Alan Peppard

Segway inventor Dean Kamen needs to send a fleet of his gyroscopically stabilized transporters to Dallas advertising executive Liener Temerlin and make him the company's new spokesman.

Liener is the founder of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival. Last week, AFI Dallas had a party at the Current Energy store on Knox Street.

In 10 days, Liener will be 80 years old. But after a short lesson from Current Energy co-founder Joseph Harberg, Liener was up and riding one of the store's Segways and proclaiming that he wanted to buy a couple.

Among those on hand for the gathering were Dallas Film Commission director Janis Burklund; director Russ Pond, who will show his film Fissure at AFI Dallas; AFI Dallas board members Stephanie and Hunter Hunt; and literary agent David Hale Smith.

When playwright and filmmaker David Mamet gives the keynote address at the Dallas Institute's Hiett Prize dinner on April 8, he will face a uniquely prepared audience.

As a prelude to the event, the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture is presenting a two-session series, "Dark and Light: The Genius of David Mamet" on March 18 and April 1.

University of Dallas drama chairman Patrick Kelly and book and stage critic Jerome Weeks will lead the discussions.

To register for the sessions, call 214-871-2440 or go online at www.DallasInstitute.org.

The Hiett Prize in the Humanities Award dinner will be at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Hotelier and arts patron Caroline Rose Hunt is honorary chairwoman of the evening, and Pat Ann Dawson and Elise Murchison are event co-chairwomen. Channel 8 film critic Gary Cogill is emcee.

It's rather staggering the amount Mr. Mamet writes for a man who eschews the computer in favor of a typewriter. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Glengarry Glen Ross, which was later adapted for film. Both Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow received Tony nominations for best play.

He's written and directed the films The Winslow Boy, State and Main and The Spanish Prisoner (all starring his wife Rebecca Pidgeon); he's penned screenplays for Wag the Dog (for which he received an Oscar nod), Hannibal, Ronin, Hoffa, The Untouchables and The Postman Always Rings Twice; and he's written three novels.

Mr. Mamet is also known as a go-to script doctor who anonymously rewrites big-budget films for big fees, which he uses to finance his own films.

His film Redbelt, which he wrote and directed, is due out this spring.

SMU's new football coach June Jones is making the rounds in preparation for his first season on the Hilltop.

M Crowd restaurant owners Ray Washburne, Dick Washburne, Bob McNutt and Mico Rodriguez are hosting a dinner for SMU types to get to know Coach Jones at their restaurant The Mercury.

Chef and partner Chris Ward will prepare the eats.

Real estaters Jimmy Jackson and Bill Shaddock will receive the 2008 Humanitarian Award at the April 12 National Jewish Medical and Research Center gala at Gilley's. Both men are being recognized for their leadership in numerous philanthropic organizations in North Texas.

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