Inqlings | Oh, dem orthopedic slippers

Life in a string band is hard. Rehearse all summer, fund-raise all year. Miss too many meetings or slack off, and you won't get a suit for the Mummers Parade.

Which is why the Pennsport String Band, set to make its inaugural strut Jan. 1, was created, says captain

Rob Simiriglio

, who has been in the parade 33 of his 45 years.

"We're getting older, and we don't have the time for all that, but we want to keep the tradition," says the South Philly mortgage broker and Realtor, who will lead about 60 like-minded Mummer boomers up Broad Street. Everyone in the band is older than 40; Simiriglio's father,

Joe

, is the eldest at 76.

Pennsport will lead the order of march. "First out, first year up," Simiriglio says. "Jinx."

The fancies will also have a first-time outfit: Adelphia, led by Folcroft's

Peter DiMatteo Jr.

and composed of about 30 others disenchanted with their previous clubs. "We're not an off-the-wall group," says DiMatteo, a former president of the Fancy Division and retired Bell Atlantic employee. "We just want to have a good time."

Vivica Fox

and

Mo'Nique

have just been inked to star in

Three Sistahs

, an independent comedy shooting here in March - by which time the third sistah will be hired. Movie's tag line: "Jungle fever is raising everyone's temperature."

Tonight is movie night for the sisters at Immaculata University, as

Pat Croce

and filmmaker

Tim Chambers

will screen an early version of

Our Lady of Victory

, the basketball movie featuring Immaculata's 1972 team. The film, starring

Carla Gugino

,

Ellen Burstyn

and

David Boreanaz

, is looking for a distributor.

"My Sweet Song" by Cherry Hill-bred

Toby Lightman

is part of the soundtrack of the

Hillary Swank

movie

P.S. I Love You

, coming out Friday.

Actor

Mark Wahlberg

, in the area shooting the movie

The Lovely Bones

, made good on his promise to attend Q102 morning personality

Chris Booker's

Toys for Tots fund-raiser Friday night at Kildare's on Head House Square. Wahlberg created a near-stampede, and seemed most hygienically aware as he wore thick gloves while shaking hands. Booker and Kildare's owner

Dave Magrogan

report collecting more than 1,000 toys and more than $1,000 from the event.

Fox29 won't confirm, but the forecast debut of

John Bolaris

as its weatherguy is Jan. 8.

Rob Guarino's

last night will be Thursday, and the station will have fill-ins call the highs and lows in the interim. Guarino, hoping to land something somewhere, will continue his weather site,

» READ MORE: www.robguarino.com

.

After an eleventh-hour snag in negotiations - actually closer to 11:30 -

Couzin Ed

will not join WYSP (94.1) as afternoon DJ, after all. Plan was to have him start tomorrow. Now it looks as if management will hire talent from outside the market for afternoons and nights. This week,

Monkeyboy

will fill in at night, but I hear he's not a contender for full-time work.

WYSP will play a recording of Monday's

Led Zeppelin

reunion show in London - supposedly made by an audience member - at 10 a.m. today as a prelude to the Eagles game.

Power 99 night-timer/sex educator

Golden Girl

is on tour to plug her book,

Sex and Celebrities: The Truth, the Whole Truth, the Naked Truth

, and she's packaging it with the two

Chix With Chix

DVDs she has produced, for $20. "Great Christmas gift," she deadpans. Her next stops will be Friday (5 to 7 p.m.) at Black & Nobel (1411 W. Erie Ave.), followed by 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Horizon Books in Cheltenham Square Mall and 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Horizon Books in the Gallery at Ninth and Market Streets.

Ed Cunningham

of WHYY TV12 has been carbo-loading at local food companies the last few weeks, as he's shooting

The Philly Food Show

, due to premiere in February. Beginning in January, the online series

Ed Cunningham's Philadelphia

will return to WHYY.org with weekly excerpts from the food series, including images and podcasts.

Cadillac bought naming rights to the Wachovia Center's restaurant, Victors. The club, open to premium ticket-holders, will turn into a steakhouse called Cadillac Grille. Chef

Brian Kanak

previously worked at Capital Grille, Buddakan and El Vez.

Kevin Meeker

of Old City's Philadelphia Fish & Co. and Westmont's Cork restaurant was in N.Y. last week with chef

Sam Choy

to shoot the penultimate episode of

Emeril Live

.

Actor-musician

Daniel Patrick Ellis

, 19, is turning up around town as he's living with his chef brother,

Clay Ellis

, in Center City while their mother,

Suzy

, convalesces at a Philly hospital from a stroke. The Floridian says he's working on a new album and heads to L.A. the first week of February to shoot the drama

Ventful

. He picked up new head shots the other day from photog

Christopher Gabello

.

Thursday's lunch hour at North Philly's posh Osteria had political overtones as Philadelphia Magazine editor

Larry Platt

broke bread with National Constitution Center head

Joe Torsella

. (Osteria has politics of its own; chef and co-owner

Marc Vetri's

sister,

Risa Vetri Ferman

, was elected Montgomery County district attorney in November.) Platt, who had been flirting with running for the U.S. House, told his staff Friday that he would not oppose

Jim Gerlach

for the Sixth District seat. Torsella ran for the Democratic nomination in 2004 in the 13th House District and lost to

Allyson Schwartz

. Platt says Torsella, a confidant, didn't dissuade him; he had made up his mind earlier. "The subject of our lunch was twofold: We couldn't stop speaking about Vetri's unbelievable rigatoni with a chicken liver ragu, and we chatted about

Immanuel Kant's

categorical imperative philosophy. Seriously." How enlightening.

For more local photos of Mark Wahlberg, go to

http://go.philly.com/wahlberg