This year's Boston Marathon in April will be Johnson's first full marathonGETTY IMAGES
NASCAR driver JIMMIE JOHNSON will run the Boston Marathon next month after receiving a "qualifying exemption from one of his sponsors, Gatorade." The race will be his first full marathon (CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.com, 3/18).
HOLLYWOOD AFFAIRS: A movie script about late UNLV basketball coach JERRY TARKANIAN is turning into a "dramatic series that will be shopped around" to cable outlets and streaming providers. SHAWN CHRISTENSEN, who wrote the script, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for his '12 film "CURFEW" (LASVEGASSUN.com, 3/19)....Warner Bros. won the "highly contested bidding war" for "KING RICHARD," which will star WILL SMITH as the father of VENUS and SERENA WILLIAMS (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 3/18).
HELPING HANDS: LADAINIAN TOMLINSON and his alma mater TCU announced the creation of the Tomlinson Student-Athlete Development Endowment Fund, which will "support student-athletes from all of TCU's sports programs with their careers and lives following their graduations" (STAR-TELEGRAM.com, 3/18)....Kentucky basketball coach JOHN CALIPARI received $1M for his role in the all-access docu-series "INSIDE THE MADNESS: KENTUCKY BASKETBALL" last year. Calipari said that the money has been "earmarked for donations" (USATODAY.com, 3/19).
NAMES: A real estate company owned by EMMITT SMITH has “bought a building in southern Dallas to redevelop into a mixed-use project.” E Smith Communities purchased the 30,000-square-foot building, which will be “repurposed as a new community office center and retail space” (DALLASNEWS.com, 3/18)....TIM MCGRAW will “perform a free concert" in downtown Nashville as part of the NFL Draft festivities on Friday, April 26, and Gospel artist CECE WINANS will sing the national anthem to kick off the event’s opening night (TENNESSEAN.com, 3/18)....Revolution G CODY CROPPER welcomed GUS TERAVAINEN, an 8-year-old from Easton, Mass., and his family as “special guests at one of the team’s training sessions to help raise awareness ahead of World Down Syndrome Day on Thursday” (BOSTONHERALD.com, 3/18)....Jets RB LE’VEON BELL on Saturday threw an “exclusive launch party for his first rap album, ‘LIFE’S A GAMBLE,’ at Rockwell nightclub in Miami” (NYPOST.com, 3/18).
