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Film Drafts Costner
Script co-written by L.I. native nabs star to play Browns GM
There undoubtedly will be Browns fans who wish Kevin Costner had been the general manager of their team over the last decade or beyond. Costner and Jennifer Garner, star in the upcoming movie “Draft Day,” which will be filming scenes for Ivan Reitman’s can’t-miss project at the Radio City Music Hall draft site a week from Thursday night.
“Costner in a sports movie? I’m on board from Jump Street,” Scott Rothman told the Rumble.
Rothman, a 39-year-old Long Islander, teamed with Rajiv Joseph, a 38-year-old Cleveland playwright, for a brainstorm session, the results of were set in motion in August 2011 when a coed at their grad school, NYU, said to Joseph: “I don’t like football at all, but I do like watching the draft.”
Rothman, a Dolphins fan, needed no convincing.
“It was a slam dunk,” he said. “I saw the whole thing immediately.”
The script originally centered around the Bills, but Cleveland was more advantageous financially than Buffalo. It was optioned to Paramount last summer, and Reitman has pounded the table for it.
“We couldn’t be more excited about this,” Rothman said. “I grew up loving all his movies.”
Boxer in fight for spinal cord research
New York boxer Boyd Melson is fighting for Christan Zaccagnino, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident at age 10. Melson, a 31-year-old West Point graduate who works in the medical supplies sales department for Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey, donates every dollar he earns in the ring as a junior middleweight (10-1) to spinal cord research with the hope that modern medicine will discover a way for Zaccagnino to walk again. His next fight is Oct. 27 at the Barclays Center. Christan told HBO’s “Real Sports,” which airs Tuesday night, that the chance connection with Boyd at a birthday party for her sister 10 years ago was life-altering:
“He didn’t see my chair. He saw Christan,” Zaccagnino said. “It was about, ‘Let’s have fun. Let’s go out. You know, let’s just be, like, two crazy, fun couple.’ You know, that’s it. There was no, ‘Oh, we can’t do that ‘cause of your chair. We can’t do this.’ Boyd will literally pick me up and throw me over his shoulder. He’ll carry me like he’s carrying me over the threshold. If there’s steps someplace we don’t go look for an elevator. He picks me up the steps. I broke my neck at 10, and I had a lot taken away from me. And the day that God gave me Boyd, he gave me all the years I ever missed, back.”
Local golf instructor to speak at forum
Jim McLean, one of golf’s top teachers who started his prestigious career at four Met area clubs, will discuss the Masters and other topics at the 51st annual Met PGA Educational Forum on Tuesday at the Westchester Dinner Theater in Elmsford. Among McLean’s students are Keegan Bradley and Lexi Thompson.
The forum also will honor Mike Summa of Stanwich as professional of the year and Burning Tree’s Danny Balin as player of the year for the second straight year. Other speakers include WNBC’s Bruce Beck and Dr. Joe LaCaze, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL who is a specialist on flexibility, neuromuscular therapy and performance enhancement.
Giants doc helps producer get Emmy nom
Producer Todd Ehrlich is nominated for three New York Emmy Awards for WCBS-TV shows “Tunnel to Towers Memorial Run,” “Race for the Cure” and “Giants Road to Glory,” which followed Big Blue’s Super Bowl XLVI victory.
“I want to wish Todd Ehrlich and the WCBS sports department luck tonight at the Emmys,” Justin Tuck said, “The Super Bowl win against the Patriots will forever be one of my favorite memories. Todd was the first producer to put me on TV and he and the team at CBS2 have always done outstanding work!”
The Emmy Awards are tonight at the Marriott Marquis.
Time to roast rule expert
There will be no “rules’’ when Gene Westmoreland will be roasted and toasted at a dinner hosted by the Met Golf Association on Thursday evening at Winged Foot.
A leading authority on the Rules of Golf, Westmoreland will be saluted for his years of service. Known affectionately as “The General,’’ he was the MGA’s tournament director from 1980-2008, and received the MGA’s Distinguished Service award in 2005. He recently published a book entitled, “A Game For Life: Golf’s Rules and Rewards.’’
Boomer, Simms at SIDS event
Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason shared the stage to honor marketing agent, Steve Rosner, at the CJ Foundation for SIDS “Excellence In Giving” evening. After Rosner’s partner Frank Vuono introduced the former QBs to the crowd of 250, Esiason and Simms threw some playful verbal jabs about who has had received more endorsements since their playing careers ended.
Also in the crowd were 16W clients Howie Long, Beasley Reece and Giants announcer Bob Papa.