Carell hosts screening of ‘Get Smart’ for charity

Carell hosts screening of ‘Get Smart’ for charity

BOSTON — Steve Carell stepped out of “The Office” to join the fight against cancer at a benefit that featured a screening of his new movie, “Get Smart.” The screening was Thursday night to benefit The Zachary Carson Brain Tumor Fund, named after a Newton teenager Carell met on the set of his NBC comedy in February 2007 through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Carson died in September 2007 at the age of 19, after a 27-month fight against the disease.

Tickets for the screening of the TV spy spoof “Get Smart” sold for $100 apiece.

‘August: Osage County’ will open in London in fall

LONDON — “August: Osage County,” the blistering saga of family dysfunction that has won a Pulitzer Prize and five Tony Awards, is headed to London this fall. The National Theatre said Friday that Tracy Letts’ savagely funny saga would start an eight-week run at the National’s 900-seat Lyttelton auditorium in late November.

The London run will feature most of the original cast of the play, which had its premiere at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company last summer. In December, it transferred to Broadway, where it was praised by critics as the most exciting new American play in years.

Today’s birthdays

Singer-actor Kris Kristofferson is 72. Actor Michael Lerner is 67. Journalist Brit Hume is 65. Singer Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon is 64. Singer Howard “Eddie” Kaylan of The Turtles is 61. Actor David L. Lander (Squiggy on “Laverne and Shirley”) is 61. Singer Todd Rundgren is 60. Singer Alan Osmond of The Osmonds is 59. Actress Meryl Streep is 59. Actress Lindsay Wagner is 59. Singer Cyndi Lauper is 55. Singer Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies is 38. Actress Mary Lynn Rajskub (”24”) is 37. Talk-show host Carson Daly is 35. Actress Lindsay Ridgeway (“Boy Meets World”) is 23.