Inqlings | Barrymore drops by film shoot

The cast and crew of the

M. Night Shyamalan

film

The Happening

were shooting last week on a thousand-acre hay farm in Unionville, Chester County.

And who emerges from a car and shows up for lunch but Drew Barrymore?

The actress, bucolically chic in jeans and a white shirt, does not appear in the movie. She was taking a meeting with Happening producer Barry Mendel.

The locale may have seemed like the middle of nowhere, but the grub was urbane. It was sushi day.

The sci-fi movie, in its final three weeks of production, is headed to Upper Bucks County today after a brief stop near Pottstown.

WPVI meteorologist

Cecily Tynan

delivered a 7-pound girl,

Emma Grace

, yesterday morning. She and husband

Greg Watson

have a son,

Luke

, 20 months. She says she'll return in eight weeks.

University of the Arts prof

Camille Paglia

will announce the 20 finalists for the 2007 National Book Awards on the morning of Oct. 10 at the Library Company of Philadelphia. After the announcement, at 11:30 a.m., Paglia will sit down with another cultural lightning rod - actress/author/comedian

Sandra Bernhard

- at UArts' Gershman Hall for what Paglia calls a "candid conversation about art and life." (Budding friendship here: Paglia wrote about Bernhard's appearance last year at the Prince in her Salon.com column, and Bernhard referenced the column in her blog.) The chat will be set up "Actor's Studio" style. Seating, at 401 S. Broad St., will be free, but is first come, first served.

Author Antonne M. Jones, whose book The Lex Street Massacre chronicles the 2000 West Philly crack-house shootings, will join a discussion involving defense attorneys, the wrongly accused, and judges at the African American Museum in Philadelphia at 6 p.m. tomorrow. It's free to watch.

Herzog Cowen, the Hollywood production house, will be here Thursday to begin shooting a docu-reality series on the Urban Youth Racing School, the acclaimed motor-sports diversity program founded here. One producer, Pete DiStefano, is an alumnus of NFL Films. Filming is expected to include

Jeff Gordon

,

Jimmie Johnson

,

Casey Mears

and other NASCAR drivers. No network is so far attached to the project, says Old City's

George Polgar

, a school volunteer who pitched the TV deal.

WYSP (94.1), which returned to rock last week, seems content to operate without disc jockeys for a couple more weeks, aside from

Opie & Anthony

in mornings and

Kidd Chris

in the afternoons. (Kidd Chris' show now includes six to nine songs an hour, but I'm told that this is just temporary.) Midday guy

Paul Barsky

is off the air but still being paid - thanks to a contract, good until October 2008, with a no-cut clause. Names of potential hires are being bandied about. Talk is loudest around

Couzin Ed

, let go last November. He says he'd be interested in returning but referred me to his agent, who did not call back. (More immediately, Ed's heading to the altar with longtime girlfriend

Lauren Richardson

on Oct. 5.) "I'm looking to find the right kind of breakthrough talent," says new program director

John Cook

, who grew up in Newtown Square (his dad was WFIL honcho

Jay Cook

). "WYSP has always been Philly's rock station. I'm proud to be the guy who brings it back."

Jill Quale, let go last month from the morning show on Wilmington's WSTW (93.7), is set to join the morning show Thursday on Wilmington's WJBR (99.5) as Michael Waite's partner.

Jill Pasternak returned yesterday to her afternoon shift on WRTI (90.1). She'd been gone since June, when she was injured in a fall.