A Southern family drama flavored with moments of nail-biting suspense, “Lake City” is a hybrid that works. The film, which premiered at Tribeca, owes a debt to “Witness,” another film that brought dangerous thugs into a bucolic rural setting.

This film begins by introducing two antithetical universes. Maggie (Sissy Spacek) leads a comfortable life on her family farm in Virginia. Her son, Billy (Troy Garity), is a city boy involved in a drug deal gone bad. Fleeing the dealers, he takes his girlfriend’s son, Clayton (Colin Ford), to his mother’s farm. Mother and son try to sort out unfinished family business while waiting for Billy’s dangerous associates to catch up with him.
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Rebecca Romijn has played her share of fantasy figures - notably the changeling Mystique in the “X-Men” series - but they pale in comparison to her role in Hunter Hill and Perry Moore’s new film, “Lake City,” which is showing at the Tribeca Film Festival (Friday, 9:30 p.m., BMC Tribeca PAC, 199 Chambers St.). Romijn plays Jennifer, a small-town cop.

What’s fantastic is that anyone who looks like a Victoria’s Secret/Sports Illustrated swimsuit model would settle for ticketing speeders and savoring the poky pleasures of little-town life. Recognizing this, the filmmakers did their best to dress Romijn down. It almost - but not quite - worked. No matter how hard they tried, it’s hard to hide the fact that she’s almost 6 feet tall.
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Two ABC series were in repeats — as winners — at the annual awards honoring good work in media presentations of gays and lesbians.

“Brothers & Sisters” and “Ugly Betty” received awards for outstanding drama and comedy series during the 19th annual Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards at the Kodak Theatre on Saturday night.

Both shows, which feature openly gay or transsexual regular characters, received the same awards last year from GLAAD.

On “Brothers & Sisters,” Matthew Rhys plays Kevin, a lawyer sibling whose dating life is frequently depicted on the drama. “Ugly Betty” features Marc St. James, the flamboyantly gay assistant played by Michael Urie, as well as Alexis Meade, the transsexual editor played by Rebecca Romijn.

Other winners included Bravo’s “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” for outstanding reality program, Janet Jackson for the Vanguard Award and Rufus Wainwright for the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, in honor of the late casting director who fought homophobia in the entertainment industry.

According to GLAAD, the awards honor individuals and projects in media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives. The awards are split into four ceremonies, held in Los Angeles, New York, Miami and San Francisco in March, April and May.

Wow. Just…wow.

Sources connected to the show have just confirmed to me that we probably won’t being seeing as much of the divine Ms. Rebecca Romijn as Alexis Meade on Ugly Betty next year. I’m told she’s going from a series regular to a recurring character, and this change in status was not her own doing but rather the producers’ decision.

Rebecca told the New York Post’s Popwrap yesterday, “They made a tremendous amount of changes, especially with the writing staff [during the writers' strike]. And while I know I’ll be coming back next season, with all the changes, I’m not sure they can take care of my character they way they have been. So I’ll be leaving, back in a recurring capacity, but time for me to leave and find something else.”
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Let’s get this small confession out of the way: I love Rebecca Romijn. Despite the insane beauty, she always possesses an air of approachability that I’ve enjoyed throughout her work and having gotten the chance to interview her, I must say, I was right.

After several failed attempts to connect because of her crazy “Ugly Betty” schedule (more on that later), we finally found a time to chat and the first thing she did was unabashedly apologize for all the false-starts. “I’m so sorry that I kept canceling,” she said, in complete earnestness, just reinforcing my belief that she doesn’t buy into the “I’m a big star, you wait for me,” mentality that afflict so many other celebrities.
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