Blondes Don't Have More Fun
Long before he began his two-year romance with Scooby-Doo costar Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. was being hounded by the press. "Tabloid reporters would jump on my school bus to ask me questions about a father who died when I was a baby," says the actor, 26, whose dad, Chico and the Man star Freddie Prinze, committed suicide in 1977. These days they are more likely to jump on his limo, but his lips are still sealed. "Sarah and I have something special," he says. "It wouldn't be if we talked about it all the time." However, Prinze is plenty vocal about his disdain for his Scooby-Doo makeover as Fred, which required a dye job. "It's better to be a blonde woman," he says, "because then you've got the whole Marilyn Monroe thing going for you. She was hot. For a guy, it's just a pain in the butt."

A Meaty Role
"If I spent the entire season dishing out ziti, I'd be the happiest," says Edie Falco of her Emmy Award-winning role as Carmela Soprano in The Sopranos. Although her character spends a lot of time in the kitchen, Falco admits that she is no great chef. "I don't cook at all," she says. "It just looks like I'm moving my hands around a lot. But I don't know what I'm doing." She does like to eat, though, so she was pleasantly surprised when she was asked to pack on some pounds to keep Carmela looking like a well-rounded Mafia wife. "Two summers ago I did a play in London, and I was very stressed out from it, so I lost a great deal of weight," says Falco, 38, who costars in the new big-screen drama Sunshine State. "I got back on the set and [Sopranos creator] David Chase said, 'I don't know how to put this to you, but you gotta put that weight back on.' And I said, 'You don't have to ask me twice. Bring on the ice cream!' "

Expecting the Worst
Brandy—whose baby girl with her husband, music producer Robert Smith, is due in July—admits that she is seriously scared of labor. "I've gotten a lot of horror stories about labor, and those frighten me a lot," says the singer-actress, 23, whose last few weeks of pregnancy are being filmed for MTV's documentary series Diary Presents: Brandy—Special Delivery. "One lady told me that it was going to be the closest thing I've ever felt to death, and another lady said, 'I only have to say one thing—epidural.' " So is the mommy-to-be ready for the big day? "I packed my bag already," she says, "and I wish I could go to the hospital today." But her hubby isn't so eager. "We were on our way home and we'd just finished eating, and I got a preterm contraction," Brandy says. "It was sort of intense. And he was like, 'Babe, what if your water broke? I'd be so crazy right now!' Luckily the baby has a little more cooking to do."

Balancing Act
After filing for bankruptcy in 1998, Toni Braxton is back in the black. But the singer had a recent scare that made her worry that her money troubles had cropped up again. "I had this credit card that I hardly ever used, and I charged some home-furnishing things that were probably $8,000," says Braxton, 35, who plays the wife of a rap star in VH1's original movie Play'd: A Hip Hop Story, which premieres June 26. "The salesperson was like, 'Sorry, your credit card is not working.' I wanted to melt. So I said, 'You know what, why don't we try another one?' I thought, 'Oh my God, is it going to work?' It did," says Braxton, laughing. "But they are going to think I am still broke."