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HE'S THE PRINCE OF LIGHTNESS: For us, Wheel of Fortune lost its sex appeal when original host Chuck Woolery left, many pre-Vanna years ago.

So we're excited to learn that the Game Show Network is getting into the reality-show business with a series that gives Woolery and his life The Osbournes treatment (with fewer bleeps for language editing).

For Chuck Woolery: Behind the Lingo, scheduled to air in the spring, cameras followed as Woolery, 61, developed his new game show, Lingo, and spent time at his Park City, Utah, home with his wife and seven children.

"We get to know the real Chuck," executive producer Phil Gurin says in an Associated Press report.

With any luck, we'll also see action behind and in front of the camera as Woolery sells his bass fishing lures on QVC.

SO YOU WANNA BE A GAME SHOW HOST: Woolery worked 39 days a year while hosting Love Connection, according to www.imdb.com.

CELEBRITY HABITS WE ENDORSE: n U2's Bono ordered a peanut butter-Oreo cookie milkshake at a Walcott, Iowa, truck stop Tuesday during a Midwest tour by celebrities, dancers and musicians to raise awareness of Africa's AIDS problem, the AP says.

-- Ben Affleck tipped a valet $200 and a security guard $300 during a Thanksgiving trip to Las Vegas (with Jennifer Lopez), New York's Daily News relays.

-- Back in Australia, Russell Crowe paid for a McDonald's hamburger with a $100 bill and donated the change to charity and at a gas station stuck a $100 bill into a can soliciting donations for a local hospital, msnbc.com reports.

CELEBRITY HABIT WE ARE NEUTRAL ON: Also in Vegas, Affleck bought Lopez's mother -- his future mother-in-law -- a Capri Blue Mercedes E-Class sedan she fell in love with during a visit to a car dealership. He paid in cash.

HE LEFT 'SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE' FOR THIS?: Will Ferrell is set to star in a movie called Elf, the Hollywood Reporter says. He'd be better off reuniting the Butabi brothers for a sequel to A Night at the Roxbury.

Ferrell will play Buddy, a regular person who has been raised from infancy by elves at the North Pole. After inadvertently, yet continually, wreaking havoc on the elf community, Buddy is sent to New York to be reunited with his biological father, who will be played by James Caan. Buddy tries to fit in, but he ends up turning his father's life upside down.

Zooey Deschanel will play a department-store elf who becomes Buddy's love interest, Bob Newhart will play Buddy's adoptive elf father, and Ed Asner will play Santa Claus.

We will save for another day delving into what got Caan, Newhart and Asner into this.

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