Actor

Talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, have bought a 13-acre estate in Montecito that had been listed at $26.5 million. The purchase price has not yet appeared in the public record. The restored Tuscan-style villa and gardens had undergone years and millions of dollars in reconstruction work under the care of an earlier owner, designer John Saladino. The two-story villa was built in the late 1920s from locally quarried stone. The property, entered through wrought-iron gates, has a quarter-mile-long driveway that winds through olive and eucalyptus trees.

As an actor, Harry Lewis took second billing to the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, most notably in the 1948 film noir "Key Largo. " But he found his own starring role as a Los Angeles restaurateur who helped usher in the concept of the "gourmet burger" when he launched the ground-breaking Hamburger Hamlet restaurant chain, among others. Hamburger Hamlet - named after one of the signature items on the menu, as well as the role that beckons to actors of stage and film alike - became that rare high-low hit. Among the restaurant's regulars: Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor, Sammy Davis Jr. and Tony Curtis - all Lewis' buddies from the film business. But it was also a place for Los Angeles families looking for a night out that included milkshakes.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke publicly for the first time Monday about the breakup of his 20-year marriage, saying he was responsible for the split even as he refused to talk about what caused it. In a somber meeting with reporters at City Hall, Villaraigosa declined to answer questions about whether the break with his wife, Corina, was triggered by another romantic relationship.

Michael C. Hall of "Dexter" fame has bought a restored home in Los Feliz for $3.825 million. The updated 1920s Spanish Colonial and guesthouse have killer views of the surrounding hillsides and cityscape. Features include archways, beam ceilings, wrought-iron work, French doors and wood floors. There are six bedrooms, six bathrooms and more than 5,600 square feet of living space. The gated grounds contain a swimming pool. Hall, 42, has starred as the murder-minded main character on "Dexter" since 2006.

Louis C.K., the star and creative force behind FX's "Louie," feels bad for his unlucky-in-love alter ego. "I don't know what's going to happen to that guy," the actor-comedian said when asked during a Television Critics' Assn. session to promote "Louie"  if the lead character would ever find a soul mate. Said C.K., "I've had so much better luck than him. I'm starting to feel a little bad for him. Maybe in Season 4 I'll park him with a girlfriend, let him fail at having a relationship.: FX announced that it had just renewed the series, which revolves around a hapless stand-up comic, for a fourth season.

Not only was Henry Darrow the first Puerto Rican star of an hour-long TV series, playing the charismatic and devilish Manolito Montoya on the 1967-71 NBC western "The High Chaparral," he also was among the first to become a teen dream whose handsome visage adorned the pages of 16 and Tiger Beat magazines. "I appealed to the more mature 12- to 14-year-olds," Darrow said with a laugh over the phone from the home he shares with his second wife, Lauren Levian, in Wilmington, N.C. He added that his costar, Mark Slade, who played the brooding Blue on the sagebrush saga, "appealed to the 9- to 11-year-olds.

Michael Clarke Duncan, the tall and massively built actor with the shaved head and deep voice who received an Academy Award nomination for his moving portrayal of a gentle death row inmate in the 1999 prison drama "The Green Mile," died Monday. He was 54. Duncan died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to a statement from his publicist, Joy Fehily. He had suffered a heart attack in July and did not recover. A former ditch digger for a natural gas company in his native Chicago, Duncan began his Hollywood saga as a celebrity bodyguard in the mid-1990s.

A memorial service for actor James Farentino will be held at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 505 N. Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills. Farentino, 73, died Jan. 24 after a lengthy illness.

Ron Palillo Actor played Arnold Horshack on 'Kotter' Ron Palillo, 63, an actor whose signature role was Arnold Horshack in the 1970s TV sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter," died Tuesday of a heart attack in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., said his agent, Jackie Stander. Along with John Travolta's Vinnie Barbarino, Robert Hegyes' Juan Epstein and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs' Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington, Palillo's Horshack was one of the original Sweathogs in the James Buchanan High School class taught by Gabe Kaplan's Mr. Kotter.

Re "Actor played villain J.R. Ewing on TV's 'Dallas,'" Obituary, Nov. 24 When I was 10 years old, Larry Hagman, Bill Cosby and others were filming "Mother, Jugs & Speed" down the street from my parents' house in Venice. The neighborhood kids would loiter around the set gawking at the equipment and activity; we were too young to be star struck. I fondly remember Hagman and Cosby hamming it up for us, smiling back whenever we smiled or laughed. Decades later I saw Hagman in Santa Monica and made a point of thanking him for engaging us rather than simply having us run off by security.

They milled around the room aimlessly, their faces painted - some ghost white, others in different colors like a tribal mask - and they followed the instructions: They glided when they were told to walk as if they were filled with air, then slowed to a deliberate shuffle when told to act like they'd been shackled. "How does that feel?" said their instructor, Sabra Williams, of the Actors' Gang. "What emotions does that trigger?" The group of about a dozen were grown men, prisoners at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, a place where they don't typically let themselves be seen acting foolishly or displaying the kind of emotion that could make them seem vulnerable.

Actor Ryan Stiles has sold his Robert Byrd-designed home in Encino for $3.1 million. The two-story French country-style house, built in 1976, is made for entertaining, with a pool, a spa, park-like grounds and a barbecue area on the nearly 1-acre gated site. Byrd is known for his indoor-outdoor designs. The 7,631-square-foot house features vaulted ceilings, hand-hewn wood flooring, French doors, a formal dining room, a den, an eat-in kitchen, four fireplaces, five bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms.

Sean Patrick Flanery plays an ex-cop in the eighth season of TV's "Dexter," starting June 30, and a music teacher in the new film "Broken Horses. " But there's another big role in his life: Flanery, 47, teaches and trains in Brazilian jiujitsu at his own Los Angeles studio, Dynamix . You have trained in various kinds of martial arts. What made you favor Brazilian jiujitsu? The first time I sparred, my sparring partner was 135 pounds soaking wet. I am 170 pounds. I rolled with him, sparring, and he wrapped me up in a knot.

Lee Melville, a fierce champion of theater in Los Angeles who was founding editor of the online LA Stage Times magazine and its predecessor, LA Stage, has died. He was 74. Melville was found dead May 21 in West Hollywood. He took his own life, according to Scott Barton, spokesman for his estate. In his more than 50-year theater career, Melville held multiple roles that included actor, stage manager, producer and critic. Terence McFarland, chief executive of the nonprofit organization LA Stage Alliance, called him "a huge advocate for the entire theater community.

CANNES -- An incident apparently involving a gun briefly interrupted a French television interview with actors Christoph Waltz and Daniel Auteuil at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday and sent nearby pedestrians scurrying for safety. According to several news accounts and eyewitnesses near the city's Martinez Hotel, a man brandishing a gun and another suspicious object appeared near a booth where jury members Waltz and Auteuil were speaking to Le Grand Journal, a program that broadcasts nightly from a seaside location in front of the hotel.

Actor Nick Nolte has put a Malibu compound up for sale that has seen a galaxy of stars come through its arched entryway. Besides Nolte, other notables to have owned the house include comedian Tommy Chong, Don Felder of the Eagles and music producer David Foster. Priced at $8.25 million and set in the Bonsall Canyon area, the two-acre retreat is covered with sycamore and pine trees. The main house, built in 1963, features 19-foot vaulted ceilings, skylights, six stone-and-carved-wood fireplaces, marble floors and mahogany French doors.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kal Penn cracked a joke at Clint Eastwood's expense when he addressed the Democratic National Convention, but the actor said Wednesday that he holds Eastwood in the highest esteem. “Clint Eastwood is an amazing director and actor. I don't purport to be on the same level as Clint Eastwood at all,” Penn said as he finished breakfast at the Blake Hotel. On Tuesday night, Penn addressed delegates, telling them that his favorite job was working for President Obama, “a boss who gave the order to take out Bin Laden and who's cool with all of us getting gay married.” PHOTOS: Protests of the DNC “So thank you, invisible man in the chair, for that,” he said sardonically, a not-so-subtle swipe at the roundly mocked empty chair routine that Eastwood delivered on the last night of the GOP convention.

For all five of this year's supporting actor Oscar entries, nomination day must have felt like déjà vu all over again. All the nominees - Christoph Waltz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Alan Arkin and Tommy Lee Jones - have previously won Academy Awards and are intimately familiar with the early morning wake-up call that accompanies that honor. Jones, who was nominated for Oscars twice before -- and won for supporting actor in 1994 for his turn as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard in “The Fugitive” -- landed the nomination this year for his role as the firebrand congressman Thaddeus Stevens in “Lincoln,” a part that showcases him spewing invective and sporting 2012's worst movie toupee.   Arkin was lavished with academy love as far back as 1967 when he received a best actor in a leading role nod for his turn in “The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming.” He landed another lead actor nod two years later for “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” and won a supporting actor Oscar in 2007 for his turn in “Little Miss Sunshine.

Just two days before "Arrested Development" would release its first new episodes in seven years, creator Mitchell Hurwitz called David Cross with a frantic request: Could the actor do a quick reshoot? Cross, however, was sporting a full, dyed beard for another project and looked nothing like his "Arrested" character. No matter, Hurwitz told him, "We'll figure it out. " The next day the actor found himself on a hastily arranged set, filling in a gap on the series that would premiere in Hollywood the following day. "It's crazy!"

Innocence meets experience, unconvincingly, in the strained redemption drama "33 Postcards. " The movie's awkward mix of familiar setups finds a teenage orphan from China on the sorta-mean streets of Sydney, Australia, inspiring hope in a criminal who has long since repented for his sins. The involvement of Guy Pearce - one of the best, if most unsung, actors of his generation - is among the film's many bafflements. Sixteen-year-old Mei Mei (Zhu Lin) has spent most of her life in a peaceful valley in Zhejiang province.