Sideshow |

A gaggle of celebs followed

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

home to Ireland on Friday to attend the funeral for the actor's mother,

Geri Meyers-O'Keeffe

, who died Tuesday at the age of 50 after what has been specified only as a short illness.

Bold-facers at St. Joseph's Church in Glanmire, County Cork, included fellow thesps

Colin Farrell

and

Cillian Murphy

. Jonathan attended with his girl,

Reena Hammer

; his da,

John O'Keeffe

; and his brothers,

Alan

,

Jamie

and

Paul

.

Heard the parish priest, the Rev.

Noel O'Sullivan

, describe Jonathan's mum, a former charity worker, as a "loving, caring mother who would go out of her way to help people."

"She was a small woman, with a big heart."

Super-mega-successful author

J.K. Rowling

, whose Harry Potter books have sold 400 million copies, has been named Entertainment Weekly's entertainer of the year.

Rowling, whose work has also given birth to a mondo-mega-selling movie franchise, was lauded by the mag for getting "people to tote around her big, old-fashioned, printed-on-paper books as if they were the hottest new entertainment devices on the planet."

The mag's list of the year's other top entertainers is broken down into five nonsensical categories: prodigies, class clowns, most popular, most buzzed-about and valedictorians (

huh?

).

Valedictorians include

George Clooney

, who "deftly balanced box-office viability with personal responsibility," and

Will Smith

and

Angelina Jolie

.

Upper Darby's first daughter,

Tina Fey

, was honored as a class clown for her portrayal of Liz Lemon on NBC's

30 Rock

, the show she created.

Even as more and more thesps are added to the cast roster for

J.J. Abrams

'

Star Trek

prequel, one name stands out for its absence: The original Capt. James T. Kirk himself,

William Shatner

. Abrams reportedly offered original Trekker

Leonard Nimoy

a small part, but won't give the 76-year-old Shatner a cameo. That has Capt. Kirk pretty steamed.

"How could you not put one of the founding figures into a movie that was being resurrected?" Shatner asks celeb show

Extra

. "That doesn't make good business sense to me!"

Still, Shatner concedes Abrams' flick will "be a wonderful film."

Famed guitarist

Glenn Frey

tells CBS'

60 Minutes

, for a report to air tonight, that he and his bandmates would have retired

the Eagles

were it not for the inspiration to make their first new record in 28 years.

"We were going to be done," Frey says. "And I wouldn't want to have it end . . . where . . . you're just sort of doing a caricature of yourself." (Foolish me! There I am, thinking they entered the caricature phase two decades ago.) Rather than die, the band gave birth to

Long Road Out of Eden

, which last month opened at No. 1.

"It came out better than I thought," says Frey's incomparable bandmate

Don Henley

.

Variety says box office titan

Brad Pitt

has inexplicably pulled out of

State of Play

, which was about to begin shooting, possibly costing Universal Pictures, like, a trillion dollars. Pitt was cast as a journalist who investigates the death of a congressman's mistress. Universal said in statement: "We remain committed to this project." No comment from Pitt's rep.

USAToday.com has posted these wise words from American poet

Kid Rock

, who divorced

Pamela Anderson

early this year: "Getting married was a ball. Being married was a nightmare!"