamie Lee Curtis, Mad Men's January Jones and Eva Longoria Parker were just a few of the stars who turned out for a "Power of Women" luncheon in Beverly Hills today.

Impressions:

• I had to stifle the urge to call Jamie Lee the "Activia" lady.  She's always great on an arrival line–smart, real, passionate and refreshingly candid.  She said she didn't give a hoot about fashion and just slips on a black cocktail dress for this kind of event.
• Eva stepped from behind the wheel of a Bentley Continental GTC convertible looking like a million bucks.  Or, if you  throw in the price of the car, like $1.2 million.
• It wouldn't surprise me if January didn't finish her meal.  She's just a wisp of a gal– tipping the scales at maybe 90 lbs.  I saw her outside later smoking a cig.  That may be her diet secret!
• Sigourney.  Wow!  Tall, regal and refined, erudite yet approachable.   I would follow her into battle.
• Anne.  Dressed to the nines (as usual) in what she called a "frock".  She laughingly referred to the color of her dress as "moutarde", saying "mustard" didn't sound as elegant.   She's an impossible combo– goofy and elegant at the same time.  And utterly charming.
• Christina.  Can't tell you what she was like.  She posed for still photographers, but skipped out on the TV crews!   Hope there's a next time!

I don't envy the guy who took Randy Quaid into custody.

Randy Quaid, left, at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.

We have confirmed Quaid and his wife were picked up in the Southwest Texas town of Marfa today for allegedly skipping out on a $10,000 plus hotel bill at a ritzy resort in Santa Barbara, California.

It would take courage to slap the cuffs on Quaid.  He's huge.

When we interviewed him at the Sundance Film Festival a couple of years ago he showed up in a floor-length fur coat.  He took up the entire doorway.  A wag on our staff promptly dubbed him "Sasquatch."

In that coat he certainly did resemble a giant furry beast.   Wintry Utah (Sundance is held in January in Park City) seemed like an appropriate place to spot a yeti.  So I'm not sure what he was doing in South Texas, where this weekend the temperatures are supposed to be in the 80s.

Hi there Marquee blog readers!

I wanted to let you all know about something brand new that we are going to be doing on Showbiz Tonight. Each Friday on the show, we’re going to name the most provocative celebrity of the week- and we want to hear from you! Here is your chance to weigh in. Beginning each Thursday, tell us who you think it should be. Who was totally outrageous? Who did something so controversial it makes your head spin? Email us, write to us on Facebook or call Showbiz On Call: 888-SBT-BUZZ.

We can’t wait to hear from all of you!

The response to our initial "Find The Good" blog entry was gratifying - you do want more than gossip about stars' hookups, breakups, meltdowns and arrests!  I can't promise we'll feature such stories daily, or even weekly, but your feedback was great - including some questions which deserve answers.

- Why aren't there entire shows dedicated to "Good News"? Because, sadly, most attempts to do so have failed.  Yes, there are local stations with small "good news" segments, and a growing number of Web sites that highlight these kinds of stories, but on a bigger scale, they just don't get the ratings.  (That's a challenge to you,  the viewers and Web surfers who create the ratings!)

- Why don't you spotlight the good work done by athletes/churches/"regular" people? For the same reason you don't see stock quotes in the sports section of the newspaper: because I'm an entertainment producer, writing for an entertainment blog.  Stories here have to have some connection to the entertainment world.

- Why did you write about something that happened nearly three weeks ago? Yeah, sorry about that one.  I didn't hear about it until a week or so after it happened, and then we were prepping for Emmy coverage, and frankly I forgot about it until yesterday, when the flood of disturbing showbiz-related stories got so bad, I actually asked myself aloud "isn't anything good happening I can write about today?"  And then I remembered, and "Find The Good" was born.

But since you asked, yes, there is more good stuff happening:

- Last week, comedian Eddie Izzard completed an astounding task: running more than 1,100 miles in seven weeks for charity.  Now, I've run a few marathons, and each time, I spent months training, and then weeks afterward recovering.  Izzard, who has a history of charitable work but not athleticism, trained for about five weeks, then ran 43 marathons in 51 days, jogging through England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.  He blogged along the way, raising awareness and money for projects in poverty-stricken areas of Africa and elsewhere.  Simply amazing.

- In keeping with the theme of pushing physical limits, Jessica Biel, Lupe Fiasco, Isabel Lucas, and possibly Justin Timberlake reportedly are planning to climb 19,000-foot-plus Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, to raise awareness for the need for clean water worldwide.  Singer and producer Kenna, whose father suffered from waterborne diseases while growing up in Ethiopia, came up with the idea for the "Summit on the Summit" expedition, set for January.

- And proving you can have fun and do good at the same time, there's Band From TV.  No, that's not a typo: it's a musical group composed of TV actors who play rock 'n' roll for charitable causes.  The group includes Greg Grunberg and Adrian Pasdar from "Heroes," James Denton and Teri Hatcher from "Desperate Housewives," Hugh Laurie and Jesse Spencer from "House," and "Bachelor" Bob Guiney.  Their shows are a blast, and knowing you're helping a good cause in the process just adds to the fun.

Okay, celebs!  These stars - and our readers - have thrown down the gauntlet: use your fame for something besides getting into exclusive clubs, tony restaurants, and gossip magazines.  We're watching ...

Britney, Britney, wherefore art thou Britney? 

The pop star tweeted clues to fans about where they might find a pair of front row tickets to her Thursday show in Los Angeles.  The scavenger hunt ultimately led about 200 die-hard followers to her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  It wasn't very stealth because the area was fenced off, and surrounded by security guards and police officers.  At about 6 pm, a car pulled up, and Brit Brit slid out.  She handed the contest winner his tickets, posed for a couple of photos and smacked her gum once or twice - then she ducked back into the car and disappeared.  No wave to the crowd.  Not even a "Hi, y'all, thanks for coming."  The whole act took about 30 seconds. 

Many of the fans who gathered couldn't see what was going on (including our camera) because the view was obstructed by the crowd, as well as a clown with a giant rainbow afro. A blonde woman broke down into tears.  A mother of two teenage daughters cursed the singer, saying she'd taken them out of school for this.  A girl complained loudly to someone on the other end of a cell phone, saying "Dude, she was gone in five seconds!  One-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand, four-one thousand, five-one thousand.  Come on Britney, you can do better than that!" 
 
Well, they're not the only ones disappointed by Britney's disappearing act.  Jordin Sparks - who's been opening for the former Mouseketeer since August and shares the same record label - hasn't even met her yet.  Jordin says she's met Britney's parents, and hopes to meet their daughter by the end of the tour.  She'd better hurry.  Their North American "Circus" tour wraps this weekend.

Here's what's going on in the world of entertainment today:

• MTV will air the DJ AM reality series, which was finished prior to his death, as planned, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Gone Too Far" - which will deal with drug addiction - was originally supposed to premiere on October 5, but that will likely be postponed.

• Coming soon: Movie Star Barbie. That's right, the beloved doll is the latest announced toy to soon hit the big screen, according to Variety. Universal Pictures has struck a deal with Mattel to get started on a script for the feature film.

• The Hollywood Reporter says that one of Simon Cowell's U.K. series, "The X Factor," which recently featured what Cowell called the "best first audition" he had ever heard, may be coming to the U.S. He is reportedly trying to get the show on the Fox network, as part of a deal to return to "American Idol."

• Variety reports that Columbia Pictures wants a sequel to 2007's "Ghost Rider," and they're discussing it with screenwriter David Goyer. The paper reports that Nicolas Cage is expected to reprise the title role.

• DJ Samantha Ronson will play ... a DJ on an upcoming episode of "90210," according to People. Look for Lindsay Lohan's on-again, off-again girlfriend to appear on the November 3 episode.

• "Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo and husband Chris Ivery welcomed their first child, a daughter, on September 15, People reports. The couple named her Stella Luna Pompeo Ivery. This follows last week's announcement that Katherine Heigl has adopted a daughter.

I recently had the chance to see the comedy "Couples Retreat" starring Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Malin Akerman and Kristen Bell.  A married couple, played by Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell, convince their friends to travel with them to a tropical island for a couples retreat vacation.

The movie is your typical relationship comedy with basically a few more laughs attached to it. But it wasn't the movie that caught my attention rather it was the interview I had with Vince Vaughn. You see, Vince is engaged to be married, so that fact that he co-wrote a screenplay about married folks with relationship problems is a tad bit ironic. When I pointed this out to him and asked him about his own relationship and how he balanced it with the pressures of Hollywood, he said it was easy: he simply put Hollywood first! Now that made everyone in the room laugh. He went on to say it's all about the junkets, movie premieres and movie shoots. He said that's what comes first for him while his personal relationship and family come second. Quite the consummate joker on and off camera. But after a few seconds of laughter, Vaughn got serious and said that it was all about being a real person and never losing sight of that. The soon to be married man said that you simply have to treat your mate with respect and kindness and put that person first!

Boy his fiancee sure has herself a winner!

Catherine Zeta-Jones is set to hit Broadway for the first time. Justin Timberlake and "Zombieland" star Jesse Eisenberg connect to film the new movie "Facebook." And the cheerleader flick "Bring It On" is going musical. CNN's JD Cargill has more on these tidbits in today's buzz:

Cat Deeley, Nigel Lythgoe and the rest of the crew headed to Boston, Massachusetts, for this week's episode of "So You Think You Can Dance." Unlike many audition episodes (such as last week), where one can usually expect a long line of female contemporary dancers to go through to Las Vegas, this time the men were a force to be reckoned with.

It all started with Teddy Tedholm... and his pants. He was quite a "unique" character as judges Mary Murphy and (recent Emmy winner) Tyce Diorio told us more than once, and he certainly dressed the part. Teddy's somewhat spastic, David Byrne-esque style of dance probably gained him quite a few fans as Nigel predicted, and it will be interesting to see if he can make it into the top 20.

The B-boys are certainly back with a vengeance this season, as Jean Lloret proved. Mary called his first jaw-dropping floor trick "the craziest thing I've ever seen." There's another one I'll be pulling for in Vegas.

As we saw in the season premiere, it could very well be the "year of the tappers" as well, but for 6'8" tap-dancer Ryan Casey, it was not to be, only getting through to choreogaphy.

Like tap, krump is another style that has never gotten into the top 20, but Russell Ferguson, whose routine was "filthy and dirty in the best ways," according to Tyce, might just make it in this year.

Last but not least, we have the married ballroom dancers Karen and Matthew Hauer (good but Pasha and Anya, they are not), contemporary "powerhouse" Channing Cook, the only solo woman to get much airtime this week (definitely talented but will she stand out?), and of course, hip-shaking Gene Bersten, who practically called himself God's gift to women (and probably won't make it past the first cut in Vegas).

Now it's your turn. Who was your favorite in Boston, and what do you think of the sixth season's talent so far?

Michael Strahan was one of the NFL's most dominating defensive players of the last two decades. In a 15 season career that ended in 2007, Strahan garnered 141.5 quarterback sacks, was named first-team All-Pro four times and was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2001.

But such stats mean nothing when it comes to starring in a sitcom.

In "Brothers," which premieres September 25 on Fox, Strahan plays a retired athlete who comes home to help his family. Early reviews suggest the show could be a lot better, and the fact that it's the only new network series airing on Friday night this fall makes me wonder if the show is long for this world.

In fact, I wonder if this show is the 21st century version of "The Waverly Wonders."

Don't remember that show?  You're not alone.  The NBC sitcom, which starred a just-retired Joe Namath as a high school basketball coach and history teacher, came and went after just a few weeks on the air in 1978.

Is Strahan another Namath when it comes to acting?  Hard to tell, but Strahan's natural charisma, combined with some acting lessons, could make him a decent supporting player in TV or movies.

Strahan is yet another example of an athlete trying to make the switch to acting.  Some  achieved great success - Johnny Weismuller, Burt Reynolds and Jim Brown come to mind.   Others made you wonder why they made the transition in the first place - Howie Long in "Firestorm"?  Kurt Thomas in "Gymkata"?  Shaquille O'Neal in pretty much anything?

Do you think Strahan has a chance as an actor?  And what are your favorite and least favorite performances by actors-turned-athletes?