Names & Faces: Paul Azinger To Wear Pokerstars.net Logo

Azinger Inks Endorsement Deal With Pokerstars.net

PGA Tour player and ABC golf analyst Paul Azinger, who competed in the main event of the World Series of Poker, has signed a deal to wear a pokerstars.net logo on his shirt. Azinger, when asked if the PGA Tour may have a problem with the affiliation: “If I’m watching a golf tournament Sunday afternoon with my family, I’m a lot more comfortable watching a commercial for pokerstars.net than I would be watching a commercial for Cialis” (ST. PETE TIMES, 8/3).

GIRL NAMED MARIA: U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks has ruled against Maria Sharapova, saying that Florida-based Byzantium Productions “was entitled to market a documentary” about her despite her agents’ attempts to stop distribution. IMG had said that Byzantium illegally used Sharapova’s identity and “infringed on her company’s trademark and legal rights,” but Middlebrooks found the documentaries “Anna’s Army” and “Russian Women’s Tennis” did not violate trademark laws. The decision allows Byzantium to “move forward with plans to distribute its work in Japan and elsewhere.” But Byzantium VP Peter Geisler said, “My guess is that it’s most likely too late” (AP, 8/2).

BITING BACK: TIME’s Kate Stinchfield writes surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm in a shark attack in ’03, has “blossomed as an entrepreneur, building a miniempire of merchandise, including a perfume called Stoked and an eponymous line of accessories” sold at Claire’s. The movie version of her autobiography, “Soul Surfer,” which came out in ’04, is “set to start shooting this fall.” The filmmakers are targeting actresses Emma Watson and Jamie Lynn Spears to play Hamilton (TIME, 8/7 issue).

OVER HIS HEAD: “Coup de Boule,” a song inspired by France MF Zinedine Zidane’s head-butt of Italy D Marco Materazzi in the World Cup Final, has hit No. 1 on France’s singles chart. The song was written by three associates of Plage Records the day after the match. After being e-mailed to “about 50 friends, the song quickly invaded the Web, with French radio SkyRock putting it on its play-list and ringtone sellers and music labels fighting for the rights.” Warner Music France eventually bought the song, which has sold more than 75,000 copies in stores in the last ten days and been downloaded more than 110,000 times (REUTERS, 8/2).