Feeling presidential; Damon at the diamond
THAT'S THE TICKET Who better to comment on Kerry/Edwards than Kerry Edwards. We reached her yesterday in Calais, Maine, where she works in an optometrist's office. "I was in the airport recently in Cincinnati, and a guy asked me if anybody had ever commented on my name," Edwards said. "No one had, but I guess they will now." (According to switchboard.com, there are 53 listings of Kerry Edwards in the country.) In Niantic, Conn., special education teacher Kerry Edwards said she was "totally psyched" when someone text-messaged her with the news. "I was, like, cool, I'm going to be president," she said. "Now, how do I get a bumper sticker with my name on it?" And in Wellington, Ohio, one of a handful of battleground states, Republican Kerry Edwards was sounding like a swing voter yesterday. "I'll probably vote for them," Edwards said. "With a name like that, I can't go wrong."
BATTER UP In town to promote his latest film, "The Bourne Supremacy," Matt Damon made a stop yesterday afternoon to take a little batting practice at Fenway Park. Damon, who took part in the celebrity batting competition during the 1999 All-Star Game festivities at Fenway, has been a lifelong Sox fan, albeit a little less publicly than his "Good Will Hunting" buddy Ben Affleck. . . . Earlier in the day, Damon sampled from chef Bill Poirer's summer menu at Sonsie. His lunch included the hearty country-roast chicken with mashed potatoes, buttermilk biscuit, and gravy, washed down with a Diet Coke. Damon told Sonsie GM Steve Coyle, "I'm thrilled to be home."
STILL, THEY GIVE With a $10,000 check for the Red Sox Foundation in hand, the makers and stars of the Sox documentary "Still, We Believe," which chronicled the team's season last year, made a stop at Fenway before last night's game against Oakland. Ponying up the check to the team were Hart Sharp president Joe Amodei, the film's producer, Bob Potter, and its director, Paul Doyle. The movie became available on DVD yesterday.
SCHOOL UNIFORM Interviewed in the new issue of Interview magazine, Harvard grad Natalie Portman casts aspersions on her alma mater's commitment to diversity. The actress says for all the talk about an "international student body," undergrads at Harvard tend to be rich or super rich. "[Colleges] boast about how many countries they have represented . . . but what they don't tell you is that those students are vacationing together in places like Saint-Tropez," Portman says. "[At Harvard], class diversity is practically nonexistent. It's disappointing, particularly at a place that's really devoted to providing you with an outlook on the world."
BIG-SCREEN SAMMY Variety reports that A-list actor Denzel Washington will produce and direct a movie based on former Boston Globe reporter Wil Haygood's book, "In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr." The Candy Man lived on Columbus Avenue as a teen in the 1940s, but there's no word on whether scenes will be shot here.
ON THE BALLOT IN 2040? Mayor Tom Menino and his wife, Angela, added a familiar name to the family yesterday. Six-pound, 13-ounce Thomas Michael Menino III was born to Lisa and Thomas M. Menino Jr. at Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. The newest addition is the couple's third child and first son.
DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY Admit it. Somewhere on the floor at the back of your closet you've got a pair of spats or saddle oxfords just waitin' to be danced in. Well, if you're a young-at-heart Cole Porter fan with a little Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers in your feet, tonight's the night. Bill and Bo Winiker and their eight-piece Big Band will be playing their weekly gig on a rig, which is to say they play on a barge floating alongside Rowes Wharf and the Boston Harbor Hotel. On the outdoor patio at Intrigue, the young at heart can dance to the Winikers playing swinging renditions of "Anything Goes," "Night and Day," and everything else from the soundtrack of "De-Lovely," the chic biopic about composer-lyricist Cole Porter (played by Kevin Kline) and his wife (Ashley Judd). If it rains, the event is canceled.
Jack Thomas of the Globe staff contributed to this column. Names can be reached at names@globe .com or at 617-929-8253.
