Memo to mayor of New Ulm: Next time Harry's around, let him have the spotlight

New Ulm's mayor, Joel Albrecht, was chewing the scenery on a Mall of America stage with Harry Connick Jr.

Accustomed to the spotlight -- as a pianist, singer, composer, actor, New Orleans humanitarian -- Connick was perfectly mellow about letting Albrecht have his moment, even though the purpose of their appearance was to promote Harry's latest movie, "New in Town," and its red carpet premiere here. Set in Minnesota (although, annoyingly, not a frame of it was shot here), the movie is about a Miami exec, played by Renée Zellweger, who falls in love with a guy from New Ulm, played by Connick.

At one point during the appearance, Connick is earnestly telling the MOA crowd what pleasure he finds by being back in Minnesota, where he has played so many concerts before what he considers some of nicest music fans. With a "Now, catch your breath," the hammy mayor interrupted Connick, who coolly joked, "You sound like my wife."

Prattling on, Mayor Marathon Mouth presented Connick with a book about the history of the city. "Oh, it's a fascinating book," said Albrecht, who was Black Foresting it up in lederhosen, etc. (although the mayor changed into a nice suit for his red carpet entrance). "And if you don't want to read that, we've got a picture book for you as well," Albrecht told Connick, who just laughed.

Later when Connick's co-star Siobhan Fallon Hogan came on stage to get her gifts from Albrecht, there's a moment when Harry says something to her as you'll see at startribune.com.video. Wouldn't we love to know what Connick whispered that made Hogan laugh?

A dinner, a date ... ? Jill Goodacre, Connick's wife, a former Victoria's Secret model, was also there, although Zellweger was not.

I asked her if NBC legal correspondent Dan Abrams had been seen hanging around the set of "New in Town" when it shot in Canada. Websites are atwitter with hot couple rumors after Abrams and Zellweger were recently seen having a cozy dinner at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

True. But coupledom has to start somewhere. The Connick-Goodacre romance was incendiary gossip back when they started dating; they were just lucky their love bloomed ahead of the Internet curve.

When I told Goodacre she was a lucky woman, she riposted in a most no-nonsense way that Connick is very lucky, too. Agreed.

Smoothing his look? Sometime last year, Harry Connick Jr. looked very plastic to me in a TV commercial.

So I was looking closely for signs of facial tweaking that might explain his youthful looks. I didn't see any. However, three different men at the MOA events told me that Connick looked suspiciously smooth through the parentheses area.

John J. Alexander, a senior training consultant and collector of photos with celebrities, said his wife suspects Connick has done something to his face "and she doesn't care" because she still finds Harry hot.

Shaun Weseman, of Shaun's Gourmet Soups, was in Whiskey's kitchen preparing a shrimp bisque and walleye amandine plates for the Costner party of 20. In exchange for preparing soups for Whiskey Junction, Weseman said he's allowed to rent the kitchen for his catering business.

I waited on Costner a little while, but he never showed up at Whiskey's. Curious as I was to hear if Costner sings country any better than he selects movies, I was long gone by the time Kevin Costner & Modern West took the stage at Caboose. On Youtube.com there's a rather embarrassing video of Costner (key words "Costner porch band"), who sounds much better on a CD (because music engineers can work miracles in the studio).

Claire O'Leary, Weseman's girlfriend and band member in their group Lost Marbles, told me Wednesday that Costner never showed at Whiskey's. O'Leary said she, Weseman and the waitrons were well compensated anyhow.