Tattle | Marley and him? Owen Wilson set to play Grogan

WHEN BEST-SELLING author

John Grogan

worked upstairs at the

Inquirer

, people always confused him with

Owen Wilson

("Wedding Crashers").

The poor (but no longer poor) Inky columnist would sit in the cafeteria and people would walk by and say "What's Jackie Chan like?" "How's your brother, Luke?" "How'd you break your nose?"

Or maybe that's just how movie producers saw Grogan because Variety reports that Owen is going to portray the writer in the big-screen adaptation of "Marley & Me."

Suddenly-busy Jennifer Aniston is going to play Mrs. Grogan.

Marley, the real star, has not yet been cast.

As nearly everyone with a dog and a bookshelf knows by now, Marley was the yellow Lab that John and Jenny adopted, only for him to turn out to be a lovable home-wrecker.

Variety says that the latest draft of the "Marley" script is being tackled by Scott Frank ("Minority Report," "The Interpreter") and the movie will be directed by David Frankel ("The Devil Wears Prada").

In case you ever play "Six Degrees of Tattle," years ago, we knew Frankel's younger sister and brother.

* In other Inquirer-related movie news, former Inky columnist Steve Lopez will also be making his way into the theaters.

His current employer, the Los Angeles Times, reports that the friendship between Lopez and skid row musician Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, which Lopez wrote about in the Times (and in the upcoming book, "The Soloist"), is going to become a movie with Jamie Foxx playing Ayers.

Lopez has not yet been cast but, given who's playing Grogan, just about anyone is fair game.

Joe Wright ("Pride & Prejudice," the upcoming "Atonement") is directing and Susannah Grant (who also adapted former Inquirer columnist Jennifer Weiner's "In Her Shoes") wrote the script.

Tattbits

* It's been awhile but police arrested British rocker Pete Doherty yesterday in east London on suspicion of drug possession.

Nice to have you back, Pete.

* Ryan Seacrest of "American Idol" is hosting the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 16, and Fox TV execs hope his appeal pulls in younger viewers.

Huh? He's not Hannah Montana.

* Eleven extras were injured when they fell out of a truck during the filming of "Valkyrie," which stars Tom Cruise as Germany's most famous anti-Hitler plotter.

The accident happened Sunday evening while scenes were being shot around the Finance Ministry in Berlin, which was once the Nazis' aviation ministry.

It was unclear whether the extras were good guys or bad guys.

* Robert De Niro celebrated his 64th birthday twice last week.

De Niro first turned 64 in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday, where he attended the grand opening of his latest Nobu restaurant. Then he caught a private jet over the international dateline and had another birthday Friday in Hawaii.

Tattle also celebrated a birthday over the weekend.

Once was enough.

* Lodi, N.J.'s Satin Dolls is selling its stripper poles on eBay.

So what, you ask?

Satin Dolls was the club that passed for the Bada Bing on "The Sopranos." Now that the HBO series is sleeping with the fishes, the owners of the club will auction off the 12-foot stripper poles and other "Sopranos" relics including a pool table, a disco ball and the fluorescent purple men's room sign often seen in the background as Tony did business.

Also up for sale: at least 10 bar stools that James Gandolfini, who played Tony, and his crew sat on. An L-shaped slab of the bar where they watched dancers and drank also will be auctioned.

Susie Quigley, who runs special events at Satin Dolls, wouldn't speculate on how much the poles might fetch. "The poles have been featured in almost every single episode. I can't begin to say," said Quigley, a former dancer who appeared as an extra last season.

Quigley said once the final episode aired in June, club owners decided to renovate.

Also trying to cash in on "Sopranos" interest is the developer of the building that fronted for Satriale's pork store. Manny Costeira plans to sell bricks from the facade as he demolishes it.

What's going up in the pork store's place?

Condos.

Tony would not be pleased. *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Send e-mail to gensleh@phillynews.com