Sports Archives

New York, August 28, 2009 – Beer and tennis go together very well, so Heineken teamed up with the USTA to host the US Open kick-off party on a steamy Friday night.  James Blake and Venus Williams came to let off a little pre-tournament steam, while the rest of us danced to the tunes by DJ M.O.S. and sipped quite a few cold ones – miniature kegs were everywhere at the party, and beer-toting waiters roamed the vast warehouse space, making sure nobody was parched.

We quizzed some of the non-athletes at the bash about their skills on the tennis court.  Penn Badgley says his tennis skills are rusty.  “I haven’t played since I was about ten,” the Gossip Girl star told us.  (Sipping a Heineken, Penn admitted that his beer-drinking skills are “pretty polished.”)   Saturday Night Live comic Kenan Thompson said his tennis skills are “whack;” Olivia Palermo and boyfriend Johannes Huebl play frequently and are “really good,” and Emmy Rossum says that while she is a lousy tennis player, she enjoys watching others who are not.  We’ll second that.  

Photos: Luisa Johns/PKI

New York, July 15-16, 2009 – David Beckham made his annual summer New York area appearance with the L.A. Galaxy, and handily trounced the New York Red Bulls 3-1 in Thursday’s soccer match. 

As a quasi-ambassador for Major League Soccer, Becks also held press conferences before and after the match.  At one on Wednesday at the W Hotel in Hoboken, NJ, Beckham was visibly freezing from the air conditioning – something he should get used to if he wants to stay in America, which he says he decidedly does, despite having spent the last six months playing for Italy’s AC Milan club.  He said his family is happy in L.A., and he’d like to stay there.  “My family is happy. We don't like moving around, we don't like unsettling the kids and that for us is the most important thing,” Beckham said.

About the fact that many fewer fans came to Giants Stadium to see him play this year - just 23,000, about half the number that turned out last year, and a third of those in the stands in 2007 - Becks acknowledged that people might be losing interest in him, but he also noted the economy.  “We're in a recession. Maybe that's part of it."

New York, May 30, 2009 – Prince Harry’s first official visit to New York City culminated with the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic on Saturday. 

We spent an idyllic day sipping Champagne and watching the polo match in the sunshine on Governor's Island. Madonna, Kate Hudson, Chloe Sevigny, LL Cool J, Matt Lauer, Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan watched Harry’s Sentebale team triumph over Nacho Figueras’s Black Watch.

The match was a benefit for American Friends of Sentebale, a charity that Harry co-founded with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to support at-risk children in that African nation.

More from the polo match at NYMag.com.

New York, May 26, 2009 – Racecar driver Helio Castroneves made the media rounds in Manhattan after winning his third Indy 500 race on Sunday.  The one-time Dancing with the Stars winner showed he’s still got it, kicking his legs with the legendary Rockettes dancers at Radio City Music Hall. 

Castroneves said that his Indy winning strategy was to “save fuel” during whole race, leaving him “clean air” for that final burst. 

The win was especially joyful for the Brazilian-born Castroneves, who just weeks before the Indy 500 was acquitted on tax evasion charges in a Florida trial. 

Tampa, FL, January 31, 2009 – We arrived in Tampa the day before the Super Bowl, in time to catch a couple of the celebrity-packed pre-game parties. 

Blake Lively was the life of the 3rd annual Celebrity Beach Bowl in St. Petersburg on Saturday.  Wearing jeans, she wasn’t dressed properly for playing football, but she did jump into the game half-heartedly for a few minutes towards the end.  Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford and Christian Slater were dressed appropriately for sports, and they did partake.  However, Blake was everywhere, giving interviews with Gossip Girl co-star Chace Crawford, and issuing directions with NY Giants’ Eli Manning. 

Blake also goofed around a lot with her guy, Penn Badgley; and feigned annoyance when Penn towel-snapped her behind with the red fabric strip hanging from his uniform (see photo at left.) 

That evening we headed over to Tampa’s T. Pepin Hospitality Center, where Kevin Costner, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Michael Strahan and Nicole Murphy were among the celebrities at the 3rd annual Saturday Night Spectacular event. 

Tampa, FL, February 1, 2009 – Jennifer Hudson delivered a flawless rendition of the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLIII, her first public performance since the murder of three members of her family last October.  The thousands of football fans at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa and millions more at home held their collective breath, and Hudson struck just the right mood, and the crowd’s support was palpable.  We caught some exclusive photos of Hudson on the football field, touching up her hair and makeup just before she took the stage. 

Faith Hill, who performed first, hung around on the field with her husband, Tim McGraw, to hear Hudson’s song. 

That was not the audience on the field surrounding the stage during Bruce Springsteen’s half-time performance.  Those people you saw screaming at Bruce’s feet were actually volunteers, who told us they’d been training and rehearsing, even in the rain, for five days before the big game.  So when The Boss told us to “put the chicken fingers down” and get up and boogie, the field wasn’t littered with them. 

We sniffed out Paris Hilton way up in the stands in the end zone, about 20 rows back.  Literally – as someone in a baseball cap passed by, a photographer recognized the scent of Hilton’s perfume wafting in the air, and realized it was, in fact, Paris!  Even though her sears weren’t great, Hilton got to see one very exciting football game. 

New York, December 4, 2008 – Jimmie Johnson was the man of the hour on Thursday at Marquee, at a party celebrating his NASCAR Sprint cup series victory.  Again - this was Johnson’s third consecutive win.  But also grabbing our attention was DJ AM, spinning and seemingly in good shape after his harrowing plane crash in September.  Fellow DJ Samantha Ronson shared duties – is that what caused her to argue with Lindsay Lohan?  Biggest news to us was Aubrey O’Day claming that she and her female date were lesbians, and are, like, totally upset about the passage of Proposition 8 in California.  O’Day also stood up for animal gay rights, noting that her lapdog, Ginger, who was in her arms, is also a lesbian. 

Other NASCAR partygoers, none of whom confessed to being lesbians, included Ricki Lake, Alessandra Ambrosio, Gavin DeGraw and NJ Nets’ Rashad McCants. 

Photos: Marion Curtis/Starpix

New York, October 22-24, 2008 – Adventurous billionaire Richard Branson’s attempt to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in record time has been scuttled by rough weather.  Branson told CNN that his racing yacht, Virgin Money, had been buffeted by 40-foot waves, and that the boat’s main sail was ripped, so he was forced to call off the expedition. 

Branson and his daughter Holly and son Sam set sail from Manhattan early on Wednesday – in the middle of the night, actually, at 2:15 A.M.  OAN was there at that time.  Branson and his crew pulled up to the dock, and Branson cheerfully unloaded his gear from the car and carried it aboard himself.  Branson set sail in high spirits, and has said he will attempt the crossing again.