Celebs Chatting Wednesday

By Jennifer Openshaw of the Women's Financial Network

Well, ladies and gents, we've got two of the biggest, cutest, most talented actors in the biz right now, all geared up and ready to chat their big, cute, talented brains out. The first in line is Leonardo DiCaprio, the wunderkind who was getting, and deserving mad props for his mad skillz on display in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?," "The Basketball Diaries," and "This Boy's Life." But he's diverged from the Olivier track to the David Cassidy one of late due to swoon-worthy performances in "Romeo + Juliet," "Titanic," and "The Man in the Iron Mask," and let's hope the upcoming "The Beach" is more than a vehicle for his naked chest. He'll be chatting on chat.yahoo.com at 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central, 11 a.m. Pacific. It involves RealPlayer somehow; I think he'll be making an announcement and then launching into a moderated chat.

Second in the superstar hit parade (but first in our hearts) is Johnny Depp, the actor whose skill in picking films is a wonder in itself. I had forgotten that he started out as the main kiddie cop in "21 Jump Street;" he went on to "Edward Scissorhands," he's also been in "Edward Scissorhands," "Platoon," "Ed Wood," "Dead Man," "Donnie Brasco," and the great "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," alongside Mr. D-Cap (i.e. Leonardo DiCaprio) himself. Depp's latest dark Tim Burton-directed film is "Sleepy Hollow," which was inexplicably not released on Halloween, and he'll be chatting about it on chat.yahoo.com at 5 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Central, 2 p.m. Pacific.

She may not have the DiCaprio-Depp cachet, but she's no slouch. Cartoonist Lynda Barry has produced two gangbuster books, "Cruddy" and "The Good Times Are Killing Me," the latter being turned into a Broadway play. Barry is re-releasing "The Good Times" with brand-new art, and chatting about it, and possibly other things as well, on borders.com/netcafe at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Pacific.

Man, we're so literary around here! Our next book guy is Thomas Cahill author of popular history books like "How The Irish Saved Civilization," which my mom absolutely loved (Hey ma!), and "The Gifts of Jews." He's got another one out now, called "Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus," which seems as though it would pretty much wrap up all of human history. He'll be chatting on bn.com at 7 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Central, 4 p.m. Pacific.

And now we have the most successful movie scribe in the game, if you don't count Shakespeare. Michael Crichton officially writes books, but who are we kidding - at this point the novels serve as movie trailers to tide you over until the grand premiere. A third "Jurassic Park" film is coming out soon, enigmatically titled "Jurassic Park 3," and apart from the other "Park" sagas, Crichton's career is peppered with "Sphere," "Congo," "Twister," "Disclosure," "Westworld," and "Coma." Continuing in the tradition of boring one-word titles, his latest novel is "Timeline," and he'll be chatting about it on cnn.com at 1 p.m. Eastern, 12 noon Central, 10 a.m. Pacific.