With the May ratings "sweeps" approaching, CBS3 is expected to name Susan Barnett permanent 6 and 11 p.m. coanchor.

The Levittown-bred Barnett, 35, has been at Larry Mendte's left elbow since the ouster of Alycia Lane in January.

Before she joined CBS3 in January 2006, Barnett anchored in Miami, Pittsburgh, Bridgeport, W.Va., and Champaign, Ill. She also was Miss Pennsylvania USA 1996. A station spokeswoman declined to comment, and Barnett was unavailable.

Flay cooks

Celeb chef Bobby Flay takes on chefs in his Throwdown! challenges for the Food Network.

Tonight is the premiere of the Throwdown! episode in which Flay goes against the Pop Shop in Collingswood in grilled-cheese sandwich-making. His Jan. 21 visit to Haddon Avenue was a setup; producers had told Pop Shop owners Bill "Stink" Fisher and Connie Correia Fisher that they'd be taping a kids-cooking show called All Grown Up when Flay rolled in.

The Fishers, who have dozens of grilled-cheese sandwiches on their menu, whipped up their "Calvert," which includes roast turkey, avocado, bacon, jack cheese and balsamic mayo on foccacia.

Flay countered with goat cheese, Brie, bacon, watercress and green tomatoes on pan bread. (The sandwich will be on the Pop Shop menu all this week.)

After losing in cheesesteaks to Tony Luke and in barbecue to Mount Laurel's Butch Lupinetti, Flay has come roaring back. He topped Delilah Winder in macaroni and cheese and out-twisted the Pretzel Boys in soft pretzels. How did he do with grilled cheese? No one will talk, so you can tune in at 10 tonight or read the "contact" note at the end of the column.

Philly film projects

Neat twist surrounding the action movie Transformers 2, whose production will be based in Philly for the better part of June. I hear that director Michael Bay and crew also will shoot in Bethlehem, Pa., which will double as a city in the Far East. (A twist in the notion of sending American jobs overseas.)

People close to Main Line auteur M. Night Shyamalan - and, yes, you can get close to him - say he'll start prepping for the Paramount live-action movie Avatar, based on the Nickelodeon kids-TV series, in September, with an eye on shooting in the spring. Shyamalan's next in theaters, The Happening, with Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, is scheduled to open June 13.

Demi Moore, Parker Posey and Rip Torn here to shoot the independent film Happy Tears, as Phillygossip.com speculated last week? My sources confirm and add that the four-week shoot - Mitchell Lichtenstein's dramedy about an aged man and his adult daughters - will start April 28, with most of the work in the suburbs.

Now here: An apartment at the Newport (16th and Spruce Streets) is the home of Lauren Graham's character in the romantic comedy The Dream of the Romans. A resident was relocated while scenes with Graham and Jeff Daniels were shot Thursday and Friday. . . . Tenure, with Luke Wilson, David Koechner and Gretchen Mol, continues filming at Bryn Mawr College.

Out and around

William H. Macy, in town last weekend for Philadelphia Film Festival screenings of The Deal, played the role of good sport. Sources say that as he left dinner at the Hyatt Regency on Penn's Landing, a man was entering a men's room to be sick. Macy's jacket needed a trip to the cleaner's.

John Leguizamo, here with The Take, nibbled caviar Thursday at a film-festival reception thrown in Old City by Mary Patel and Joe Barber, whose documentary, Electile Dysfunction, sold out its screening.

Odd tie-in: Festival honorees Leguizamo (Artistic Achievement Award) and Shane West (Rising Star Award) both acted on NBC's ER.

Hometown rivalry

The Phillies-Mets game scheduled for next Sunday may be heard on not one, not two, but three Philly stations. Flagship WPHT (1210) and CBS sister station WIP (610) will simulcast, barring a Sixers playoff conflict. Also, ESPN upstart WPEN (950) will air it as that week's ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game featuring announcers Jon Miller, Joe Morgan and Peter Gammons. "Given WPEN's nighttime signal problems, we are not concerned, especially since they won't have Harry, L.A., Wheels or Scott," says CBS market manager Marc Rayfield, referring to locals Harry Kalas, Larry Andersen, Chris Wheeler and Scott Franzke. "CBS Philadelphia is flattered that WPEN continues to try so hard to sound like our stations." To which WPEN program director Matt Nahigian posits: "If he's not concerned, then why is he simulcasting the game on WIP?"

Politicking

The road to the Democratic nomination goes through Pennsylvania.

To wit:

Comedy Central's The Colbert Report will tape at the Annenberg Center in University City tomorrow through Thursday. (Tickets were gone immediately.)

MSNBC's Chris Matthews will host two political shows on NBC10, at noon tomorrow and April 21 (with repeats at 7 p.m.). Battleground Pennsylvania also will be live-streamed at NBC10.com. Tomorrow's roundtable will feature reporters Steve Highsmith, Kristen Welker and Aditi Roy and The Inquirer's Larry Eichel. The April 21 outing's lineup was still being set, but will include Democratic U.S. Reps. Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah, both former mayoral candidates.

Commentator Tavis Smiley has left the Tom Joyner Morning Show, heard mornings on WRNB (107.9), after 12 years. Joyner said Friday that he thought Smiley was tired of getting flak for criticizing Barack Obama. Smiley did not return a request for comment.

Briefly noted

Olympic gold medalist Paul Hamm will dole out lunch at Pastificio Deli (1528 Packer Ave.) at 12:30 p.m. today as the name of the classic hoagie is changed to the "Hamm and Cheese." Hamm (say it "Hom") is in town to plug the Olympic team trials for gymnastics, coming to the Wachovia Center from June 19 to 22. Hamm and gymnast Shawn Johnson will throw out the first pitch at the Phillies-Cubs game.

CBS3 anchor Angela Russell and husband Telly, a med student at Georgetown University, now have a second daughter. Maya Michelle Russell was born Tuesday.

Man of pragmatism

After lunch Thursday at his Ted's Montana Grill in Center City, Ted Turner stepped into the path of Philly paparazzo HughE Dillon, camera ablazin'. "He tells me that the paparazzi killed Princess Diana," Dillon says, responding that the culprits were irresponsible photographers. Dillon then asked Turner if he wanted public relations for his restaurant. "At that point, he stopped and posed for me," Dillon says.

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Contact columnist Michael Klein at 215-854-5514 or mklein@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/michaelklein and http://go.philly.com/foodanddrinq. Bobby Flay won. Watch the episode anyway.