WIRELESS FLASH BRIEFS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

WIRELESS FLASH BRIEFS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

PERU, Calif. (Wireless Flash) -- Lensing the new flick "Happy, Texas" was a real "tie-ing" experience for director Mark Illsley. He admits he wore a "lucky tie" every day of the shoot out of superstition: "The way I saw it, I'd never made a bad movie while wearing a tie." The rest of the crew followed in his footsteps by tying one on as well. -- LOS ANGELES -- Fitness expert Richard Simmons is trading his tennis shoes for a treasury. Simmons will be teaming up with Ed McMahon to give away $12 million in prize money through American Family Publishers. The two will appear on a weekly show called "Richard Simmons' Dream Maker" to dole out the dough. -- HOLLYWOOD -- "Saturday Night Live" star Molly Shannon has something in common with her hard-up Catholic school-girl character Mary Katherine Gallagher: rejection. Shannon -- who will play Mary Katherine in the upcoming flick "Superstar" -- says when she was in high school she had a crush on the cutest boy in school. But when the guy caught her staring at him, he said, "Hey, take a picture, it'll last longer."