Congrats to Studio City resident Laura Ling, the journalist arrested and held for five months with Euna Lee in North Korea. Laura joined the TV show E! Investigates, and her debut show next week focuses on teen suicides. She lives in Studio City with her husband and baby daughter . . .

Nicole Richie took a friend to Sushi Nozawa, the incredible sushi place where the chef looks at you and tells you what you will eat, and then gives you a bill (usually more than $50 a person, but it's worth it!) The place is tiny but there's always a celebrity around (last time I went Rebecca Romijn was at the next table).  Anyway, the way it works, if you don't clean your dish, he won't send over the next plate, and Nicole was good about eating up everything. . . .

At a nearby sushi joint, Shia LaBeouf, was sneaking around while shutterbugs followed him around back behind the restaurant. He just announced that he'll be starring in a period Prohibition-era thriller film The Wettest County in the World. . . .

Julianne Hough, in sweats and messy hair, was carrying not one, but two giant Jamba Juice shakes this week. She looked a bit like a cute ragamuffin hobo—quite out of character. Was the Dancing With the Stars two-time winner taking the extra shake over to her new boyfriend Ryan Seacrest? She's also really good friends with Gwen Stefani, who lives nearby . . .

Kellan Lutz is just starving for attention, it seems, but his star hasn't yet set in the Twilight. He's working out a lot around his house just up the hill from Ventura Boulevard, and he ridiculously takes off his shirt even when it's a bit nippy outside. Seems like he is always complaining about the paparazzi hanging around his house, but then he does something like that, and it's like attracting bugs with a fly trap. . . .

I was very sad to hear that the Adult Industry Healthcare Medical clinic founded by porn legend Sharon Mitchell was shut down to a political snafu that will be cleared up shortly I'm told. Local res "Mitch" is a longtime friend of Mr. Studio City, and has honored me by coming to a number of my birthday parties.

And it was even sadder to hear that Hollywood historian Marian Gibbons finally succumb to lung cancer. She was 89 and lived in her Studio City home for the last year without having many visitors over. Not only did she get me to appreciate the older structures and cool neighborhoods in Los Angeles, but she also convinced me to buy a plot in Hollywood Forever because the good spots are almost all gone. (I actually took her advice), and she will be cremated and buried there, too.

At Art's Deli, right across the aisle practically from where the ROMEOs sit (check out that story) there sat James Comwell, the pig farmer from Babe (and he happens to be a vegetarian). He's about to prep to play Lyndon Baines Johnson in a re-imagining of the shooting of John F. Kennedy called Flying into Love.

Caught the critics screening of  Tron: Legacy at the Universal Studios 3-D  I-MAX super screen, and frankly I was a bit disappointed. How could a movie that was such a sensation a few decades ago be such a bore? Jeff Bridges practically walked through the story, and when you obscure and de-sex someone as stunning as House's Olivia Wilde, you know something's wrong. But, Garrett Hedlund will turn some heads as the grown-up kid to Bridges' classic character. . . .

Another screening I caught was shot all around Studio City. Sofia Coppola (who was once my neighbor) took Elle Fanning, who goes to Campbell Hall with her sister Dakota, and Stephen Dorff, and made a movie called Somewhere. Elle gets to show off some of her ice skating skills at the PickWick Ice Rink in Burbank as she plays the daughter of a washed-up actor who is trying to make a comeback (Dorff). At one point, Dorff is driving through Studio City's hills and up Mulholland Drive to follow a hot blonde, but he's stopped at her gate-guarded driveway.

Rachel Bilson is always hanging out at Daily Grill these days. It's the fourth or fifth time she was spotted there since Thanksgiving. She's often there with a different friend, and not necessarily with a BFF like in her upcoming film BFF & Baby with Kate Bosworth and Krysten Ritter.

Coolest Thing to Do this Weekend: Go see Icelandic singer Anna Mjoll at the Baked Potato on Cahuenga Boulevard Sunday night when she debuts songs from her new album "Christmas Jazzmaz."

Coolest Drink: How about a fresh coconut milk right out of the gourd at the all-vegan ice cream store Kind Kreme. They cut the top off for you and have the shell cut into a square. Our third-grader loves that milk!