Inqlings: Lights, camera, action - checks?

In a real-life drama, more than 1,000 people - plus assorted businesses, including a casting director and the owner of a car-rental company - are waiting to be paid for their work on a Bollywood movie shot here.

About $300,000 is owed, said

Sharon Pinkenson

, head of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, who said she had been fielding grief.

After inquiries from a reporter, representatives of Australia's Swish Group e-mailed workers and companies early Friday, promising to pay by the end of the month.

Similar assurances were made a month ago after paychecks bounced.

Dharma Productions, a large film studio in Mumbai, India, contracted Swish to produce a romantic thriller starring real-life couple

Saif Ali Khan

and

Kareena Kapoor

.

The film, known by working titles

KP 15

and

Jihaad

, wrapped its 36-day Philly shoot Dec. 21. Swish reps told extras not to cash their final checks immediately. The checks were no good, said casting director

Mike Lemon

, who with his staff has been working for weeks to secure more than $60,000 due hundreds of actors and extras.

"Despite our best efforts and the apparent support of Dharma, Swish Films has failed to make these outstanding payments," Lemon said. "We don't want to pursue litigation, but time is running out, and it seems we may not have a choice."

Film workers have been reaching out to entertainment lawyers

Justin Wineburgh

and

Lori Landew

at the Philly office of Cozen O'Connor. Wineburgh said Dharma's chief,

Apoorva Mehta

, had also contacted him to potentially represent the studio against Swish, which has offices in Los Angeles.

Cary Stynes

, a director of Swish, told The Inquirer by e-mail Thursday that "there were some banking difficulties" related to what he called "a problem with the transferring of funds from Australia to the USA." He added that Swish, publicly traded in Australia, was a "reputable organization" and had paid 97 percent of all invoices related to the film. He did not reply to a request for a telephone interview.

The film is not finished. It's supposed to shoot additional scenes in April in New York.

Ryan Seacrest

's syndicated

On Air With Ryan Seacrest

- music and shtick - starts tomorrow in the 10 a.m.-to-1 p.m. block on WIOQ (102.1).

And thus Q102, bidding for cost-consciousness, will devote seven hours of the day to piped-in programming, starting with

Elvis Duran

's New York show from 6 to 10 a.m. Duran replaced

Chris Booker

last year.

To program director

Tracy Austin

's credit, Q102 has spared its daytime personalities, though their shifts have been moved and truncated:

Lisa Paige

is now 1 to 4 p.m.,

Joey Brooks

4 to 7 p.m., and

Jessie Jordan

7 to 10 p.m.

Comcast SportsNet's

Michael Barkann

called WIP (610) Friday morning, but while he was on hold, the line went dead. He called back moments later to say his Saab convertible had been rear-ended as he slowed for a school zone. Barkann turns up on the Comcast Network show

Voice of Reason

with

Larry Kane

at 5:30 p.m. today.

Philly ad man

Steve Red

made the 10-man finals for Sexiest Man in Advertising for 2009, according to MediaBistro.com.

Disney will hold an open audition for the part of Ariel in the Broadway run of

The Little Mermaid

. Sign-in will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the University of the Arts' Caplan Studio Theater, 211 S. Broad St., 16th floor. Casting director

Jennifer Rudin

is looking for a soprano with a clear, flawless belt to E. (Insert weak pun about "scales" here.) Info at

» READ MORE: www.disneyonbroadway.com/auditions

or e-mail

» READ MORE: casting@disneyonbroadway.com

.

Actor

Jamie Foxx

has been in town for two weeks with the thriller

Law Abiding Citizen

, and he has his

Michael Nutter

impression down beautifully. At a City Hall news conference Friday, Nutter gave souvenir Liberty Bells to Foxx, actor

Gerard Butler

, and director

F. Gary Gray

.

Foxx, who hilariously impersonated

President Obama

at Tuesday's inauguration, put on a nasal monotone and said: "I just really, really want to thank Jamie Foxx for, ah, coming to Philadelphia."

From Butler, who drew a visit from virtually every woman in City Hall: "I'm getting sick of doing movies where it's like

Oscar

winner

Hilary Swank

. . . and Gerard Butler.

Oscar

winner

Angelina Jolie

. . . and Gerard Butler.

Oscar

winner Jamie Foxx . . . and Gerard Butler." Hoisting his Liberty Bell, he roared: "So this is my Oscar speech." See video at

» READ MORE: http://is.gd/h0IN

David Faustino

, who played Bud on the landmark Fox series

Married . . . With Children

, passed through Philly to plug his new Web sitcom,

Star-ving

, for Sony on Crackle.com. In the parody of lost fame, Faustino plays himself 10 years after the sitcom, living broke in L.A. Faustino live-chatted with fans on Philly.com and sat for a video interview; see both at

» READ MORE: http://go.philly.com/faustino

Conan O'Brien

will take the blame for last Sunday's Eagles loss. While at NBC10 on Friday to do promos and meet with advertisers, he told me that he had been eating at a bar on New York's Upper West Side amid a few Eagles fans and offered to root for the Birds since his Patriots were out of the running. "I felt bad," he said. On his last Philly visit, O'Brien said, he and his wife,

Liza

, stopped at an Old City coffee shop. A woman walked up, identified herself as

Seth Green

's mother, and proceeded to dial the Overbrook Park-born actor. "Only it was early in the morning, and she didn't realize that Seth had been up late the night before partying," O'Brien said. "She handed me the phone, and here's this man's voice when it's his mother's number on caller ID. He thought she was being kidnapped."