While Dallas holds its breath to see how it will be skewered in next year's HBO comedy 12 Miles of Bad Road, the almost-future governor of Texas, Kinky Friedman, has been on the set filming.

Kinky was recommended by no less than former President Bill Clinton who told his pal, 12 Miles executive producer Harry Thomason, that Kinky and his band, the Texas Jewboys, would be perfect to perform in a bachelor-party scene.

"We were in Dallas when we got the news," Kinky says. "So we flew out to LA to pretend we were in Dallas."

For those who haven't heard, 12 Miles of Bad Road stars Lily Tomlin as a rich Dallas matriarch named Amanda Shakespeare. She and her sister, C.Z. (as in cubic zirconia, are you kidding me?), played by Mary Kay Place, are residential real estate types selling $20 million to $30 million mansions.

"We spent 12 hours – I'm not kidding, 12 hours – on the set performing 'Proud to Be an (expletive deleted) from El Paso,' " Kinky says.

Kinky will be back in Dallas this week, hawking his Kinky Friedman Cigars as well as signing copies of his books.

On Tuesday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., he'll be at the Addison Cigar & Tobacco Co. before heading to a 7 p.m. book signing at Borders Books & Music at Preston Road and Royal Lane.

There are five kinds of Kinky Cigars (handmade by Cubans in Honduras): The Governor, Kinkycristo, Texas Jewboy, Utopian and The Willie, named for his pal, Willie Nelson. "The Willie has a twist on the end," says Kinky.

And even though he's no longer running for governor, Kinky still has an amusing fondness for the third person. Pontificating between cigar puffs, he says, "Kinky's message to kids is 'Cigarettes bad, cigars good.' "

Those driving by The Mansion on Turtle Creek may have noticed the main driveway has been torn up as part of the $20 million renovation instituted by the hotel's parents at Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. But the signature outdoor courtyard will be back in place for Friday night's kickoff of a weekend of festivities celebrating the reopening of the Mansion's redesigned dining rooms and main bar.

Some of the nation's top chefs will cook at the Friday gala, called TACA Party on the Green.

Among the 14 chefs who will feed guests at the gala are Ken Callaghan of Blue Smoke in New York; Anthony Dawodu of Caneel Bay, a Rosewood sibling of the Mansion's located in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands; Joseph Keller of Bistro Zinc in Lake Las Vegas, Nev.; Tim Love of Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in Fort Worth; Rick Moonen of RM Seafood at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas; Bryan Ogden of Bradley Ogden at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas; Keith Otter of Chandler's in Sun Valley, Idaho; Martin Rios of Inn of the Anasazi, Rosewood's hotel in Santa Fe; Luca Rutigliano of CordeValle, Rosewood's hotel in San Martin, Calif.; Jimmy Sakatos of The Carlyle, Rosewood's luxury property in New York City; and Gianni Santin of Rosewood's Hotel Crescent Court in Dallas.

All of the weekend festivities to reopen the Mansion's dining areas will benefit the Dallas arts organization TACA. Saturday night, the annual TACA Custom Auction Gala will be held at the Mansion and, during the day on Saturday, the will be both a culinary master class and a sommelier class.

And finally, that was two-time Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank passing through the Mansion's lobby this weekend.

She was in town for a Dallas Center for the Performing Arts reception preceding Neiman Marcus' 100th-anniversary gala.