Rick Reilly is about to get his close-up. The Denver-based Sports Illustrated columnist (who just won Sportswriter of the Year for the 11th time) wrote a movie script 14 years ago – and it starts filming this month in Greenville, S.C.
“Leatherheads” will be directed by George Clooney, who also had a hand in the final rewrite. The movie will star Clooney, Renee Zellweger and “The Office’s” John Krasinski.
“They wanted me to play the lead, but I wouldn’t do the nudity,” says Reilly from Miami Beach, where he’s working really hard this week on the Super Bowl. “Maybe I’ll get a part with one line in it.”
The movie is about football in the 1920s, just as the NFL began. The hero, Clooney, is loosely based on John “Blood” McNally. He isn’t quite ready for the discipline and organization of the NFL, but he’s ready to fall in love with Zellweger.
As for Reilly in Florida, on Thursday he played on the original “Caddyshack” course at Rolling Hills Golf and Tennis Club, in Davie.
Big wheel deal
Denver’s child acting sensation AnnaSophia Robb is on the cover of Guideposts Sweet 16 magazine. I can’t find a copy and I’m tired of waiting at home for someone to show up with one. But news from Robb is all good.
Her movie “Ferris Wheel” was not shown at Sundance, but it was sold there for $4 million. It stars Charlize Theron as Robb’s mother, who gets caught up with Woody Harrelson’s bad crowd and takes off. She leaves Robb behind to be raised by her uncle, Dennis Hopper.
Watch for Robb’s upcoming flicks: “Bridge to Terabithia,” “The Reaping,” (with Hilary Swank) and “Jumper,” (now in production with Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson and Diane Lane). Nice company.
Paper boy
The Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle, my favorite neighborhood paper, has a new feel to it since former councilman Ed Thomas became editor in chief. For one thing, it’s discontinuing the Bachelor and Bachelorette of the Month feature to make room for “police blotters, on-point editorials, pool and foam parties, and world peace.”
The blotter this month lists the theft of $800 of beef jerky from a service station, the robbery of 70 bottles of tequila from a man’s dining room table and a bar fight at Valverde Country Club.
As for the “on-point editorials,” well, they’re not for sissies. The January issue lambasted former Denver DA and mayoral candidate Norm Early for the job he’s doing as a spokesman for the National Association of DAs. And February’s editorial is much more harsh on auditor Dennis Gallagher, who beat Thomas in the last election. The editorial, signed by Thomas, calls Gallagher a “gross incompetent” and says he created a “revolting mess” in Denver. Sounds more like Ed Anger than Ed Thomas.
City spirit
Denver bigs were in Las Vegas on Thursday night at a cocktail party at Tryst nightclub to celebrate the Vegas merger that created Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck … Sez who: “Remember Danny – Two wrongs don’t make a right but three rights make a left.” Ty Webb
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at husted’s next column at denverpostbloghouse.com/husted.
