Wahlberg to make cameo appearance on ‘Entourage’

Wahlberg to make cameo appearance on ‘Entourage’

SAN DIEGO — Fall is full for Mark Wahlberg.

The 37-year-old actor-producer has upcoming productions in film, television — and his own family.

Wahlberg will make a rare cameo appearance on “Entourage,” the hit HBO series he executive produces, when the fifth season begins next month. And his third child with fianc e Rhea Durham is due in September.

In October, Wahlberg returns to his action-star roots with “Max Payne,” a crime-thriller based on a gritty video game. Meanwhile, he’ll start training for his role in “The Fighter,” playing boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward.

“I’m thrilled,” Wahlberg told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “Life couldn’t be better.”

He followed up his Oscar-nominated performance in “The Departed” with a pair of gun-toting parts, plus softer roles in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening” and Peter Jackson’s anticipated interpretation of the best-seller “The Lovely Bones,” due out next year. But “Max Payne” spoke directly to Wahlberg’s “guy mentality,” he said.

“This is the kind of movie I would run out to see,” he said. “The kind of movies I watch are definitely guys’ movies. ... This is ‘Departed.’ This is ‘Fear.’ This is all those characters times 10.”

Judge rules Snipes must reimburse government

OCALA, Fla. — Actor Wesley Snipes must reimburse the government in prosecution costs for his tax conviction.

According to court documents, U.S. District Court Judge William Terrell Hodges ruled last week that the action film star must reimburse the government about $217,000. Snipes, star of the “Blade” trilogy and “White Men Can’t Jump” among other movies, had objected to the cost.

A message left with Snipes’ attorney was not immediately returned Tuesday.

A jury convicted Snipes in February of three counts of willfully failing to file his income taxes. He has appealed the convictions and his three-year prison sentence.

Johansson embarrassed over Obama e-mails

NEW YORK — Scarlett Johansson can laugh about it now, but the actress says she was embarrassed by the media coverage of her so-called “e-mail relationship” with Barack Obama.

“It seemed to me to be like a product of extreme sexism, and I kept thinking to myself, ‘God, if this was just, like, Kal Penn or George Clooney or any of the other [Obama] surrogates or supporters ... there wouldn’t be [any] question about it. Nobody would even talk about it,’” she said.

Johansson, a vocal supporter of Obama’s, told the Web site Politico.com in June that she and the Democratic presidential hopeful had been trading e-mails. Obama later told reporters that Johansson doesn’t have his personal e-mail address, and that his assistant forwarded one message from Johansson to which he replied.

“I was merely trying to express my delight at Obama’s commitment to his campaign in every aspect and his interest and his support [in] his surrogates and his staff and his fellows, and how wonderful and refreshing that is," the 23-year-old actress said.

Today’s birthdays

Writer-producer-humorist Stan Freberg is 82. Bluesman Magic Slim is 71. Humorist Garrison Keillor is 66. Singer B.J. Thomas is 66. Singer Harold Hudson of The Commodores is 59. Country singer Rodney Crowell is 58. Actor Wayne Knight (“Seinfeld”) is 53. Singer Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden is 50. Actor David Duchovny (“The X-Files”) is 48. Actor Harold Perrineau (“Lost,” “Oz”) is 45. Actress Charlize Theron is 33.