Rosario Dawson

Actor BRIAN O'HALLORAN has lavished praise on his CLERKS II co-star ROSARIO DAWSON, insisting other actresses muted for the part wouldn't have fitted in with the film's lewd humour. The 41-year-old grew nervous when executive producer HARVEY WEINSTEIN gave director KEVIN SMITH a surprising list of actresses to be considered for the main female role, but his fears resided when Dawson arrived on set and joined in with the film series' running gag about a sex act performed on a donkey. He recalls, "We were kind of nervous in the beginning, because Harvey Weinstein had given Kevin a list of women. Kevin wanted to do the film with the four guys from the original and unknowns for the other roles, but Harvey was like, 'Absolutely not. You've got to give me a name actress at least.' "But some of the names were really weird - like RACHEL WEISZ. I can just imagine what she would have been like: 'Are you serious? A donkey show? Am I being Punk'd?' "When we were on set, (co-star) JEFF (ANDERSON) asked her, 'Rosario, seriously, how much are they paying you? Why did you say yes?' And she said, 'I wanted to see the donkey show.' We were like, 'That's our chick.'"

'Balers Hold on Against Vikings

Hollister - North Salinas proved to be a lot tougher than its record indicated, but San Benito persevered to earn a 52-41 win Tuesday over the visiting Vikings in Tri-County Athletic League action. "They're scrappy, they really battle," Haybalers coach John Becerra said of North Salinas, which fell to 2-16 overall and 0-6 in TCAL. San Benito (8-12, 4-2) took early control of the game and looked as if it might blow it open. Todd Janisch scored 10 of his game-high 21 points in the first quarter as the 'Balers opened a 17-8 lead. Janisch added nine more points in the second quarter and with less than a minute to go in the first half, San Benito was comfortably in front 29-14. But North Salinas was determined to make a game of it. Victor Sapp drained a 3-pointer and Marcos Martinez scored his only two baskets of the night as the Vikings trimmed the halftime margin to 29-21. "Their press was working pretty good," said Kevin Burley, who scored three points and pulled down 10 rebounds for the 'Balers. "They're quick and small." San Benito still couldn't shake the pesky Vikings in the third quarter and with less than two minutes to go, Ervin Rosario-Dawson hit one of his four 3-pointers to make it a four-point game at 33-29. The 'Balers woke up after that. Marty Bueno hit a 3-pointer and then delivered a nice feed to Kevin Medeiros for an easy bucket inside as San Benito built its lead back up to nine entering the fourth quarter. Gus Silva hit a jumper and Jason Canchola connected from beyond the arc early in the final period and the 'Balers quickly pushed the lead to 43-29. North Salinas' Sal Moran hit a pair of free-throws and Rosario-Dawson hit another trey to trim the deficit to nine, but that was as close as the Vikings would get the rest of the way. "We weren't as focused as other games," Becerra said. "You know that's going to happen, you don't want it to happen but you know it will. Luckily we can get a win without one of our better performances." Bueno scored all 11 of his points in the second half for San Benito to complement Janisch. Rosario-Dawson paced all North Salinas scorers with 15. The 'Balers felt fortunate to gut out the victory and were happy with their ability to stay focused despite playing an opponent who is winless in league play. "That says we can stay focused in a game we should win," Burley said. "We need to stay focused all the time."

Spring Arts Preview: Film

Typically, the first quarter of the year is thin on motion-picture masterpieces. The studios often use the hard, fallow spell of January and February to jettison projects they shouldn't have bankrolled in the first place. But, if not salad days, you can call what's coming in the next few months a nice spring mix: a little romance, a lot of bloodshed, some screwball nuttiness and serious grown-up fare and fantasy, and a bit of family fun. Between now and May 4, when a tormented Peter Parker dons his web-slinger suit for Spider-Man 3 -launching what Hollywood considers summer and the rest of us think of as the first decent thaw - more than 70 films will hit theater screens. Big stars (Drew Barrymore, Sandra Bullock, Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, Jude Law, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Hilary Swank) will jostle for attention alongside smart little indies (The Astronaut Farmer, Puccini for Beginners, The Situation) and the sort of solid, mid-tier action pics and horror sequels that are the studios' bread and butter.

Triple threat for box office thrills

If at first you do succeed, the motto in Hollywood is to try, try and try again. In other words, the third time is the charm this year. It's the year of the three-quel, including "Spider-Man 3," "Rush Hour 3" and "Shrek 3." They might call it "Oceans 13," but it's also the third in the Vegas series. And "Pirates of the Caribbean" wraps up its series with No. 3. There are actually 20 big sequels on the 2007 movie docket, including "Live Free or Die Hard," "National Treasure 2" and "Mr. Bean's Holiday." Why add a roman numeral to your title? At least George Clooney is honest about it. "We wanted to explore another one because we felt like 'Oceans 12' wasn't complete. We knew that we could do better." Here's a monthly guide to the can't-miss fare.

Rosario Dawson | Rosario Dawson 2

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