Mamet, Geffen update

OK, so the Geffen folks made me wait all of one day to give me their "Speed-the-Plow" cast.

It is Jon Tenney as studio mogul Bobby Gould, Greg Germann as Gould's croney Charlie Fox and Alicia Silverstone as Karen the secretary. The play hinges on Bobby's decision to green light a sure fire schlock-buster or _ per Karen's suggestion _ an adaptation of a novel about the end of the world.

I've seen Tenny on stage before, though I have to go back a few years: to 1989, in fact, when he played Romeo in "R and J" at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. Germann ("Talladega Nights," "Friends with Money") has got stage credentials, too. He's a member of NY's Circle Repertory Co. and Ensemble Studio Theatre. He's pretty much etched himself in my brain as the goofily sexist law partner Richard Fish on "Alley McBeal."

Silverstone, meanwhile, is fast becoming the Geffen's Mamet go-to girl. She was in last year's production of the playwright's "Boston Marriage," playing a semi-clueless (sorry, couldn't resist it) maid in the midst of a love spat/ scheme between a couple of upper crust New England ladies.

In that earlier play, Silverstone used an Irish accent and had to be in full lobotomized react mode. More will be required of her amidst the Hollywood sharks of "Speed-the-Plow."

"Speed-the-Plow" opens Feb. 7. Visit www.GeffenPlayhouse.com. for more info.