NAMES & FACES

Farina's Foul-Up

Actor Dennis Farina, a former policeman who built a Hollywood career playing detectives, was arrested yesterday at Los Angeles International Airport for carrying a loaded gun on his way to board a plane, police said.

Farina, 64, told police he brought the .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol with him on a drive from Arizona to Los Angeles and forgot it was in his briefcase when he tried to pass through airport security.

The actor, best known for playing a New York detective on the popular television crime series "Law & Order," was booked on one felony count of carrying an unregistered firearm, and his bail was set at $35,000.

For Lessing, Nobel's No Blessing

Saying that winning the Nobel Prize for Literature has been "a bloody disaster," Doris Lessing says she is unlikely to write a new novel because she's tired of constant media attention.

The 88-year-old author of "The Golden Notebook" and other acclaimed works was quoted yesterday in excerpts from a BBC radio interview that will be broadcast today.

"All I do is give interviews and spend time being photographed," Lessing complained. She received the coveted prize in October 2007 amid heaps of praise from the Swedish Academy, who lauded her "skepticism, fire and visionary power."

But the author told the BBC she is finding it difficult now to write: "I don't have any energy anymore. This is why I keep telling anyone younger than me, don't imagine you'll have it forever."

The Big 'Incomplete'

Nearly 25 years after dropping out to pursue her entertainment career, Vanessa Williams has received her bachelor's degree from Syracuse University.

The 45-year-old star of ABC's "Ugly Betty" delivered the convocation address at the Syracuse College of Visual and Performing Arts graduation ceremony on Saturday, the Associated Press reports.

Williams studied at Syracuse's drama department from 1981-1983, then left school early to become the first black Miss America. She was forced to give up her title in July 1984 when Penthouse magazine published nude photographs of her taken years earlier.

Through her subsequent experience in the entertainment industry, the Tony Award-winning actress-singer earned the credits required to graduate from the university.

Underwood to the Opry

Country music star Carrie Underwood has joined the ranks of the Grand Ole Opry. The long-running radio show welcomed the 25-year-old "American Idol" winner to the family on Saturday.