It takes research to sow this Rice

Thandie Newton was worried.

Here the 35-year-old actress had been cast by Oliver Stone to portray Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Oliver Stone’s film “W,” which studies George W. Bush’s administration.

Couple of problems, though. Rice, Newton said, “didn’t look like me, she’s a couple of decades older than me, and I’m English, for goodness’ sake.”

Things began to change when, like the good Cambridge University graduate she is, Newton began to do research.

“It was like doing a really involved paper back at Cambridge,” Newton said.

The veteran of such films as “Beloved” and “Crash,” said she became fascinated with “the incredible story of the Bush administration … and how it was cranking toward war. I wanted to become drunk with knowledge.”

“W.” costars Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks and is due Oct. 29.

Then they sang ABBA songs

“The Women” – which opens today – stars Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Cloris Leachman and Debi Mazar and is directed by Diane English. On “Entertainment Tonight,” the cast revealed that before making the flick, they hung out for some serious “talking and bonding.”

Mendes admits that “at first (she) was trepidacious” about bonding, because she didn’t know the other women. “Cut to, literally I was crying before leaving,” she said.

It’ll be a quick delivery

Fan of “24” take note: Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is going to have a baby. The change in Chloe’s reel life was occasioned by a similar one in actress Rajskub’s real life. In late July, she and Matthew Rolph welcomed their first baby, Valentine Anthony Rolph.

What, not Jack Nicholson?

Speaking of “24” (see above), Republican presidential candidate John McCain told Marie Claire magazine that the celebrity he thinks he most resembles is Kiefer Sutherland.

“It’s Jack Bauer,” McCain said. “We have a lot in common because he escapes all the time.”

Oh, the agony of the wait

If you’ve been putting your life on hold until you find out the gender of the child Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson are having, your reprieve has arrived.

“We know with 90 percent accuracy that it’s a boy, and our due date is around Thanksgiving,” Wentz told Playboy. He neglected, though, to provide a name.

The birthday bunch

Actor Dickie Moore (“Our Gang” films) is 83. Actor Ian Holm (“Lord of the Rings”) is 77. Country singer George Jones is 77. Actress Linda Gray is 68. Singer Maria Muldaur is 65. Actor Joe Pantoliano is 57. Singer-guitarist Gerry Beckley of America is 56. Drummer Neil Peart of Rush is 56. Actor Peter Scolari is 53. Actress Rachel Ward is 51. Actress Amy Yasbeck (“Wings”) is 46. Bassist Norwood Fisher of Fishbone is 43. Actor Darren E. Burrows (“Northern Exposure”) is 42. Singer Ben Folds (Ben Folds Five) is 42. Actor Paul Walker (“The Fast and the Furious”) is 35. Singer Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland is 34. Actor Benjamin McKenzie (“The O.C.”) is 30. Singer Ruben Studdard is 30. Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”) is 27.