Inqlings | Playwright has a thing for Philly

Tony winner

Terrence McNally

, who seemingly has adopted the Philadelphia Theatre Company, will world-premiere yet another play here.

In late October, PTC will open its Suzanne Roberts Theatre with McNally's Unusual Acts of Devotion.

All that's known about the play - still being written - is that it's an ensemble drama set on a Manhattan roof.

In the cast will be Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar for Misery. She starred in the late 1980s Off-Broadway in McNally's original Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune.

McNally used the PTC to debut Some Men (2006) and Master Class (1995).

The PTC season will include a second world premiere: The Happiness Lecture, by comedian Bill Irwin. That'll premiere a year from now.

Chef

Fritz Blank

, closing the haute Deux Cheminees on June 8 and retiring to Thailand with his cat three days later, will part with his collection of kitchenware, furnishings and culinary ephemera in a two-day public sale May 26 and 27. I hear several local chefs have snapped up his prime copper cookware, much of which he schlepped back from France over the years. The kitchenware, Blank says, is his own. The restaurant's equipment will be sold with the business, which is on the market for just under $4 million, including the liquor license and twin

Frank Furness

-designed townhouses at 1221-23 Locust. Blank donated his world-class library to Penn.

Noncredit college courses usually involve "personal enrichment," where you learn to landscape, design a room or speak in front of people. At one night class being offered next month at Temple University's Ambler campus, you might learn to draw chalk outlines: It's "Crime Scene Investigation."

Joe Serrano

, an instructor at the Philadelphia Police Academy and a 19-year veteran with a specialty in narcotics, will teach the importance of maintaining a crime scene and handling evidence. "Various types of crimes will be included," reads the corpse description, er, course description.

The old Vine Street business offices of Electric Factory Concerts - where, since the days of disco, concertgoers stood in a dingy lobby to buy tickets through a plexiglass window - is on the market. Asking price for 1231 Vine is $1.1 million. Electric Factory moved to Bala Cynwyd in late 2005.

Mary Ellen O'Neill, a pediatric physical therapist from Westville, turns up tomorrow (12:30 p.m., 6ABC) on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Former gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann brought his father, Willie, a longtime gospel choir director, to Saturday's Gospel Music Night for Stroke Awareness at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne. Guests included Ida Mae Vandross, mother of late R&B legend Luther Vandross; Yolanda King, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King; and boxing great Joe Frazier.

Heery Casting tomorrow will try out female basketball players for the movie

Our Lady of Victory

, which starts shooting next week at Immaculata University. The story was developed by

Tim Chambers

and WIP-AM's

Anthony Gargano

.

Mark Ellis

, the sports coordinator who oversaw on-field action for the movie

Invincible

, will run the court. Prospects, ages 18 to 25, don't need acting chops but must have played high school or college basketball. Show up dressed to play from 3 to 6 p.m. at Immaculata's Alumnae Hall on King Road in Malvern.

The Philadelphia Casting Co. wants families with a child, between 6 and 17, who has been diagnosed with ADHD. The mothers will talk with other mothers about their experiences with ADHD treatment for an educational video. E-mail: project@philacast.com.

nolead begins

The Delaware River Port Authority, inviting media to today's festivities surrounding the Walt Whitman Bridge's 50th anniversary, helpfully included directions from New Jersey - starting with "Follow signs to the Walt Whitman Bridge."