Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Billy Corgan had a night off from the latestSmashing Pumpkins tour and a night out with The Blue Meanie. Corgan was the wrestler’s tag-team partner fora Friday night road trip to an independent wrestling show in New Jersey. For the past year, the Smashing Pumpkins’ frontman has worked as the behindthe-scenes brainchild for the Resistance Pro Wrestling promotion out of Illinois, teaming with R-Pro’s owners, brothers Gabe and Jacques Baron. Corgan founded the Smashing Pumpkins, a seminal 1990s alternative-rock band that keeps churning out acclaimed records, like its latest, Oceania, even as it endured a breakup, lawsuits and multiple lineup changes. But recently he shifted his talents to RPro as the creative director, where he consults with wrestlers and maps out old-school story lines with a modern twist. Corgan explained that he’s in the wrestling business for the long haul, despite howothers may feel about it. “I like that it makes people uncomfortable,” Corgan said. “I like that it’s not an easy thing to explain. I like when it’s great, it’s amazing; when it’s bad, it’s really, really bad.”

When New Orleans actress Laura Cayouettereceived a script for the film Django Unchained, it wasn’t hard for her to figure out that the ro le of a Southernbelle was written with her in mind. She said she was blown away by the prospect of being in Quentin Tarantino’s new film - in which she plays the character Lara Lee. The 48-year-old is among a host of Louisianians included in the film, which was shot in New Orleans and two south Louisiana plantation homes earlier this year. Cayouette plays the widowed older sister of Calvin Candie, a plantation owner played by Leonardo Di-Caprio. Although her role is small, Cayouette is as proud as any leading lady as Django prepares to make its Los Angeles premiere Tuesday and open in theaters Christmas Day. The film already has landed five Golden Globe nominations for best picture in the drama category, best director, best screenplay, and best supporting actor nods forDiCaprio and Christoph Waltz. “It’s Quentin’s version of Gone With the Wind, and I’m just honored to be a part of it,” Cayouette said, adding that the film has all the brutality characteristic of a Tarantino film. “But I’m the touch of sugar in all the bitterness.”