PASSAGES: Swank Gets Down to Business

FORMED: Oscar winner Hilary Swank and her husband, actor Chad Lowe, have launched a New York-based production company called Accomplice Films, reports Variety. "This is a whole new venture for both of us, but even though we're young, we've got a total of about 28 years in the business," said Swank, 28. "We moved to New York with the goal of making a serious commitment in producing." Their first acquisition was "Family Trust," a novel by "Legally Blonde" author Amanda Brown.

RAISED: Five cast members of the HBO Mob hit "The Sopranos" are getting pay raises, says the Hollywood Reporter. Under their new deals, Michael Imperioli, who plays Tony Soprano's drug-hooked nephew Christopher, will get $80,000 per episode, while Tony Sirico, Drea de Matteo, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler will reportedly receive about $60,000. Their previous salaries ranged from $15,000 to $25,000 per episode.

CAST: Former "Magnum, P.I." star Tom Selleck, 58, plans to re-enter prime-time, this time in the NBC baseball comedy pilot "Touch 'Em All McCall," reports Variety, which says he'll star as a one-time baseball player who returns to his hometown and winds up coaching a farm team. Besides his old CBS show, Selleck appeared as the boyfriend of Monica (Courteney Cox) on several episodes of NBC's "Friends."

REVEALED: In a riveting first day of testimony Wednesday at Robert Blake's preliminary hearing for the 2001 slaying of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, prosecutors quoted Blake, 69, on audio tape saying during a phone conversation that unless Bakley aborted her baby, he would have her "whacked," Reuters reports. The hearing, expected to last at least two weeks, was to resume Thursday. "You lied to me. You double-crossed me. You double-dealt me, and that's who you are," Blake reportedly said on the tape. Blake's lawyer objected to the tape on the grounds it was recorded illegally. Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash initially said it could be used, but later said he would have to research law on the matter.