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By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith (National Ledger) - Jane Seymour couldn't be happier that Chris Pine was tapped to play the young Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams' new "Star Trek" movie. She likes Chris, plus she has some bragging rights. Jane recalls when Pine came in to audition for "Blind Dating," the romantic comedy that just came out on DVD in which she costars, she and husband James Keach produced, and Keach directed.
"I thought Chris was amazing. I said, 'I don't know who he is, but he's going to be a huge star,'" she tells us. Pine plays a blind man who falls in love with an Indian girl (Anjali Jay) in the light-hearted flick, while Jane plays his psychiatrist, "a woman who has a problem with taking her clothes off while talking to her blind patient."

Seymour says she and James have four more projects in the pipeline that they're planning to produce. She's also been extremely busy with her home-furnishings line and her painting. In addition to having 12 one-woman art shows around the country, she's been commissioned to do a painting in conjunction with the Beijing Olympics. "It's a Chinese peony," she says. "It will be part of an art expo in a couple of weeks."

"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" Fete Reminds Gossett of Past: Anyone in need of a reminder of how race relations in the United States looked not all that long ago should screen "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." So says Louis Gossett Jr., one of the luminaries who will be on hand tonight (Feb. 11) when the classic feature centered on an interracial couple gets a special 40th anniversary showing at Los Angeles's Hammer Museum.

Quincy Jones and filmmaker Stanley Kramer's widow, Karen Sharpe Kramer, are co-hosts, and the gala committee includes such illustrious names as Al Gore, Steven Spielberg, Tom Brokaw and Harrison Ford.

"Stanley Kramer was ahead of his time. Not many people have the courage to be ahead of their time," notes Gossett of the movie that was released just six months after laws prohibiting mixed marriages were abolished in 17 states. He admits, "When the film came out, I said, 'It'll never sell.' It's very hard for young people to imagine how controversial this was. We're kind of spoiled. We really grow pretty fast as a culture with freedom to dissent."

Gossett imagines Kramer would be "waxing eloquent" on the fact that four decades after release of the film, which stars Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton, a U.S. senator whose parents were a black man and a white woman is a strong presidential contender. The Oscar winner is supporting Barack Obama's presidential bid.

MEANWHILE: Gossett is set to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the St. Vincent de Paul Society on Feb. 16, but he says he has much more to thank the society for than that. "The St. Vincent de Paul Society gave me the Circle V Ranch where my Eracism Foundation is planting positive seeds in our children," says Gossett. "We do one session for boys, the other for girls, ages 7 to 12, at the Shamba Center. It's for any kids on the edge of gangbanging. They've got to learn to respect the opposite sex and their elders, and they need to be a captive audience. The center is concentrated, serious time away from their elements, with a constant barrage of role models ready to get with these kids. I guarantee a great deal of them will be able to go back to school and be happy and listen." For more info, go to www.eracismfoundation.org.

OH-OH: Casting is underway for Tim Robbins' "The Heretic," which is being described as a multilayered ensemble movie that explores faith and spirituality. Among the roles being filled are eight disciples who, per sources familiar with the script, "break Jesus out of a mental ward." They're going for tough-looking males and females of any race that have a criminal feel about them, with "great, lean faces."

RELATIVELY SPEAKING: It's interesting to note that there's a bundle of projects heading into production with relatives of famous folks as key players:  Jim Hanks, Tom's brother, is directing "Double Duty, the Movie."

Craig Serling, an established film editor with credits including "The Amazing Race" and who is related to the late legendary Rod Serling, is going to direct "The Divide" in New Mexico. It's a thriller that deals with illegal immigration.  Director Charles Winkler, son of Irwin Winkler, is getting ready to make a feature titled "The Reef."

Zach Braff has a pilot en route to production that he's going to direct called "The Saint of Circumstance." The writer is Adam Braff, his brother.

And then there's Leslie Zemekis, wife of Robert, who is a producer on the soon-to-shoot flick "Thicker," a black comedy about a brother and sister trying to get their inheritance from their deceased mother, who apparently did try to take it with her.

The already quite successful Nick Cassavetes, too, has a new film on the way to the cameras, called "My Sister's Keeper." Nick, of course, is the son of Gena Rowlands and the late John Cassavetes.

With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster.