KATE HUDSON’S NAME CAUSES A COMMOTION AT PLANET HOLLYWOOD

I bounced over to Planet Hollywood in Times Square to meet up with Balls of Fury star , who was on hand to donate a ping-pong paddle from the movie in theaters now. The Tony-winning actor plays an extreme ping-pong player and tells me he trained for seven hours with the same Olympic medalist that trained in Forrest Gump. “I used to play when I was a kid, but that’s about it,” he told me. “We trained rigorously when we started doing the movie.” Any mishaps on the set? “Sometimes there were ping-pong related injuries,” he told me. “I got to the point that I was so good I was beating everybody, and it wasn’t fun anymore.”

Dan, who also stars in the upcoming comedy Good Luck Chuck (stamp of approval — I saw it last week), says his co-star looks like a Greek goddess, but she also has a knack for slapstick. What would surprise us about his other wild ’n’ crazy co-star ? “He has a puppy he treats as if it was his own child,” he told me. “He loves that dog!” Then, I asked if he saw Dane with and, whoops, publicist says it’s time to go… Let’s hope Dan got to enjoy my favorite Planet Hollywood dish: the world-famous chicken crunch. Mmmm! I love it.