Gossip should have no friends

[April 30th, 2008]

WHO’S YOUR MAMA? Sorry, Thomas Beatie, pregnant Oregon men need not apply. Local casting agent Lana Veenker announced yesterday that 2929 Entertainment is in desperate need of a real live pregnant woman —who looks like South African-born bombshell Charlize Theron —to double for the actress in The Road, a feature film based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel. The Road is scheduled to shoot on the north coast of Oregon in May. “The producers prefer to use an actual pregnant woman rather than put a fake belly on the actress. But it’s important that she resemble Charlize in height, weight and hair color,” says Veenker. That’s all 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-11 Caucasian women with blond hair who are around four months’ pregnant and wearing a dress size 6 or 8. There’s gotta be tons of ’em around here, right? There’s no charge to be considered for the role, and no nudity will be required (oh, really?). Preggo ladies should send their photos and contact details to Lana Veenker Casting via Eryn Goodman at talent@slateplease.com.

YES, WE CAN PAINT: PDX artist T. Oliver , who coordinated the art for the Obama Ball at Aura on Tuesday, April 22, has turned over his Blue Zen Project gallery/studio at 4434 SE Hawthorne Blvd. to the cause. Starting Friday, May 2, he’s donating “a percentage of sales” from Obama-inspired works created by himself and other locals to the Obama campaign. The hottest seller? Duotone “Obama Believer” T-shirts.

CHUG: Finally, Bend’s microbrew jewel is all ours. The Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub (210 NW 11th Ave., 296-4906) opened for biz in the Pearl this week after splashy invite-only parties over the weekend broke in the sprawling, open space. The raw-beamed building, a former auto shop rehabbed by local firm Gerding Edlen, houses four massive carved-wood lintels sprouting Oregon fauna by artist J. Chester Armstrong. Behind the bar, giant gilded window frames peek through to the brewery proper. Chef Jeff Usinowicz, former corporate chef for the now-defunct NW Hayden Enterprises, is churning out “upscale beer cuisine”—pizza, elk burgers and goat-cheese ravioli with lobster tail—but we’re salivating for the Friday, May 2, release of the first beer brewed on site, the Armory XPA.

NOT THE GREATEST NOTION: In a recent listing for the Loggernaut Reading Series, WW mistakenly described McMinnville-based writer Anna Keesey as the “differently spelled daughter of Ken Kesey.” Ms Keesey wrote us: “My dad is James Keesey, a retired psychology professor and current ski instructor, not Ken Kesey, famous dead Merry Prankster.” WW regrets the error.