Groove Star's Clothes Call

With a name like Hamish Linklater, you're either going to end up as a lounge act in the Catskills or a darn lucky thespian. Well, the star of the new film Groove seems to have luck on his side! Two days before shooting was to begin, thieves stole virtually all of the costumes from the uninsured set, but Det. Linklater accidentally found them.

"I was on the street in San Francisco and these two guys asked me for directions to Buffalo Exchange, where you exchange clothes. I [sarcastically] said to one of them, 'That is a heck of suit you're wearing!' And he's like, 'You wanna buy it from me? Twenty bucks for the jacket.' I said 'No, we've got something very similar back on our set.' "

Later in the day, he learned the set had been vandalized the night before and realized "that the track suit is missing!" Linklater reported the encounter to the producers, who contacted the authorities ? and like any good Hollywood story, the police not only recovered the wardrobe but, because stores require identification, they were able to track down the dense thieves! "I cracked the case, Columbo-style," Linklater jokes.

Hopefully, his luck will follow him this fall when he stars in the new ABC drama Gideon's Crossing with Andre Braugher, although he doesn't know what to expect now that he's hitting it big. "I've been asking questions like, 'Can you get free tickets to baseball games?' I'm very nervous about the Gilligan syndrome. I'm the dumbest lucky person there ever was."