PRINCE NASEEM HAMED is the focus of USA TODAY's sports
cover story, and Christopher Winner writes the boxer has a
"rumored" $20M deal with adidas and "unabashedly puts
himself in a category with [MUHAMMAD] ALI and SUGAR RAY
ROBINSON. He wins over or alienates crowds, but they rise
to his occasion" (USA TODAY, 4/16)....The film "LES BOYS,"
about a Quebec "beer league" hockey team, will open in
Toronto on Friday. The film -- a Quebecois version of
"SlapShot" -- is in French with English subtitles and has
grossed more than C$5M since opening late in '97 in La Belle
Province (TORONTO SUN, 4/16)....MAGIC JOHNSON's new talk
show, "The Magic Hour," will get a strong marketing push
from CA-based Friedland Jacobs Communications. DAILY
VARIETY reports the media buy for the ad campaign to promote
the June 8 launch is "estimated to approach" $10M (DAILY
VARIETY, 4/16)....JAY LENO, on the streaker at Coors Field
Monday night: "If you're gonna to run naked, do it at a
Clippers game. This way there are no witnesses." Leno, on
DON KING's trial for insurance fraud: "King says he's going
to fight these charges. He says he will fight them even if
he has to spend every dime MIKE TYSON has" (NBC, 4/15).
