Actors

The woman who says she represents North American Power is not telling the truth about the benefits of buying electricity from her company. "You can save up to 10, 15, 20 percent of your bill, depending on your usage," she says in a telemarketing call to my house. But the rate she eventually quotes is only about 7 percent less than the standard price offered by Baltimore Gas & Electric — something the average customer would have no way of knowing. And of course the percentage savings won't vary even if my "usage" goes up to that of a steel mill.

"Better Living Through Chemistry," an independent movie about a pharmacist's life unraveling after he starts an affair with a trophy-wife customer, will film for five weeks in Maryland starting this month, Governor Martin O'Malley announced Thursday. The cast includes Olivia Wilde, Michelle Monaghan and Sam Rockwell — TV and independent-film stars with wide mainstream-movie credits including blockbusters like "Tron: Legacy" (Wilde), "Mission: Impossible 3" (Monaghan), and "Iron Man 2" (Rockwell)

Within a half-hour of her arrival on the TV set, Kerri O'Dair was transformed from casually clad college student to the picture of a young lawyer, dressed in pearls, a black suit and high heels. While a stylist applied makeup, the 18-year-old studied her notes and prepared for her appearance on "School Court TV. " O'Dair, a student at the Community College of Baltimore County's Dundalk campus, plays the prosecutor in the latest episode of the courtroom drama, which airs this weekend on cable television at Comcast 45.2 or Fios 45.6.

John Cusack didn't come to Baltimore when preparing to play Edgar Allan Poe in "The Raven. " In fact, he says he's never been here. But when asked whether this city, Boston, Philadelphia, New York or Richmond has dibs on the author's reputation, Cusack, 45, answers without hesitation. "Baltimore!," he said. "Is that even a question?" For Cusack, the only other city that comes close to having a hold on Poe is Boston. After all, he was born there. "But I think people generally would have to concede that Poe is a Baltimore guy," he said.

Several students milled around the lobby at Liberty High School on Tuesday, filling the air with after-school chatter.They paid little attention as junior John Johansen and sophomore Maria Eppig argued loudly about who would be driving home."

Whether Bill Largess is teaching grown-ups or kids, he finds that the basic misconception about acting is the same. "They think it's learning the lines and getting up on a stage and saying them with everybody looking at you," Largess says. Playing a character who really wants something - someone who is strongly "motivated," to use the actors' term - "is really a new idea for a lot of them." That is one of the fundamentals taught by Largess, Bruce Nelson and Peggy Yates at Rep Stage's Actors' Summer Institute at Howard Community College, where Shakespeare is the theme this summer.

When Manchester Volunteer Fire Company puts on its annual spring comedy, the laughs that the play elicits are as much from the actors as from the characters they portray and the script.A seemingly natural group of clowns, these firefighters and their friends make themselves laugh so much that it is sometimes a wonder they get through the production.For instance, at Tuesday's rehearsal, Janet Bangert, playing the lead role in "The Eager Miss Beaver," had the cast laughing so hard at her exaggerated country "hick" drawl that practice momentarily halted.

HOLLYWOOD -- Like any unknown actor looking for his big break, Khalid Abdalla was eager to be cast in a movie, especially a studio production. Yet when the 25-year-old performer heard about a possible lead part in a forthcoming Universal Studios film, Abdalla considered turning it down. The hesitation was understandable: The acting job was playing Ziad Jarrah, the hijacker at the controls of the Sept. 11 jetliner that crashed into a Pennsylvania field, killing all 40 passengers and crew on board, in United 93. As filmmakers tell a number of stories about Sept.

The big revelation of "The Big Kahuna" is that we're all salesmen, whether we're selling our products or ourselves. Forgive me for being underwhelmed. Unimaginatively directed and too stagebound for the big screen, "The Big Kahuna" features Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito as industrial-lubricant salesmen determined to land a big client. They'd also like to break in their new partner, who has the peculiar notion there are more important things in life than the hard sell. Spacey is Larry, a smooth talker who, when he's not pitching a product, is being brutally honest with anyone unfortunate enough to be within earshot.

NEW YORK -- If the charges against James Powers are true, he must be quite an actor because most of the people he is said to have fooled are actors. Over several years he won their confidence, became their friend, took over their financial affairs and, prosecutors say, took their money.He is charged with stealing more than $50,000 from an actress on "L.A. Law" and more than $150,000 from a star of "The Guiding Light." In perhaps the greatest testament to his skill at illusion, he is accused of successfully impersonating actress Jane Alexander over the telephone while bilking her and her husband of more than $1 million.

"Mad Men's" love of Baltimore is no surprise. Creator Matthew Weiner is a native and multiple members cast and crew have Baltimore roots (the series notably took a trip to our city in Season 3). And now you can add last night's hilarious LSD trip to the list of Baltimore shout-outs. Sure, it's likely a coincidence, but both Peyton List (who plays Jane Sterling) and Bess Armstrong (who played Jane's psychedelic psychologist, Catherine Orcutt) went to high school in Baltimore.

Actor Kevin Bacon brought his star power to a charity event Wednesday at the University of Maryland, College Park. But the cheers the actor received were not as loud as the hoots and hollers directed toward the six student groups competing for $5,000 toward their favorite causes. The competition — called the "Do Good" Challenge — is part of an effort by the school to make philanthropy more of a focus in academics and student life. The winner was The Food Recovery Network, which developed a system of collecting food from campus dining halls that would otherwise go to waste and distributing it to homeless shelters.

English actor Christopher “Kit” Harington, 25, has gone from a virtual unknown to international heartthrob in the course of a year, due to his role as Jon Snow on the HBO hit show “Game of Thrones.” In this Q&A, he talks about power, the rain in Northern Ireland, and how he dislikes the show being called “The Sopranos of Middle Earth.” Had you read the books before you were cast in the show? I hadn't read the books. I got this pilot, though, and I read it. I knew it was HBO, so I knew it would be of a certain quality.

Robert F. Fanto, a retired longtime Baltimore County public schools guidance counselor, died of cancer Wednesday at his Timonium home. He was 80. The son of a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad machinist and a homemaker, Mr. Fanto was born in Cumberland and raised in Piedmont, W.Va., and Keyser, W.Va. After graduation in 1949 from Keyser High School, he enlisted in the Navy. He served as a radioman to the commander of the 2nd Fleet in the Atlantic until being discharged in 1953.

[Spoiler alert: Do not read further in this interview if you have not read "A Storm of Swords," the third book in the series, "The Song of Fire and Ice. "] Scottish actor Richard Madden, 25, has broken into the spotlight by playing Robb Stark on HBO's hit show, "Game of Thrones. " As the second season of the show continues, Stark, the eldest son of the beheaded Ned Stark (Sean Bean), has been declared "King in the North," and has launched war against his family's sworn enemy, the Lannisters, who hold the Iron Throne.

Baltimore's mayor, it turns out, has a soft spot for big fuzzy dogs and the two-time winner of the sexiest man alive title. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, speaking Friday on Mix 106.5's Jojo and Reagan show, had a bit more fun than she usually seems to. She gabbed about trying to snap a picture of Bo Obama on a trip to the White House and about her brush last year with the "really cute" (as she put it) George Clooney. The two met last November while Clooney was in Baltimore to take in the Ravens/Bengals game.

''Love Letters'' has only two actors on stage. Both sit at a table reading letters to each other. The play, at the National Theater in Washington, lasts no longer than 94 minutes, with one intermission included, but those 94 minutes are more entertaining than a dozen other plays that come to mind.''Love Letters'' was written by A.R. Gurney (''Cocktail Hour''), the playwright who has become the official dramatic spokesman for the American WASP community.The two characters in ''Love Letters'' are privileged WASPs, people who know wealth, good schools and horses, and yet, their drama is universal.

Broadway producers and actors reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract yesterday, narrowly averting what would have been the second strike in less than 18 months. "The contract will serve our industry and theatergoers well, keeping Broadway strong in New York and creating more opportunities on the road," said a joint statement released by the Actors' Equity Association and the League of American Theatres and Producers. Details of the tentative agreement were not immediately available.

Kevin Costner, a superstar for two dozen years, hasn't had a big film hit in years. But overseas and out of camera sight, he's been renewing connections with international fans — as a singer. Releasing CDs in Europe while performing on three continents, he's won a global following as a country-tinged rocker, punching out songs that fit his native-Californian, rambling-child-of-the-'60s spirit. And now he's bringing it all back home. Costner and his band, Modern West, are putting the final touches on a concept album inspired by the History Channel miniseries, "Hatfields & McCoys," a three-night dramatization of the epochal feud starring Costner as "Devil" Anse Hatfield, airing Memorial Day weekend.

He played a hardnosed detective on HBO's The Wire, a trombonist on Treme and soon Wendell Pierce will be a grocery store owner. The actor who has a made a career starring in David Simon's popular television series plans to open Sterling Farms grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods in New Orleans, where there a shortage of good supermarkets. He talked about the plans recently with The New York Times. He and a business partner have already opened Sterling Express in the city where Treme is taped.