People in the News: Berry & Cleveland feel the love

Even in the rain, Halle Berry draws a crowd when she returns home to the Cleveland area.

About 800 people waited in drizzle Thursday night in the suburb of Valley View to catch a glimpse of the Oscar-winning actress before a screening of her new film, "Perfect Stranger."

Onlookers snapped photos with cameras and cell phones as Berry made her way from a sport utility vehicle to the movie theater. She signed autographs, talked to fans and conducted interviews with local media.

"I'm so happy to be home," she told the packed theater before the film started.

"I swear this is true. No matter how many countries I've been to, no matter how many warm receptions I've gotten, my heart was beating when I pulled up. Nothing feels better. The voices all sound familiar in some weird way. I'm of here. I'm from here. And I'm one of you."

Berry, 40, grew up in the Cleveland area and graduated from high school in suburban Bedford in 1984. She won the Best Actress Oscar in 2002 for "Monster's Ball."

Guests at the screening included Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson -- who called Berry "homegrown and beautiful" when he introduced her -- and Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards.

	Berry

"I'm a big fan of Halle Berry's," Edwards said. "I think every man in America is."

Regis Philbin called "Live With Regis and Kelly" on Friday to report that he's in pain, but doing well, after his recent heart-bypass surgery.

"Well, you know, I think I'm through the worst of it," Philbin told co-host Kelly Ripa. "I guess I was a little unprepared for, you know, the first week and what they actually do to make this thing happen -- and so, some of it came as quite a shock."

Philbin, 75, said he's in pain around his heart, back and leg where doctors took some arteries for the bypass.

-- P-I staff and news services