Names

Dropped Names Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them Frank Langella Harper: 356 pp., $25.99 Frank Langella's "Dropped Names" is a different kind of memoir. Rather than recapping his life story, the veteran stage and screen actor offers a series of quick sketch profiles of those he's crossed paths with whose fame, generally speaking, outshines his own. Intimately acquainted with the capriciousness of the limelight and its warping effect on celebrity souls, the book has wicked fun placing its subjects (all dead save socialite Rachel "Bunny" Mellon)

A small town in Maine has been wrestling with a prostitution scandal involving an zumba fitness dance instructor--but it is the naming of the accused johns that has created a mess.   The first list of 21 names of men accused of being involved in the scandal reportedly includes names that match several notable men around town. All are charged with the class E crime of engaging a prostitute. The names were released this week after a series of court battles. Police in Kennebunk plan to release the remaining names, perhaps more than 150,  every other week as the people are issued summonses.

Alicia Silverstone received the ultimate early Mother's Day gift: a baby boy! Like Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon before them, she and hubby Christopher Jarecki went the nontraditional route, naming their little guy Bear Blu. (Sounds like the perfect playmate for Roc and Roe, right?) The "Clueless" actress, 34, welcomed the 7 pound, 15 ounce bundle of joy Thursday at a Los Angeles-area birthing center. "We are all three in love," Silverstone wrote on her blog. "I'm so grateful to this community for all the love, support, good wishes and happy vibes you've sent me during my pregnancy ... it has been wonderful.

The movie is called "Meet the Fockers," but finding true-blue American Fockers -- as Universal Studios found out -- is no simple task. Before the movie's highly successful Christmas weekend opening, Universal's publicity people came up with the idea of holding a "Focker Family Reunion" -- inviting anyone in the country who shared the "unfortunate" last name of the movie's central character to enter a sweepstakes.

As Jeremie Fazel stood to pay his respects at his adored grandfather's grave, something felt profoundly wrong. "The name on the headstone was Benjamin Fazel. It was my grandfather's name but not the one he was born with. For me, it was very symbolic because I felt like it wasn't him," the 32-year-old Parisian said recently. "It was then I decided I had to change my name." You can call Fazel many things: He is French, the grandson and son of Jewish emigres from Poland, a documentary maker and a film editor.

When William Eskandari decided to change the name of his family-run liquor store in Glendale, he wanted something that would stand out from dozens of other, similar stores in town. He succeeded. As of 2005, the business has been known as Hammered Liquor. "Everybody laughs at it. They like it. People drive by and they see the name, and they come in and ask for T-shirts and caps," Eskandari said. "I'm thinking in the future we'll probably get some to sell." Not far from Los Angeles International Airport is another liquor store with a name that gets noticed, but not in the way the original owners intended.

Karch Kiraly was named the most valuable player of the 1992 Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour.