And it's gonna be a big one. Also today: Some TV show announcements that will please both nerds and gays, and nerdy gays. The Muppets meet some friends. And the world's sexiest director lands another sexy project.

Here's a trailer for The Town, Ben Affleck's second directorial effort. Like Gone Baby Gone, it's a Boston-set crime drama based on a novel and is about gritty men doing gritty things, grittily. Only this one has more shooting.

Leighton Meester and Jessica Szohr eating lunch at Cafe Gitane on Mott Street ... Jennifer Lopez shopping at Christian Louboutin on Madison Avenue, and later rehearsing a scene for The Backup Plan at a Gray's Papaya ... Cindy Crawford arriving at JFK ... Alex Rodriguez getting into an SUV ... Tori Spelling leaving Cipriani Downtown ... Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa leaving ABC Studios ... Robert Pattinson walking around downtown .. Chris Cooper filming a scene for Remember Me in Long Island City ... and Joe Jonas shopping with a "female friend" in SoHo.

Courtney Love turns 45 today. Tom Hanks is turning 53. Jack White is 34. Jimmy Smits is 54. Floyd Abrams, the famed First Amendment attorney (and father of Dan), turns 73. Author/neurologist Oliver Sacks is turning 76. Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld is 77. ACLU honcho Anthony Romero is 44. AIDS activist Mathilde Krim is turning 83. Architect Michael Graves turns75. Actor Chris Cooper is 58. Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen turns 38. Author Dean Koontz is 64. Fred Savage of Wonder Years fame turns 33. Actress Kelly McGillis is 52. And OJ Simpson is celebrating his 62nd birthday behind bars today.

12/17 — CHRIS COOPER at El Coyote. Scrubbed clean (teeth looking great, BTW! Who knew?!). Wearing urban hipster hoodie fitting right in with the crowd. I'm in town from NY so I made sure he didn't notice me noticing him. [Hollywood PrivacyWatch is written by and for Defamer readers; send your sightings to tips@defamer.com.]

As proven by the For Your Consideration ads taken out in today's Var (click the image for a bigger version you can actually read), whether you're contractually obligated to promote a respected actor's performance in an otherwise forgettable FBI thriller or a moody, serial-killer-related period drama that never quite found traction at the box office, "Nothing Short Of Astonishing!" is this awards season's must-have pullquote.