What Ashton Kutcher Makes; Fire at Obama's Beach House

Plus: Harvey Weinstein's stage version of 'Finding Neverland' hits a squall

Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: More Hamptons intrigue for Star Jones, Ashton Kutcher's a bargain, and a fire hits Obama's Martha's Vineyard vacation rental.

• Star Jones has already been served with court papers at a book signing in the Hamptons this summer. Now the former View host has to deal with a report that she became "snarky," then "livid" with a security guard who "blocked her from stepping over a low fence around the VIP area" at the Bridgehampton Polo Club last Saturday. "I'll step over if I want to!" Jones reportedly yelled. Despite seeming like he "didn't really know what to do," sources say the guard "stood his ground" and Jones was "forced to walk around to the proper entrance." [Gatecrasher]
• Harvey Weinstein's Broadway adaptation of Finding Neverland is navigating "choppy waters" with the producer cancelling an out-of-town tryout scheduled for November at the La Jolla Playhouse, "shocking both Playhouse officials and his own creative team," who thought the show was "ready to go before an audience." The show's creators were also "unnerved last week by the abrupt departure of Ben Famiglietti, who was overseeing Weinstein's budding theater empire." The cancellation has led to "rumblings of a possible lawsuit." According to a source, Weinstein got "cold feet" about costs for the out-of-town production of the show, which is reportedly "conceived on a grand scale, with a pirate ship, flying sequences, special effects and real dogs." [New York Post]
• ACLU executive director Anthony Romero was charged with DWI after being pulled over by East Hampton police back in June. Sources say Romero was returning home from "getting sloshed while celebrating the passage of the gay-marriage law" early on June 26 when "a fed-up driver spotted Romero's slow-going Mini Cooper convertible" doing "a tortoise-like 10 mph in a 30-mph zone" and called authorities. According to the police report, Romero refused to take a Brethalyzer test and was slow to produce identification. He's entered a not guilty plea and is due back in court later this week. Romero's name wasn't mentioned in the weekly press release from East Hampton cops detailing all the previous week's DWI charges, which they say was an accidental oversight. [New York Post]
• HBO is developing an hour-long drama based on Tom Perrotta's upcoming novel, The Leftovers, in which the Election and Little Children author "explores the Rapture and how the sudden disappearance of loved ones in a suburban town affects everyone left behind." Perrotta will apparently write the pilot and serve as an executive producer. [Variety]
• I"t's a summer tradition" for top Los Angeles-based News Corp. executives to "mingle with members of the company's board of directors for an elegant dinner at Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch's Benedict Canyon home." At this year's confab Monday night, the menu featured "steak, a vegetarian dish and perhaps a little avoidance." And probably no pie afterwards. [Company Town]
• Ashton Kutcher will be making $700,000 an episode on Two and a Half Men, according to TV Guide, down $500,000 from the $1.2 million-per-show earned by predecessor Charlie Sheen last season. [Vulture]
• "A small fire" broke out Tuesday in the farmhouse at Blue Heron Farm, the Martha's Vineyard property frequently rented by the Obama family. A gas grill is being blamed for the "very contained" blaze that was put out "within minutes" and didn't result in any injuries. [Politico]
• 21-year-old Katharine Schwarzenegger tells Harper's Bazaar she considered changing her famous last name when she went to college. "Especially for dating, it's impossible," she explained. When asked about her parents' very public recent split, she described the surreal experience of just trying to get a meal. "I would go out to lunch, and literally 20 people would come and scream at me," Schwarzenegger recalled. "And I'm like, This is so inappropriate; you're trying to provoke me to have an attack and say something crazy." [US]