TV TALK: During last night's edition of “THE DREW CAREY SHOW,” JEFF GORDON made a cameo appearance. Gordon, talking to “DREW CAREY” about street racing, said, "You guys race for money, right? ... I just need a race. I need some money bad. I got this problem. I'm seriously addicted to eBay" ("The Drew Carey Show," ABC, 11/28). To view Gordon's appearance on the show, please click here....ABC will be taping special editions of “WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE” Sunday and Monday at the Walt Disney-MGM Studios. The Olympic athlete edition will air in January '02, prior to the Olympics. The “U.S. OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS EDITION” will feature OSCAR DE LA HOYA, MIKE ERUZIONE, MIA HAMM, DAN JANSEN, BRUCE JENNER, MARION JONES, MARY LOU RETTON and one more Olympian to be announced later (THE DAILY).
NAMES: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Miriam Jordan writes that a "financial scandal over a United Nations charity event threatens to taint soccer legend" PELE, whose company, PELE SPORTS & MARKETING INC. is "embroiled in a dispute over a benefit soccer match he was to host for Unicef, the U.N. children's fund" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/29)....GQ's John Brodie profiles PHILIP ANSCHUTZ under the header, "Mystery Mogul." Brodie: "Thanks to some sneaky maneuvering this year, he controls 6,000 movie screens —- and may have unprecedented power over what movies you get to see." More Brodie: "Anschutz's ability to spot market trends is one skill, but getting the better of a town [L.A.] that generally leaves deep-pocketed interlopers with nothing but lint is another. Those in the industry who dismiss Anschutz as a Rocky Mountain rube do so at their peril" (GQ, 12/01 issue)....In N.Y., Fred Kerber writes that former NBAer JAYSON WILLIAMS claimed yesterday that his "early morning arrest last week for pushing a police officer was a misunderstanding for which he apologized." Williams: "I have to go and pay a $48 disorderly conduct ticket and that was it" (N.Y. POST, 11/29)....MOMENTUM SPORTS GROUP has signed former Abilene Christian Univ. punter BRAD RAPHELT (Momentum Sports Group)....The ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL's Daniel Williams reported former MLB Cardinals 1B MARK MCGWIRE has "closed escrow on a lot at Shady Canyon" in Irvine County, CA. Sources said that McGwire's lot "sits on a bluff within Shady Canyon's first phase with a view of the first hole on the Tom Fazio-designed golf course" (O.C. BUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/26)....JENNIFER CAPRIATI has been chosen as Sports Illustrated Women's “SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR” (SI Women)....In Charlotte, Doug Smith reported that SMI Chair BRUTON SMITH, "citing a need for more high-quality office space near Lowe's Motor Speedway, ... has started the first building in a proposed 100,000-square-foot park." Smith is doing the project as a "private venture unaffiliated" with SMI. The two-story, 37,500-square-foot FLOYD SMITH OFFICE BUILDING, named for Smith's late brother, is scheduled to be completed by April 1 (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 11/28)....In L.A., Bartholomew & Beck write that Lakers C SHAQUILLE O'NEAL is "being specially trained in the San Fernando Valley by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies for harbor patrol duty." Each week, O'Neal undergoes "special tutoring by volunteer sheriff's deputies at an undisclosed training center" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 11/29).
