Names and faces

Benedict Cumberbatch is a star used to working with other stars, but even he was impressed by the cast of a new project. The British actor of Sherlock and Star Trek fame appears with a pair of Sesame Street Muppets in a video posted Tuesday on PBS’ YouTube channel. With the help of Count von Count (Matt Vogel, who replaced the late Jerry Nelson) and Murray Monster (Joseph Mazzarino), Cumberbatch explains how to count four apples and three oranges, and which is the greater number. He also, patiently and repeatedly, tries to get a skeptical Murray to believe that he is not actually Sherlock Holmes but just plays the detective on TV. Cumberbatch taped the spot in January, when he joined actress Amanda Abbington to promote the new Sherlock season at a TV critics meeting in Pasadena, Calif. His puppet encounter proved to be something to brag about. “I just met with the Muppets,” Cumberbatch told Abbington, who plays the wife of Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman, her real-life partner). “Did you have a good time?” she asked. “It was so much fun,” he said, adding, “They are real.” They are, agreed a smiling Abbington.

The stewards of national parkland at the base of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge rejected a museum proposal by Star Wars creator George Lucas . The Presidio Trust’s seven-member board voted unanimously Monday against Lucas’ plan and two others that were under consideration for an 8-acre site overlooking San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The site has been leased to a sports retailer, the Sports Basement, since 2004. The trust, however, said it would work with Lucas to find another site for his museum within the park. “We simply do not believe any of the projects would be right for this location,” board Chairman Nancy Hellman Bechtle said at a news conference. “We didn’t think any of them quite hit the mark.” Lucas wants a showcase for his collection of popular art, including illustrations by Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish, and he had pledged $700 million to build and endow the museum. David Perry, a spokesman for the producer, said the Lucas group was surprised to hear there were other possible sites for the museum in the park.