Louisville Slugger honors Jennifer Lawrence with gold Oscar bat
Celebrity Crush Number One
Actress Jennifer Lawrence recently won an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in the box office hit Silver Linings Playbook. She also won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in the movie.
Lawrence, a Louisville native and noted Louisville Cardinals fan, is set to receive yet another golden trophy to commemorate her recent achievements.
The famed Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory has decided to honor the 22-year-old by creating a custom gold bat with her name on it which includes the message, “LOUISVILLE’S SLUGGER IN HOLLYWOOD…YOUR HOMETOWN IS SO PROUD OF YOU!”
Louisville Slugger said they originally came up with the idea after she won two of the major awards, but waited until after she won the Oscar to ensure they didn’t jinx Lawrence’s award bid.
David Stern Says Flopping Is Legitimate Concern For NBA
Oscar Goes To
NBA commissioner David Stern, like coaches and players everywhere, recognizes that flopping has become a problem, and he vows to study the issue this offseason.
“It’s a legitimate concern,” Stern told ESPN’s Lisa Salters during the broadcast of Indiana Pacers-Miami Heat Game 1 on Sunday. “Some years ago, I told the competition committee that we were going to start fining people for flopping and then suspend them—and I think they almost threw me out of the room (and told me), ‘No, let it be.’
“But I think it’s time to look at it a more serious way, because it’s only designed to fool the referee—it’s not a legitimate play in my judgment,” Stern added. “… Some of this is acting. We should give out Oscars rather than MVP trophies.”
Salters’ question was in the context of the league fining Pacers coach Frank Vogel $15,000 for calling the Heat the “biggest flopping team in the NBA” and saying it will be “very interesting how the referees officiate the series and how much flopping they reward.”
“He didn’t have a beef, he was just manipulating the referees—or trying to,” Stern said. “I would have fined him much more than our office did.”
Micky Ward Watches The Fighter With New England Patriots
He's A Junk Bag Micky
The New England Patriots have been practicing hard during this training camp, one that has a lot of new faces like wide receiver Chad Ochocinco and defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. What better way to give the guys time off and bring them together than movie night? Last night coach Bill Belichick that was an excellent idea and the movie to accomplish his vision was Oscar nominated The Fighter.
Belichick had one more surprise for his team as he had invited former welterweight champion and Lowell native Micky Ward to watch his biopic.
“We’ve been in camp for a long time,” Belichick said. “We’ve been watching a lot of film at night, practice film, opponent film, everything, so we decided to go to the movies popcorn, candy out there, let them relax a little bit. Sometimes when teams work hard they deserve a break from the normal routine.”
The players took to to meeting Ward as if they had just meet a rock star and began posing the boxer for they Twitter and Facebook accounts.
“It was an honor meeting one of the greatest fighters ever,” Deion Branch wrote. “Coach gave us a treat today,” special teamer Tracy White added.
“It was great to meet the actual man behind the movie. It was definitely a great story, to see him and talk about his experiences, that’s something you don’t usually get to do,” defensive end Andre Carter said. “So for him to come in and talk about the movie and himself in general, it was a great opportunity.”
After the movie ended, Ward gave a speech to the players which coincided with the underling theme of the film to never give up and dig deep.
“It was good,” guard Logan Mankins said. “He talked about how you always have to keep fighting, keep going; when you’re down and don’t think you can do it, you can still get through it.”
ESPY Awards Gets All Time Low Ratings
Never Watched One
It appears that the public has grown weary of ESPN’s attempt to give the sports world a version of the Oscars. Last week’s ESPY Awards drew the event’s lowest TV ratings in the 16 years since they were first tracked in 1996. There was a total of 1.984 million viewers that watched this years ESPY’s and that was down 24% from last year’s 2.611 million.
The previous low was 2.104 million viewers in 1998.
LeBron James Shows Off Acting Skills With Flop
Miami Heat LeBron James did just about everything to lead his team to the NBA Finals, including putting on an Oscar worthy flop performance on after grabbing a defensive rebound and pretending to be poked in the face by Chicago Bulls Derrick Rose. After the Oscar flop, James added the nice touch of a wink towards his head coach Erik Spoelstra.
He must get acting tips from his teammate Chris Bosh.
Alice Ward Portrayed By Melissa Leo In ‘The Fighter’ Dies
R.I.P.
Alice Ward, who was portrayed by Melissa Leo in her Oscar-winning role in The Fighter, died early Wednesday morning in Boston. Ward, the mother of retired boxing champion “Irish” Micky Ward, was 79. Dicky Eklund, Ward’s older half-brother, confirmed her death. Ward raised nine children.
Leo also won a supporting actress Golden Globe and SAG Award this year for her portrayal in David Russell’s The Fighter, for which Christian Bale also won an Academy Award.
Oscar Talk With Mike Tyson & Leonard Maltin
In his second Funny Or Die appearance to date, Mike Tyson offers his Oscar picks with noted film critic Leonard Maltin. Tyson gets creative with his choices for best picture and actress in this hilarious interview. Love the part about Don King and agree with Tyson that I can’t believe he isn’t nominated for his performance in Pigeon Whisper.
Mark Wahlberg For Best Actor
On Friday I went and saw Mark Wahlberg’s flick The Fighter in his portrayal of boxer Mickey Ward, which I strongly suggest you get yourself to a theater and see it. You won’t be disappointed in Christian Bale as Dicky Eklund who stole the show. Whether it’s Wahlberg or Bale someone needs to walk away with an Oscar. Here’s a clip
Jennifer Hudson To Perform ‘One Shining Moment’
TALENT
Jennifer Hudson will have her “One Shining Moment.” The Grammy and Oscar winner will perform the song that plays each year at the end of the CBS broadcast of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game.
Hudson will be the first woman to sing it. Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandross have performed previous renditions. Hudson recorded the song in Los Angeles on February 13 and her producer, Harvey Mason Jr., played for the Arizona team that reached the 1988 Final Four.
The tune by folk singer David Barrett has been a March Madness staple since 1987, played over highlights of the tournament.
Hudson, who won an Academy Award in 2007 for her supporting role in “Dreamgirls,” performed at last year’s Super Bowl.
Boston Celtics Big Baby Almost Landed ‘Blind Side’ Role
Smile For The Camera
Back in 2007 Boston Celtics Glen “Big Baby” Davis was the leading candidate to portray Baltimore Ravens guard Michael Oher in the movie The Blind Side.
Sandra Bullock won an Oscar on Sunday night for Best Actress and her co-star could have been “Big Baby” if not for his regular job of playing in the NBA. “Big Baby” who had done some acting and improving in his days back at Louisiana State University was approached to try out for the Oher role in 2007 and sent in an audition tape.
Out of his league right? Well no, “Big Baby” s actually got a callback but never went tot he audition due to his NBA schedule. The scene “Big Baby” performed for the audition tape was of when Oher discusses selecting a college and ultimately deciding on the University of Mississippi.
“I never flew out because I didn’t have time,” he said. “I was playing, it was at the beginning of the season. That would’ve been tough. I would’ve had to shoot during the summer time, and that was a really important time.”
“Big Baby” later learned he was one of the top three candidates for the role. Crazy to think he passed on a SAG card which for sure would have outlived his NBA career.
