CRAIN's N.Y. BUSINESS named WNBA President VAL ACKERMAN
among N.Y.'s 100 Most Influential Women In Business.
Ackerman's WNBA is "considered a bona fide success" (CRAIN'S
N.Y., 9/27)....DAILY VARIETY reporter RICHARD KATZ passed
away yesterday due to respiratory failure. Katz covered
cable and broadcast TV. He was 33 (DAILY VARIETY, 9/29).
....The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Leslie Cauley reports that
Cablevision Chair CHARLES DOLAN has "persuaded" numerous
companies to "devote company resources and attention" to
"raise the public's awareness" of pancreatic cancer. Dolan
was "prompted by the illness" of former Cablevision exec
MARC LUSTGARTEN, who recently passed away from the disease,
and has helped raise more than $10M since August '98, almost
matching the annual $11M in annual federal funding allocated
for research into the disease (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/29).
...WAYNE HUIZENGA and his wife MARTI have donated $4M to
Nova Southeastern Univ. to "help finance" a new building
that "will bring the graduate school of business" back to
the main campus (MIAMI HERALD, 9/28)....The FLAMES "agreed
to spend" C$300,000 to help fund the Western Centre of
Excellence, a facility "dedicated to improving" hockey at
the grassroots level, including developing "better coaches
and minor-hockey players" in western Canada (Toronto GLOBE &
MAIL, 9/29)....In Miami, David Neal profiles Panthers RW
PAVEL BURE and reports on his large following among the gay
community. Bure: "What do you want me to do? I can tell
you that I'm not gay, that I can tell you" (MIAMI HERALD,
9/29)....The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR's Lane Hartill wrote
on sports-themed cruises featuring pro athletes. Hartill,
who recently took a cruise with 19 current or former NFL
players on Norwegian Cruise Line, noted that the company is
"known for its sports cruises devoted to" baseball, hockey
and basketball (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, 9/28).
A PEACEFUL PLACE OR SO IT LOOKS FROM SPACE: "ET"
presented the trailer for OLIVER STONE's "ANY GIVEN SUNDAY."
The trailer can be viewed at www.anygivensunday.com (THE
DAILY)....The "THE DREW CAREY SHOW" episode filmed earlier
this year at Cleveland Browns Stadium will air tonight on
ABC at 9:00pm ET (THE DAILY)....NBC's "Dateline" examined
the production of "FOR LOVE OF THE GAME." The "biggest
problem" for the crew was to make Yankee Stadium look full
during the game scenes. Director Sam Rami used both real
extras and life-size cutouts to fill some seats. But digital
effects supervisor Tom Smith used Rodoscoping to digitally
cut-and-paste in people to fill the rest of the stands. It
took Smith and a team of 25 people three months to finish
the 70 different crowd shots for the film (NBC, 9/28).
