Taking Names

Superpolitico

Supermodel Carmen Kass will take a temporary stroll off the catwalk and onto the political stage. The native Estonian has been tapped to run for the European Parliament.

The 25-year-old joined the ruling, pro-business Res Publica party two months ago to get a spot on the party’s ticket. Res Publica — Latin for “public things” — formally put her on its list of 12 candidates at a party meeting last weekend.

According to Associated Press, Miss Kass balks at the suggestion that she’s in over her head. She says her run will help raise Estonia’s profile within the European Union.

“I’m entering politics because, for the past 10 years, I’ve gotten a lot from the world,” she said. “And everything I’ve gotten, I’ve gotten from Estonia. I want to give something back to Estonia.”

’Alamo’ forgotten

It’s the last thing embattled Disney honcho Michael Eisner needed — a big-budget bomb.

“The Alamo,” which Disney spent $100 million to make, opened lamely against a resurgent “Passion of the Christ” over Easter weekend.

“We’re disappointed, mostly because we think we made a really good film,” Chuck Viane, Disney’s head of distribution, told AP. “I’m shocked, quite honestly, at the number. If I could only figure out what went wrong, you’d never let it happen again. The movie deserved better.”

Martha Macbeth

Asked if she’d consider playing a big-screen Martha Stewart, legendary British actress Helen Mirren was unequivocal.

“Absolutely,” Miss Mirren, a memorable Lady Macbeth, told the New York Times.

“I don’t understand the vilification of Martha Stewart. She doesn’t deserve Lady Macbeth. In a way, she’s more like Rosalind from ’As You Like It.’ She’s mouthy, pushy and opinionated — kind of wonderful and kind of difficult.”

Just like old ’Times’

Bob Dylan admitted that one of his most famous songs was originally a Scottish folk tune, the Scotsman newspaper reports.

Mr. Dylan, set to play in Scotland this summer, said he nicked the 1960s folk anthem “The Times They Are A-Changin’” from a U.K. hand-me-down.

“It’s probably from an old Scottish folk song. That’s the folk tradition. You use what’s handed down,” he said.

Bummed out

Legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman says he can’t bear to watch his own work.

It’s too depressing.

“I don’t watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry … and miserable. I think it’s awful,” he said in a rare interview on Swedish TV, according to the BBC.

Buffed out

Ewan McGregor is used to being in the buff in movies, stripping down for films such as “Trainspotting,” “Velvet Goldmine” and “The Pillow Book.”

The Scottish “Star Wars” star does so again in “Young Adam,” which opens in Washington next month with an NC-17 rating.

Smack-dab in the middle of an indecency crackdown, he doesn’t get what the fuss is about.

“It staggers me how big a deal everyone makes of it,” he told TV Guide’s Jeanne Wolf. “In my everyday life, I’m naked quite a lot of the time — interacting with my wife and children at home, I’m quite often naked.”

“I’m not an exhibitionist in terms of whipping out my penis at parties and stuff,” he added. “I mean, I have in the past, probably a long time ago, but it was related very much to my drinking.”

Compiled by Scott Galupo from wire and Web reports.