Owes a lot to Lou

Cyndi Lauper says that professional wrestler “Captain” Lou Albano took her up the music charts. The singer said this week that she was lucky to work with Albano on her music videos in the 1980s. The rambunctious showman and wrestler died Wednesday in New York of natural causes.

Albano’s fame skyrocketed when he appeared in Lauper’s 1983 “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” music video, playing the singer’s dad. Lauper says that Albano took her up the charts “from 10, to 5, to 4 to 1, to minus 5 and back up to 1 again.” She says it was “great fun, too.” Albano was one of the most recognized figures in the World Wrestling Federation during the 1980s, alongside such ring pros as Hulk Hogan and “Rowdy” RoddyPiper.

A reprieve of LiLo...

Lindsay Lohan is getting another chance.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel granted a request Friday morning by the “Mean Girls” star to extend her three-year probation another year.

The 23-year-old actress was placed on probation in 2007 after she pleaded guilty to two counts of being under the influence of cocaine and no contest to two counts of drunken driving and one count of reckless driving. She spent 84 minutes in jail.

Lohan’s lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, asked the judge for the probation extension because she said Lohan has been busy with work and unable complete her substance abuse treatment program. TMZ photographers spotted Lohan Thursday afternoon returning to the class. She has about six more weeks of attendance before she graduates. She is scheduled to return for a progress hearing Dec. 15.

A science geek

Whoopi Goldberg says she always has been a geek and that comes in handy for a new science trivia show she’s producing.

“Head Games” on the Science Channel is a cheeky take on the game show genre.

Goldberg says it’s a mashup of an “endless” number of games. It uses humor, facts and videos to test the intellect of contestants and viewers alike, with questions about astronauts burping in space and how Tennessee meat goats react to stress. (They faint.)

Goldberg calls that segment fantastic because it leaves viewers wondering why. Why don’t goats get “gassy or something?” she said. She added that that’s the “kind of stuff that I think about.”

Goldberg says she has many interests and considers herself a curious person.

“Where there are places you can ask questions and get answers, those are places I like to dwell in, and science is one of those things because it’s not just science with beakers, there’s all kinds of science.”

“Head Games” premieres on the Science Channel on Saturday at 9 p. m.

Celebrity birthdays

Sunday: Chuck Berry is 83. Pam Dawber is 59. Jean-Claude Van Damme is 49. Zac Efron is 22.

Monday: Peter Max is 72. Ty Pennington is 45. Trey Parker is 40.

Tuesday: Tom Petty is 59. Viggo Mortensen is 51. John Krasinski is 30.

Wednesday: Actress Joyce Randolph is 85. TV judge Judy Sheindlin is 67. Carrie Fisher is 53.

Thursday: Joan Fontaine is 92. Annette Funicello is 67. Catherine Deneuve is 66. Carlos Mencia is 42. Jonathan Lipnicki is 19.

Friday: Ang Lee is 55. “Weird Al” Yankovic is 50. Ryan Reynolds is 33. Actress Jessica Stroup is 23.

Next Saturday: Actor-producer David Nelson is 73. Bill Wyman is 73. F. Murray Abraham is 70.