Actress

One Baltimore woman eating out for her birthday got an extra treat when one of her favorite actresses, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, sat down at the next table. "OMG," Tweeted blogger Fadra Nally, who was turning 42 and celebrating at Cinghiale in Harbor East . "I'm out for my birthday dinner in downtown Baltimore and JULIA LOUIS DREYFUS just sat at the table next to me!!!!!" The actress returned to town last weekend to resume filming her HBO show "VEEP. " Nally, who was out with her husband, watched out of the corner of her eye as Louis-Dreyfus, in a party of three, sat down and slipped on some glasses to read the menu.

Last fall, FX's "American Horror Story" burst onto the scene as one of television's best drama miniseries and was nominated for 17 Emmy Awards . This season, co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk flipped the script by changing characters, plotlines and the show's setting from the “Murder House” to the dank and chilling Briarcliff Manor mental asylum. Over the next few weeks b will post Q&As with cast members of "American Horror Story. " So far, we've talked with Chloe Sevigny and Evan Peters . This time we caught up with Sarah Paulson.

Even if Caryn Elaine Johnson had never changed her name to Whoopi Goldberg, chances are she would have made a splash. Talent will out. The 56-year-old Goldberg, who will offer a sampling of that talent at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric on Saturday, has distinguished herself in a variety of endeavors. She's one of only about a dozen people who can adorn a mantelpiece with an Oscar, a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmy — make that two Emmys. She shared one of those Emmys with fellow co-hosts of "The View," the popular daytime TV show.

"Holy crap. What was I thinking when I decided to take this on?" That's what Sonja Sohn said last week shortly after I joined her at a coffee shop. Fortunately, she wasn't having second thoughts about our interview but wondering how to handle a mishap with a printer that might hamper the promotion of a volunteer event she was planning now that the battery on her laptop was dead. Her phone soon followed suit. Ms. Sohn is better known to some as Shakima Greggs, a detective from the HBO series "The Wire," a five-season indictment of America's war on drugs that examined poverty, political corruption and structural racism from the back alley to the penthouse in minute detail and made Baltimore more infamous than it already was. If "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" had been set in an American city, they could hardly have been more dramatic.

It was a huge night at the Emmys for those with a Maryland connection. From actresses to designers, Marylanders made quite a showing. Christian Siriano continued his red carpet winning streak with a number of fantastic frocks at last night's Emmy Awards. The anticipation started early for Siriano who was already sharing his excitement with fans through social media. "Getting ready for the Emmys red carpet. I can't wait to see some of my favorite ladies in Siriano tonight," he wrote hours before the festivities began.

The other day, actress Beth Hylton ended up with a friend glued to her face. The friend came backstage after a performance of "Time Stands Still" at Everyman Theatre and offered Hylton - who plays a wartime photographer injured by a roadside bomb - a congratulatory smooch. The post-show embrace happened so quickly that Hylton couldn't warn her friend that she hadn't yet removed the adhesive used to get the silicone prosthetics to adhere to her skin. "I didn't have time to turn the right side of my face away,' the actress recalls.

You might call Tracie Thoms a triple-triple threat: The Baltimore native sings, dances and acts, and her career encompasses film, television and theater. Introduced to acting and television at an early age — her father, Donald Thoms, is a Maryland Public Television host and cable TV executive — she further honed her craft at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Thoms went on earn degrees from Howard University and the Juilliard School in New York City. Since that time, the 37-year-old has become a rising star among a new generation of American actors.

Sonya Reinhart, a longtime supervisor in the Social Security Administration's Office of Disability Operations who had been a child actress, died July 18 of a massive coronary at Sinai Hospital. The Owings Mills resident was 82. The daughter of a tailor and a homemaker, Sonya Benjamin was born in Baltimore and raised on North Avenue. When she was 3, Mrs. Reinhart, who could sing and dance, became a member of Uncle Jack's Kiddie Club, which performed at the Hippodrome Theatre.

When Antonio Malone needed $15,000 to pay off the assailants who stormed his West Baltimore rowhouse and demanded money and heroin, a gang leader told him exactly where to go. Police say he was sent to a 12 t h floor apartment at The Redwood, the home of Felicia "Snoop" Pearson. The building on South Eutaw Street, within walking distance of the Inner Harbor and featuring a large ninth-floor deck and a 'round-the-clock fitness center, seems appropriate for an actress on the much-acclaimed HBO series "The Wire.