No skin from McCartney
This year’s halftime entertainment at the Super Bowl will be provided by Paul McCartney, who will entertain for the entire 12 minutes and whose every word and move will be vetted and reviewed by the league.
“He’ll keep his clothes on,” assured an NFL spokesman who is in charge of making sure there is not another “nipplegate,” the all-too-analyzed episode last year in which Janet Jackson had a “wardrobe malfunction” and exposed her breast in front of millions of viewers.
But for those who simply must see skin on Super Bowl Sunday, there is this:
A clothing-optional club in Land O’ Lakes (Florida) is hosting a “Wardrobe Malfunction” Super Bowl party at which guests are encouraged to wear “their favorite tear-away, see-through or otherwise ‘malnctioning’ clothing – or none at all,” according to a publicity release.
New York headlines
Mike Piazza, the New York Mets catcher, got married Saturday to Alicia Rickter, 32, in a ceremony in Miami attended by 120. Afterward, guests were transported on two yachts to a lavish reception on Fisher Island. Rickter is a 1995 Playboy Playmate, a former “Baywatch” star and a Killian’s beer spokeswoman.
The headline for the New York Post story on the wedding? “Mike’s Holy ‘Met’rimony”.
Oldie but goodie
A Tommy Lasorda joke about one of his favorite players, Steve Sax:
“Saxie could memorize an entire Richard Pryor routine, but he couldn’t remember a steal sign,” Lasorda said. “One time, when our steal sign was a coach calling you by your last name, (first base coach) Reggie Smith hollered out, ‘Saxie,’ and Saxie didn’t go. He hollered it again, and nothing.
“Then Saxie comes into the dugout and says, ‘I’ve been here six years and he still doesn’t know my first name.’ “
Drowning sorrows
In “The Boys of Winter,” a new book about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, author Wayne Coffey of the New York Daily News reports that Olympic cleanup workers found 121 empty vodka bottles hidden in a ceiling of the Russians’ Olympic Village headquarters.
As the tennis world turns
From Pete McEntegart of Sports Illustrated.com:
“An interesting dating story came out during the Australian Open. No, not that men’s finalist Lleyton Hewitt proposed to his girlfriend, Australian soap star Rebecca Cartwright, after losing to Marat Safin on Sunday. We’re speaking, of course, about the news that Jennifer Capriati is romantically linked to adult film star Dale DeBone. (We’re guessing that’s not his real last name.) It certainly puts a new twist on all the Jennifer-has-turned-her-life-around stories.”
The last word …
“He’s not a premier receiver. My son in flag football had 22 catches. That’s the level he’s on. He should keep his mouth shut and catch more balls than fourth-and-26. Score with the ball. Don’t catch somebody else’s fumble.”
Carolina Panthers’ wide receiver Steve Smith on big-talking Philadelphia Eagles receiver Freddie Mitchell.