Lights! Action! Deal!

"Celebrity Poker Showdown," among other TV shows, has brought out into the open the obsession that innumerable Hollywood types have for card games. But Vanity Fair magazine points out that this love affair is nothing new.

Movie mogul "Lew Wasserman's family told biographer Dennis McDougal that Wasserman twice lost his Sierra Drive home but won it back in subsequent games," writer Duff McDonald said. "In the days of contract stars, (Sam) Goldwyn used a gambling debt of (Jack) Warner's as leverage to secure the temporary loan of Bette Davis to MGM."

John Wayne captured one of the oddest pots. McDonald said an ex-wife tells a story of the Duke winning Pal, the first screen Lassie, from his handler in an all-night poker game. (He gave the dog back.) Go home, Lassie.