Kevin Connolly and Meg Ryan hit New England Hot Spots

BY MARK SHANAHAN

For celebrity news updates, go to boston.com/ae

Pats lineman Matt Light celebrated his 30th birthday at Shrine on Saturday with the help of a few teammates, including Ellis Hobbs, Stephen Neal, Matt Cassel, Richard Seymour, Stephen Gostkowski, Dan Koppen, and Russ Hochstein. Ed and Joe Kane's new club at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods also played host to "Entourage" actor Kevin Connolly (above), who hung around long enough to eat some sushi and quaff a few Grey Goose tails before hitting the blackjack tables. Cedric the Entertainer also dropped by for dinner after his show at MGM Grand Theater.

Between chats, Meg Ryan stopped into American Seasons to sample some of chef Michael LaScola's cuisine. Also noshing at the Nantucket restaurant was NBC White House correspondent David Gregory, wife Beth Wilkinson, and four friends. . . . Film fest participants needed places to stay, and a bunch of them bunked at the Summer House, including filmmakers Nanette Burstein and her husband, Scott Anderson, "He's Just Not That Into You" writer Liz Tuccillo, and "Sleep Dealer" director Alex Rivera. . . . Manny Ramirez was seen shopping at Heritage on the Garden's annual Summer Solstice party.

Considering she summers on Martha's Vineyard, it wasn't too difficult for Meg Ryan to make it to this weekend's Nantucket Film Festival, where she was honored for her long and illustrious oeuvre. In a career-spanning sitdown with genial film historian Leonard Maltin, Ryan remarked on the firestorm ignited by her role in Jane Campion's edgy drama "In the Cut." "Apparently, if the phrase 'America's Sweetheart' is in any way applicable to you, you shouldn't be having that kind of sex, on or off the screen," she said, while noting it's still kosher to "fake it," as she did in that indelible deli scene in "When Harry Met Sally. . ." About her upcoming film "The Women," which was shot last fall in Boston, Ryan sounds generally optimistic. The movie took many years to get going, but "[director] Diane English willed it into being." Later, we stopped by the NBC Universal Screenwriters Tribute, where Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara presided and "Knocked Up" director Judd Apatow was honored. (We'll spare you Stiller's story about his first erection lest you never approach a subway turnstile the same way again.) Apatow poked fun at emcee Brian Williams, calling him "created-by-science" handsome, and also questioned why Ben Stiller didn't make the scene. "He's doing 'Night at the Museum XI' now, instead of being here for me," said Apatow. (Had he attended, Stiller would have seen his sister Amy handle the Marilyn Monroe role in a staged reading of "Some Like It Hot.")

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