Alan Peppard

There's nothing quite so comforting as switching your radio to AM and hearing that familiar voice on Paul Harvey's News and Comment . But for the last couple of weeks, that familiar voice hasn't belonged to the 89-year-old Mr. Harvey, but to Dallas radio legend Ron Chapman, who is subbing for him from an ABC satellite studio in North Dallas.

It seems that Ron got a recent call from his friend, Citadel Broadcasting titan Farid Suleman, who asked if the retired DJ would do him a favor. "He asked if I'd try sitting in for a couple of days for Paul Harvey," says an incredulous and happy Ron. "I've studied Paul all my radio life and have patterned many things I do after him. He's my radio hero. So my answer was 'What time, where and what do I wear?' "

To enable Mr. Harvey to take a little time off, Ron stepped in on March 20. How long will he continue? "I don't care," says Ron. "Once in my life I get to say, 'For Paul Harvey ... I'm Ron Chapman.' "

This week, the AFI Dallas International Film Festival continues its nonstop roller coaster of screenings, parties and celebrities.

Actor Bill Paxton took a meeting with Mayor Tom Leppert. One hears that Mr. Paxton is in the early stages of work on a movie about events in the immediate aftermath of the JFK assassination.

Monday night, a slew of AFI parties drew the locals out to mingle with the film crowd. Trammell S. Crow hosted a party at the Crow Collection in the Arts District honoring the movie Before the Rains . The film's star, Linus Roache (Law & Order), came by, as did the producer, Doug Mankoff, son of Dallas civic leaders Joy and Ron Mankoff.

Meanwhile, at Ferre in West Village, AFI Dallas Founders Circle member Stephanie Hunt hosted a party for the documentary Iron Ladies of Liberia .

Catalog retailer and Broadway producer Roger Horchow is headed in a new professional direction – acting.

Roger appears in the still- untitled sequel to the film X Files, which is in post-production.

"I'm with David Duchovny, Amanda Peet and Xzibit [the rapper] in two scenes," says Roger. "I play 'the elderly gent.' " Roger went to northern Canada in January to film the part. "And I got paid, too," he adds.

Last weekend, actor-musician Jim Belushi adhered to his Dallas tradition of dining at Bob's Steak & Chop House on Lemmon before performing. He and his band, the Sacred Hearts, beefed up at Bob's before taking the stage at the 12th annual Dream Gala at the Hilton Anatole, benefiting the Greater Dallas chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Also at Bob's was CNBC on-air editor Charles Gasparino, who during his years at Newsweek broke stories about former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik's controversial nomination as Homeland Security chief and Eliot Spitzer's crackdown on corporate crime.