Contrary to the admiration he inspires for roles in Six Feet Under and 24, as well as films The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Lie With Me, Eric Balfour, 31, is not quite a star yet, at least in his own mind. “I guess I haven’t really achieved a comfort level, where I feel like I’ll always have work. I’m always like, Oh my god! I got a job! That’s amazing!” says the hunk who played a mysterious biker in last summer’s Quentin Tarantino romp Hell Ride, and who clocks major screen time in this fall’s thriller The Horseman, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, not to mention Frank Miller’s supernatural cop film The Spirit, due in December. Equally shocking to the actor is his cachet as a model with a resume that includes the cover of L’Uomo Vogue and campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino’s male fragrance, Valentino V.

Last year, Jessica Stroup was Satan's daughter on the CW's canceled Reaper. Now fresh out of Hell, she's stirring up trouble in the country's most notorious zip code: 90210. The CW's reboot of the legendary Aaron Spelling primetime soap was the most hotly anticipated new show of the 2009-2010 TV season, and Stroup's character was long shrouded in mystery. Was she Kelly and David's half-sister Erin, or was she the progeny of Donna and David's series finale union? It turns out she is little Erin, who we last saw as a blonde impish tot who was concerned that ice cream would make her fat. Now answering to the moniker "Silver," the angry teen acts like Gossip Girl's bitchy best friend on her virtual burn book, "The Vicious Circle."

On Gossip Girl, Taylor Momsen spends her days sidling up to the feline in-crowd. Off-camera, though, the youngest model ever signed to IMG couldn’t care less about playing it cool. "I love high fashion,” gushes Taylor Momsen, the 15-year-old star of Gossip Girl. And it’s a good thing she does, since Momsen was recently signed as IMG Models’ freshest new face. “It’s been such a big part of my life, models and fashion, so it’s really exciting to enter that world. It’s a whole different ballgame.”

The Poker House is not a pretty movie, but as its lead, Jennifer Lawrence is hauntingly beautiful. Playing the 14-year-old daughter of Selma Blair’s drug-addled prostitute, Lawrence cleans up the messy house, cares for her two younger sisters, and steals furtive kisses with the drug-addicted pimp who beats her mother. A far cry from Lawrence’s happy Kentucky upbringing and a testament to her acting prowess, her hauntingly honest performance recently garnered the Los Angeles Film Festival award for Outstanding Performance in the Narrative Competition.

Laura Dern has tackled abortion, prejudice, and all sorts of Lynchian wonders on camera. This week, the Academy Award-nominated actress returns with HBO's Recount, a corrosive look at the 2000 Presidential Election. Tally-ho!

Audiences might not remember who won the 2000 election, but they must recall Katherine Harris, the obviously partisan Florida Secretary of State whose penchant for makeup and eccentric behavior garnered as much press as the recount that anointed the new president. Laura Dern isn’t an obvious choice to play the much-maligned butt of late night jokes, and yet, in Recount, her natural, luminous beauty is unrecognizable underneath the cosmetic mask that served as Harris’s armor.

It doesn’t have to be all-natural to be good. Such is the philosophy of Brannon, hairdresser to the stars at Brannon Salon at the Hard Rock Hotel. A 15-year veteran of scissors, Brannon is expanding his follicle empire to a collection of hair products, a makeup line, and three new salons by 2010. Brannon’s new shampoo and conditioner line, 01, took three years to perfect. The next phases, 02 (a deep conditioning line) and 03 (a styling line), are set to come in later in 2008. The products will be sold exclusively in Brannon salons, Hard Rock Hotel suites, Kitson, Fred Segal and Barneys. Brannon came to Las Vegas at the behest of George Maloof and the Palms Casino to serve as its in-house celebrity stylist. He intended on returning to New York to reopen Brannon Hair, which was closed down after 9/11. And then Hard Rock came knocking. Brannon sat down with us to talk about why he thinks Los Angeles sucks, what it's like to raise a daughter in Las Vegas’s breast-obsessed culture, and getting branded on the ass by Pink.

The Hard Rock is getting some work done. A $1 billion property facelift and expansion of the destination resort is bringing the Vegas game to a whole new level. What exists is being updated—from the suites to the hallways and common areas—and expanded (Nobu, existing casino). What’s to come will entice both seasoned gamblers and Strip newbies alike. AGO, the recently opened Robert De Niro-backed Italian eatery, will be joined in June by Wasted Space, a new rock bar/live music venue with the help of Carey Hart (pictured left with Shalala) and Jason Giambi. New construction will include: two new towers (approx. 1,000 new rooms), one of which is an all-suite tower with private entrance, private valet, co-ed-style spa, restaurants, gaming area, bar and two-story villas; celebrity-designed suites; new concert venue with 4,000 seats and sky boxes; 3.5 acre pool expansion with topless bathing area, or “European-style,” as they like to call it; private gaming pit with porn star Tera Patrick. Interested? Phil Shalala, who at 34 is the youngest marketing VP in Vegas, is spearheading the Hard Rock revolution. In New York, he talked about his vision for the brand, partnering with celebs like Wilmer Valderrama, and where a Vegas man goes on vacation.