At Home on the Red Carpet

Kevin Costner leaps out of a car to sign autographs -- beautiful black suit, beautiful blond wife -- and traffic comes to a standstill. Ashton Kutcher really has brought Demi -- but she's sprinting down the red carpet in her chic bubble-skirted dress, waving away our questions. The heck with them. The ones we really want to meet at the Uptown Theater's premiere of "The Guardian" are the local kids made good who star opposite Costner and Kutcher: Melissa Sagemiller and Clancy Brown.

Here's Sagemiller, a confident, sparkly-eyed blonde out of Arlington, wearing a black thing cut to mid-torso. The Georgetown Day alum and U-Va. English major paid her dues in commercials and slasher flicks. Now, in "the biggest studio movie I've ever done," she plays the small-town schoolteacher who reluctantly falls in love with the brash rescue-swimmer trainee played by Kutcher.

She's also filming a second season of Showtime's "Sleeper Cell." She met her fiance, actor Alex Nesic , when they co-starred in Season 1.

And check it out: Clancy Brown! You know him as the abusive prison guard in "The Shawshank Redemption," but did you know he went to St. Albans? And that his father and his grandfather were in Congress? "I sent him to Northwestern to study economics," former U.S. representative Clarence J. Brown (R-Ohio) told us. "But I said, 'Do what you want to do to make yourself happy.' "

The tall actor, sporting a gray beard these days, played a couple of ambiguous characters -- or possibly one and the same -- on "Lost." Will he be back this season? "I don't know," he said. "They haven't called me yet."

Okay, now here's Kutcher, open shirt collar, pinstriped suit jacket and vest. Ashton, what's it like to kiss Melissa Sagemiller? Snaps his handler: "He won't answer that."

The Past Comes Back to Haunt Him

Please , guys, don't embarrass us by talking to Ernie Hudson about "Ghostbusters"! The man's had a million other roles -- the warden in HBO's "Oz," the boss in "Miss Congeniality," a new horror flick with Snoop Dogg . He must be so tired of folks like you rehashing his career circa 1984 . . .

But this was the big Creative Coalition gala at the Corcoran on Wednesday, and the Hollywood libs who dominate the group these days ( Giancarlo Esposito , Hill Harper , Joe Pantoliano ) are easygoing supporting-actor types. When Hudson takes the podium with fellow Gen X nostalgia icon Daphne Zuniga to introduce Bob Johnson (who will then introduce Rep. Charles Rangel ), he salutes the BET founder thus: "When someone asks if you are a god, you say, 'yes'!" His own great line from, yes, "Ghostbusters."

So this doesn't bug Hudson? The actor smiles at us graciously. "I'm just happy to be out there working."

An Ad for Very Fast Readers

Ads for Meltzer's new novel adorn a NASCAR racer.(Ernie Masche - CIA Stock Photo, Inc.)

That blue race car you saw parked on 16th Street NW downtown last night? Part of the eclectic launch for Brad Meltzer's "The Book of Fate." The thriller, set in D.C. and Palm Beach, opens with an assassination attempt on a fictional president at a NASCAR race and includes the secret history of the Freemasons and a real 200-year-old code created by Thomas Jefferson .

The lawyer-turned-novelist was researching the book when his 2-year-old son, Jonas , discovered a racing magazine and fell in love: "He could name every NASCAR driver and their number." Around the same time, the best-selling author got a fan letter from Mike Calinoff , who works for driver Matt Kenseth , offering help if Meltzer ever wanted to write about the sport.

Decals for the book are now on the FitzBradshaw team's #12 Dodge, which will compete today at Richmond International Raceway -- the first time a novel has ever been advertised on a NASCAR vehicle. "Being on the hood and sides is a huge deal," said Meltzer. "It makes my publisher happy and my son even happier."

THIS JUST IN . . .

· "It was nothing," said party girl Paris Hilton , who was arrested in Los Angeles early yesterday on a DUI charge after registering 0.08 (the legal limit) on a Breathalyzer test. After her release, she called in to Ryan Seacrest's radio show to explain: She was shooting a video for her new song, went to dinner with her sister and girlfriends, then headed to "this charity event Dave Navarro threw for brain tumors. And, um, I had one margarita, starving 'cause I had not ate all day, on my way to In-N-Out [burger joint] which is probably three blocks away." Hilton admitted that her Mercedes SLR was maybe speeding a "little bit," but was surprised by coverage of the arrest: "Everything I do is blown out of proportion. It really hurts my feelings."

· Clay Aiken lost the "American Idol" title but has won the president's ear. This week, the White House nominated the former teacher trainee and special-ed counselor to a seat on the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. The group meets quarterly to advise on policy and programs.