Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Natalie Portman, Jude Law and the entire cast and crew of Cold Mountain are being hailed as heroes in the poor rural village of Potigrafu, Romania, where the Anthony Minghella-directed Civil War epic began filming on July 15. Few residents of the remote Transylvanian town have phones, and even fewer travel to see movies in big cities, so the presence of Kidman and company is spreading joy for one simple reason: money. In exchange for the use of their grazing land for battle scenes, local farmers are being paid 10 million leu (about $300) for each cow that is temporarily displaced. In a country where the average salary is less than $200 per month and farmers make far less, $300 goes a long way.

When Harrison Ford caught a gaffer on the set of K-19: The Widowmaker fooling around with an electronic toy designed to mimic the sound of flatulence, he confiscated the prankster's device. "He acted like he was really angry," recalls costar Peter Sarsgaard, "saying it was 'a very serious set' and 'can we please hold it together?' " Later, during an intense scene, Ford set off the gas machine himself, giggling like a precocious kid. "Of course it was during my scene," says K-19's Liam Neeson, who always had the last word when his fellow Star Wars alum gave him trouble. "I'd say, 'Shut up! I was a Jedi.' "

If Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler peels off his shirt onstage during the band's summer tour (which kicks off in New Jersey on Aug. 13), concertgoers will see some freshly inked body art. Before every show, Tyler plans to have a makeup artist draw an "evil eye" on each of his shoulders with a black Sharpie marker. I'm told that for some reason the lead singer likes to do what he can to ward off bad luck, and the evil eye is an ancient symbol designed to do just that.

When Anne Heche moved east to begin her three-month stint in Broadway's Proof that began July 2, she wanted to make sure that her suite at the Ritz-Carlton was as homey as possible for Homer, her 4-month-old son with cameraman hubby Coley Laffoon. So she brought everything from his room, down to the baby bumper on his crib. But it's still not the same. "It's a fancy life," she says. "He is going to go back to his apartment in L.A. and say, 'What's going on? Where's the doorman? Where's the caviar?' "

On a recent Tuesday night at New York City's hip club Suede, rapper-Heavy D and hip-hop producer Timbaland leaned over to the canoodling couple sitting next to them and said, "Get a room!" When the pair came up for air, it was former Party of Five star Scott Wolf and MTV's Real World-New Orleans vixen Kelley Limp. When I caught up with Wolf a few days later, he confirmed they are, in fact, dating.

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