Topher: Gracious, playful and extra toasty

Among the creative ways in which overheated fans of Topher Grace might try to help him keep warm, "Little Hotties Hand Warmers" probably wouldn't even make the list.

That's why you should remain calm around celebrities, even though Grace is absolutely adorable.

"You're my hero for giving me hand warmers," Grace said on Thursday when I found him in the Fox 9 green room minutes before he went on air to promote his new movie, "Take Me Home Tonight." Recalling what a whiny baby Bette Midler was when she discovered Minnesota is -- BREAKING NEWS -- frigid during winter, I decided to introduce myself to Grace by giving him hand warmers.

The hand warmers were a superfluous icebreaker. "CJ, my family calls me CJ because my first name is Christopher -- that's where Topher comes from -- but my middle name is John. So I'm a CJ, too."

Off camera, Grace told me that people who really know him address him as CJ.

At first Grace, hiding under a Twins baseball cap, joked, "I'm here promoting my new book on cooking. It's just a bunch of healthy recipes to get you going in the morning ... No, I'm promoting 'Take Me Home Tonight,' which comes out March 4."

Set in the '80s, the movie is about a MIT grad working at a Sun Coast Video while searching for a career when in walks motivation in the form of Teresa Palmer, who may or may not be his real-life girlfriend based on conflicting Internet chatter.

Eddie Money's song, "Take Me Home Tonight," is part of the movie trailer. The money shot in my startribune.com/video is provided near the end by Grace's co-star, Dan Fogler, who gave me a little something as he walked out of the TV studio, right after Grace said goodbye with "Ceej."

Swardson + AnistonAdam Sandler's got a lot of nerve making fun of Nick Swardson's face.

Swardson posted a cute video on his Facebook page co-starring his "Just Go With It" movie co-stars Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.

In "Just Go With It," Swardson plays the best friend of Sandler's character, who borrows a couple of kids to create a fake family with which to woo a woman played by swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker.

It looks entertaining, and Nick's sister, Rachel Swardson, is planning a viewing party at a local theater.

And there's another problem. "Why do you have a picture of me sleeping?" complains Aniston. "Where did you get that? There's an entire 'Jen Sleeping' file. Did you do this on Christmas?"

The remark is never explained, so here's the back story:

Christmas 2010 was the first time in years Swardson didn't return home to Minnesota to be with family. He said he had to work. According to sister Rachel, he nonchalantly explained:

Yeah, I'll be alone this Christmas. So I'll spend Christmas Eve with Jennifer and we're going to go Christmas morning and hang out with Courteney because it's Courteney's first Christmas without David.

Rachel said she responded "Whoa, whoa, whoa," to which Nick shushed her, saying Don't. If Rachel could have hung with Aniston and Courteney Cox-Arquette, "Oh, my God, I wouldn't come home either," Rachel told me.

The Facebook video ends with Nick closing his laptop and leaving in a huff as Sandler remarks, "Apparently you stole my chins, too."

On the video there's a shot of Swardson and Aniston, and they look cute together. I'll say it again: Aniston needs to look at Nick Swardson with new eyes. A relationship with Swardson could be just what she needs, and she needs to give up thinking she'll have TWO Brad Pitts in a lifetime. After all, the first one forgot his wedding vows when a pair of big lips arrived on set.