People: Tyler Perry Gives Back

DO-GOODING
FOOD FOR FAMILIES
Tyler Perry may be a successful director, playwright and actor, but he knows what it's like to be hungry. Perry, who grew up the poor son of a carpenter in New Orleans and was homeless for a time, has donated enough food to feed 1,000 families for two weeks in Atlanta, where he lives now. "I've been out on the street; I know what it's about," said Perry, 39.

SPECIALTIES
IF INSULTS WERE DANCE STEPS, HE'D BE BING CROSBY
"Dancing With the Stars" is back — with low score paddles. Soap star Susan Lucci was given a measly 15; chef Rocco DiSpirito cooked up a lukewarm 14. But the lowest number — a pathetic 12 — went to comedian Jeffrey Ross.

ACCESSORIES
SURPRISINGLY, STAR KIND OF STARTING TO LIKE NECK BRACE
A Superior Court judge ruled last week that Ed McMahon's lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two physicians lays out adequate legal ground to pursue claims that include negligence and fraud.

SPELLING
LETTER 'E' PANICS AS SALES OF 'BRISINGR' TOP 500,000
First-day sales topped half a million for Christopher Paolini's "Brisingr," the third in his million-selling "Inheritance" fantasy cycle and unveiled last weekend with a "Harry Potter"-like midnight opening. It was the highest opening ever for a Random House children's book.

» Pictured above: Titls without a crtain vowl will b hip now!

PUBLISHING
BOOK ON TAPE HOTLY AWAITED
Alec Baldwin blamed the custody battle between him and his ex-wife, Kim Basinger, in part for the frustration he was feeling when he berated his daughter in a phone message leaked to the media last year. He was apparently upset that she had missed his phone call. "I wanted to see my daughter." In the book "A Promise to Ourselves," he rails against the family court system in Los Angeles and offers advice based on his own experience.

LOVE AFFAIR
WAGNER CONFIRMS STANWYCK WAS COUGAR
Robert Wagner's marriage to Natalie Wood was known to all. His love affair with Barbara Stanwyck was a secret — until now. In his new memoir, "Pieces of My Heart," Wagner writes of his four-year romance with the star of such classics as "Stella Dallas" and "Double Indemnity." They met on the set of "Titanic," released in 1953, when he was 22 and she was 45 and divorced from actor Robert Taylor. Stanwyck eventually broke it off. "I would always have been Mr. Stanwyck," Wagner, now 78, writes.

With contributions from The Associated Press
Photos by Shiho Fukada/AP; David Grubbs/AP