Academy Awards host BILLY CRYSTAL, greeting Best Actor
winner and Lakers fan JACK NICHOLSON during the opening of
the 70th Academy Awards: "I'm a Clippers fan. We don't get
to the same games" (ABC, 3/23)....Celtics coach RICK PITINO
was profiled in the ROBB REPORT by Michael Lindenberger, who
wrote that Pitino "brings hard work and discipline to a
league known for millionaire twenty-somethings who often
resist hard work. The Pitino factor can be summed up in two
words: respect and enthusiasm" (ROBB REPORT, 3/98).
...Announcer RAY SCOTT, the TV voice of the Packers during
the Lombardi era, died Monday in Minneapolis following a
long illness (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/24).....DUTCHIE
CARAY, the widow of HARRY CARAY, will sing "Take Me Out To
The Ballgame" during the seventh inning of the Cubs home
opener April 3. The team says she will be the first in an
array of "guest conductors" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/24)....The
Supreme Court, without comment, refused to drop DON KING
PRODUCTIONS as a co-defendant in the insurance-fraud suit
against King. King was "hoping to make himself less
vulnerable" to the charges. The case against King will
begin next week (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/24)....Former Penguins
President JACK KELLEY is serving as a hockey technical
advisor on the new Disney film "Mystery, Alaska," which
chronicles a hockey team in AL. The film, produced by
Penguins Owner HOWARD BALDWIN and his Baldwin/ Cohen
production company in conjunction with TV producer DAVID
KELLEY, will be released later this year (THE DAILY).
