icepack

Have I mentioned that I love y'all, lately? It's not the tender eyes of the collective "you" I gaze at regularly or the showy decolletage (boys, you too) and hanging bits of midsection I try to avoid but which I also love (quick save!). It's your decency. Your quick ability to help those you don't know. Yeah. I'm talking Katrina victims. I know some may not have been crazy about giving the few that arrived from N'Orleans the Section 8 houses you'd long been listed for. Charity begins at a government-given home. But I'm talking those not-so-monied types who've already turned their regular weekly events speedily into giveathons. Salute! And it isn't stopping. People I know from all manner of media are getting gigs together for October. I'm gathering up peeps for sumpin' strong within the next 10 days. Keep turning these pages: It's all about the aid.

WHOWHATWHERE: Icepack welcomes Lil' Kim to 7th and Arch, jailed 366 days for perjury. Jump stick! … After finishing off cheesesteaks at Pat's ("They hid me in the back"), telling me he's starting a record label, planning his next movie playing Iggy Pop ("I'm scared shitless") and talking up "raw" co-star Eugene Hutz from Gogol Bordello ("they're coming to TLA, Oct. 1st") a mod-cropped, battered-boot-wearing Elijah Wood talks up Everything Is Illuminated, that gorgeous Russian immigrant tale from debut director Liev Schreiber. The Sin City/Lord-Ringing Wood, a dude "perceived as younger and more innocent than I am," played the goggle-wearing "Jonathan" as a memory-obsessed pack rat. "I'm a hoarder. I put emotional value on nearly anything I get — notes, receipts. I totally relate because I keep everything: action figures, scraps of paper." Though he loved the comic choreography of having to speak Russian for half the film and claims he's not as introverted, awkward or neurotic as Illuminated's main man, Wood points out an "irony-of-ironies" in regard to his big baby-blues. "I'm incredibly nearsighted — God's joke, right?" … You know The Roots had the best entrance, strolling into their Kimmel/R5 Katrina benefit from Broad Street with the New Orleans TBC Brass Band. I nearly got run over by big Ahmir Thompson carrying a bigger bass drum, wearing a "Kanye is right" T-shirt. And while their Kimmel guest, Jill Scott (nice Zep-like take on "You Got Me"), has her own Katrina benefit luncheon to hit up Sept. 24 (NYC, Negril, 70 W. Third with Philly's October Gallery and Jean Carne), the Roots have biz to attend to: signing to Jay-Z's new less-cost/more-art Def Jam Left label after they deliver the soon-finished Game Theory to Geffen. Maybe the more-art Roots can save the soul of their keyboardist-turned-hit-maker Scott Storch. The "Lean Back" producer is twiddling Paris Hilton's knobs. We sob. … Toshiba loves Silvertide (those foldout prettyboy ads!) like M. Night Shyamalan loves 'em. The Levittown-lensing Lady in the Water has the glam-hammy metal guys playing themselves as well as cutting songs with Phil Nicolo for the flick. And they're taller than co-star Freddie Rodriguez. And on the shiny metal tip, Eastern Conference Champions — Laguardia exiles Joshua Ostrander and Greg Lyons — have signed with Geffen after one listen. "Jordan Schur (Geffen prez) heard the EP, flew out to meet the band and offered us a firm deal on the spot, no showcase," says Ostrander. When they come back from L.A., I'm throwing a "Fuck 'Em Before They're Famous" bash; groupies welcome. … Talking deals: Is TLA Releasing's Ray Murray (trying to dot an "i" with Larry Clark for Wassup Rockers) going to distribute freaky Philly Monster's Baller Lee Daniels' directorial debut, Shadowboxer, with Stephen Dorff's prick and Cuba Gooding's ass on display? … Sure, Philly promo chicks Cashman & Associates cancelled the Continental anniversary bash. Stephen Starr sent the party's expenses to the Red Cross. But C&A kept busy, running Hard Rock Cafe's NYC opening Saturday with Reverend Run ("I wear expensive shoes with comfortable soles so I can save souls"), Janice Dickinson ("I don't know who I'm wearing. I'm a supermodel, mothafucker. It blends together"), and Constantine Maroulis, the American no-Idol whose Philly-expat brother, Athan, is taking a role in Constantine's future. "I'm helping produce his next stuff," says Athan, a onetime Executive Slacks-er. "There'll be a lot of Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer in there." Uh oh. … Was that Ericka Schiff's voice, wafting through The Young and the Restless the other day? Yup. Singing local songscribe Kit Hain's "Beautiful Life." … Madi DiStefano's Brat Productions moving above The Khyber? Yup. Hail Social's out; Ionesco is in! … How did local esquires Bernard Resnick and Sally Mattison celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary? By working on deals to release new CDs by Philly clients Plastic Eaters and Bahamadia. What did you do for yours, layabouts? … The late John Mannino — Restaurant Collection publicist, friend o' the community — gets lauded with his own scholarship at Temple University via his partner Patti Klein and the Prime Rib, Sept. 26, for its Prime Rib Charity Golf Outing at the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club. Call 215-772-1701 to chip in.