You have to wonder how Denver sportswriter Rick Reilly gets to sleep, he must be smiling so hard. Could anyone have a better start to 2008?
He’s just back from a jaunt around the South Pacific with girlfriend Cynthia Puchniarz. You see, he had to take six months off because of a noncompete clause when he left Sports Illustrated for ESPN — for a reported payday in the millions. He starts writing for ESPN’s magazine June 1, and he’ll be online and on “SportsCenter” and host his own show, called “Homecoming.”
“It’s a cross between ‘Inside the Actors Studio’ and ‘This Is Your Life,’ ” he says. “We’ll take an athlete back to his high school gym and pack it with everyone he knows.”
Reilly’s back in town just in time for today’s opening of “Leatherheads,” a movie he wrote 17 years ago with fellow SI guy Duncan Brantley. Reilly says he made up the title sitting at Zaidy’s one day. The vintage football screwball comedy stars George Clooney, Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski — and it’s a lock to top the box office this weekend.
Reilly and Puchniarz were at the Hollywood premiere Monday night. He said 150 fotogs dropped their cameras in unified boredom when they got out of the limo. (Someone snapped a pity shot.) Inside, they were seated next to Clooney and the entire cast of “The Office” and Kid Rock.
“It’s such a thrill to have the lights go down and have people see something you dreamed up out of whole Miller Lites,” Reilly says. “You just hope it isn’t horrible. I didn’t want to disappoint Kid Rock; he’s done so much for my life.”
Reilly has a cameo in the movie — look for him in the press box when Zellweger walks in. And you can see him at 8:45 this morning on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31, talking movies with Husted.
Stop the music!
Word comes that Bravo Ristorante at the Adam’s Mark Hotel (soon to be a Sheraton) will stop the music after Friday night. For years, the waiters have sung arias and Broadway showtunes during dinner — but not any more they won’t. Which is too bad. Remember Mario’s? Another opera eatery that bit the dust.
Vote early, vote often.
Heidi Montag, the Crested Butte native who stars in “The Hills,” tells Us Magazine that she’s voting for McCain.
When nefarious boyfriend Spencer Pratt warned her against making an endorsement, Montag, in a moment of clear-light lucidity, replied, “I don’t think anyone cares who Heidi Montag votes for!”
City spirit.
5280 and Denver Magazine both hit the stands this week, 5280 branding itself as “Celebrating 15 Years as Denver’s Magazine.” . . . Barolo Grill is shut down Sunday through April 16 for the annual staff trip to Italy. . . . CU-Boulder student Leonard Sun, 19, is a finalist in PETA’s “Cutest Vegetarian Alive” contest. . . . Spike Lee comes to UC Denver on May 1 to talk the talk; tix at Starz FilmCenter box office. . . . Sez who: “Let’s enjoy ourselves, for love burns fast/ A flower that blooms and dies/ It was never meant to last.” “La traviata”
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 bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at /husted.
