Laugh

Not long ago, Anne Frey, a Philadelphia stage actress-turned-real-estate agent, was sitting on her steps on 20th Street off Rittenhouse Square when she noticed something interesting. "There were so many people milling about, so many of them young, and I began to think: What happened to people my age?" Frey, 59, wondered where her giddy, lively friends - anyone, really - could get comfortable and converse. "Where it is we can go and hear each other talk and laugh? Where was it that had a certain level of sophistication?"

You know a sitcom's in trouble when the laugh track seems to come on at random. Nothing on-screen registers as funny, yet you keep hearing those unnerving guffaws.   So it happens 15 seconds into TBS's new sitcom, Sullivan & Son, which premieres Thursday with two back-to-back episodes. And it keeps happening for the duration. A low-concept cross of Cheers, All in the Family, and the Drew Carey Show, Sullivan & Son was cocreated and cowritten by popular Korean American stand-up comic Steve Byrne, who also stars.

WHAT'S so funny about Cape May? For starters, there's the summer series of the all-star comedy company Catch a Rising Star at the Cape May Convention Hall that kicks off Tuesday with a performance by Robert Klein. According to Suzy Vengo, owner of the famed comedy-club chain, the stand-up series fills a hole on the Cape May entertainment scene. "The closest comedy club is in Wildwood," she reasoned, adding that "you can reach so many more people in one night" at a venue the size of the newly rebuilt convention hall than you can at a typical comedy club.

Court bigotry The hypocrisy of Justice Antonin Scalia never ceases to amaze me ("Split ruling on immigration," Tuesday). In his narrow-minded dissent from the Supreme Court's decision striking down parts of Arizona's draconian new immigration law, Scalia raises his voice on the evils of illegal immigration. The justice forgets that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of his countrymen's families also entered this nation without passports, and probably illegally, in the early 20th century.

It's about time: Aubrey Plaza gets her own movie! Master of the deadpan aside, cast often as hipster nerd, wisecracking worrywart, or lovelorn friend, Plaza - who began in improv and sketch comedy and can now be seen weekly on TV's Parks and Recreation - has been the supporting player who made the movie worth seeing, the scene worth stealing. In Safety Not Guaranteed, she's the star. This shaggy love story sends Plaza off on a voyage of discovery - she's Darius, a Seattleite who can't get a job (her interview with a restaurant manager is rife with hilarious defeatism)

JRUE HOLIDAY and Evan Turner couldn't be more different when it comes to personalities. Holiday demands respect with his cool style, easygoing manner and easy demeanor. Turner can trash talk with the best of them, often stirring lighthearted arguments in the locker room by taking a side of a conversation that you know he really doesn't believe. He is outwardly confident - even borderline cocky. Their styles on the court are much more alike. Both like to take the ball to the basket as their primary source of scoring and both like to have the ball in their hands.

RIDDLE ME THIS, Batman: Who has the coolest job title in Atlantic City? It says here that's Mitch Gorshin, whose business card identifies him as "Executive Director Fun & Creative" for Revel. Gorshin, 47, son of the late actor-impressionist Frank Gorshin (best-known as the Riddler on the 1960s "Batman" TV series), conjures up entertainment and marketing ideas to keep Revel on the cutting edge of the hospitality industry. His boldest and most prominent concept so far has been "The Ball," the 90,000-pound illuminated orb that rests atop Revel's 47-story hotel tower.

THE GRITTY TABLOID that has served Philadelphia so well over the past 87 years was placed in the lap of Penguins center Sidney Crosby on Wednesday morning. Crosby, 24, said he had not seen Wednesday's Daily News - which featured him dressed as the Cowardly Lion with the headline "The Cowardly Penguin: Time to Finish Off Sniveling Sidney. " Crosby picked up the paper and laughed. "That's probably one of the nicer things they've said about me here," Crosby said.

Eastern softball coach Jamie McGroarty described Steph Vuono as a "goofball. " "She keeps the team laughing," he said. "She doesn't take herself too seriously, which I think is a great quality. She's works hard, she's a tremendous athlete, but she knows she's here to have fun, too. " Vuono, a senior, is Eastern's star player and ace pitcher. But the pressure that often comes with those titles doesn't seem to bother her. As Vuono sees it, high school softball is a chance to play the game she loves with girls whom she described as some of her "best friends.

Actress, writer and comedienne Betty White had thousands of library workers roaring with laughter Saturday afternoon at an appearance ending the national conference of the Public Library Association. Turning her sharp wit toward herself, the 90-year-old White poked fun at her own long acting career. As to why she got cast in the "Mary Tyler Moore Show": "They wanted a sickeningly sweet Betty White type," she said of Sue Ann Nivens, her character. "Guess they couldn't find anyone sickeningly sweet enough.