LIVING LONG AND PROSPERING.

Christmas '08 will be a merry one for "Star Trek" fans if director J.J. Abrams can carry the excitement from his Comic-Con presentation into the actual movie.

Abrams had two bits of casting news for fans -- both involving the same character, Spock. (Abrams' "Star Trek," the 11th movie in the franchise, will take place in the final frontier of the original series.)

As had been widely speculated, "Heroes" villain Zachary Quinto will play Spock, as will the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy.

"He's going to put on the ears one more time," Abrams told the jubilant Comic-Con audience without divulging the specifics of the two actors playing one character.

Quinto has Nimoy's hairline and arched eyebrow look down pat. As producer Stratton Leopold noted, "The resemblance is scary."

So, if Nimoy's on board, where's William Shatner?

"We're desperately trying to figure a way to put him in this movie,"

Abrams says. "It needs to be worthy of him and the movie. We can't just shove him in. That would be a disaster."

Abrams doesn't have a replacement Kirk, either.

"Any ideas?" he asked the Comic-Con throng. (Before we answer, we must ask: Can the actor actually use normal cadences to speak his lines without resorting to the -- Strange -- Shatner-ian -- histrionics?)

As for Nimoy, the homecoming seems to be a happy event.

"People ask me why I'm doing this movie," Nimoy says. "The answer is, it was logical."

Well, she's pretty

Jessica Alba's appearance at Comic-Con for the Lionsgate comedy "Good Luck Chuck" confirmed two things:

1) Alba is really, really popular. When she walked on stage, the geeks and geekettes stormed to the front, cameras and camera phones held high to take a picture of Alba ... sitting behind a conference table.

2) Alba isn't particularly compelling beyond her looks.

In "Good Luck Chuck," Dane Cook learns he has a secret power. If he sleeps with a woman, she goes on to meet her soul mate. This makes Chuck a popular guy. But then Chuck meets the girl played by Alba and falls for her. He can't sleep with her because he's afraid if he does, he'll lose her to another guy.

This leads to sexual tension. Shots of Alba in the bathtub, flashing her underwear, coyly lying in bed wrapped in a sheet.

Alba, wearing a low-cut denim dress, was asked what the best thing was about working with Cook. Not a hard question. A softball. But you could hear the gears turning in her head.

"Everything was the best thing," she said. "He has a good heart. I don't know if you guys know that."

Well, no. We weren't privy to that stunning revelation. We also learned that Cook made Alba laugh so hard that her tummy hurt, that Alba is a klutz in real life and she wears shoes that look like C-3PO's feet.

Unctuous Fox entertainment reporter Bill McCuddy then asked Alba about her upcoming horror movie, "The Eye."

"Tell us a little about that," McCuddy said.

"It's gonna come out," Alba said, then paused, thinking. "And it's gonna be scary."

All right then. Small wonder that after that bombshell, Alba posed for some more pictures, showed off her shiny shoes and then left to do what she does best -- look fabulous, be photographed, sign autographs and hop in the back seat of a limousine.

>GLENN WHIPP 

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) A tale of two Spocks: Zachary Quinto, left, and Leonard Nimoy, appearing at Comic-Con, will both wear the ears in the Christmas '08 "Star Trek" movie.

DAN STEINBERG>ASSOCITED PRESS

(2) Jessica Alba 

DENIS POROY>ASSOCIATED PRESS