Channel changes; Goo Goo's are gaga for conventions
MUSICAL CHAIRS Clear Channel Entertainment will announce today that Don Law has a new job and a new title. According to an internal company memo -- it pays to have friends -- Clear Channel is consolidating its international and North American music operations, and Law will be chairman of global music, teaming with president of global music Michael Rapino. (A few weeks ago, we reported that Rapino, Clear Channel's music CEO for Europe, would take a more prominent role overseeing the company's worldwide concert and music business.) Attempts to reach Law, who's been co-CEO of Clear Channel's music division since 2002, were unsuccessful.
LADIES NIGHT The event at the Nantucket home of former ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley and Smith Bagley was supposed to be nonpartisan. But coming on the heels of the DNC, Saturday's soiree of the American Ireland Fund was skewed to the left. Among the 300 or so guests, we spied Democratic Party chair Terry McAuliffe; PBS CEO Pat Mitchell; Kerry money man Bob Crowe; Boston business guy George Cloutier; developer and Kerry friend Bruce Percelay; Channel 5 anchor Natalie Jacobson; Boston Herald columnist Mike Barnicle and wife Anne Finucane; Loretta Brennan Glucksman, chairwoman of the American Ireland Fund; and Riverdance producer Moya Doherty and hubby John McGolgan. Cohosted by Nantucket residents Suzanne Wright, wife of NBC/Universal honcho Bob Wright, and Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth, the night benefited the International Women's Democracy Center.
GO FIGURE In ESPN the Magazine, John Kerry is asked to ID his "Athlete of the 20th Century." Curiously, the candidate picks three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond. Huh? Since Lance Armstrong has won twice as many Tours as LeMond, Kerry must think Armstrong is the "Athlete of the 21st Century." The obvious answer, of course, is Muhammad Ali.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN Oscar winner Chris Cooper and his wife, Marianne Leone Cooper, are always off someplace. Chris Cooper, who turned up at various DNC events, is headed to Texas to film "Syriana" with George Clooney and Matt Damon. Mostly on hiatus since "Seabiscuit," Cooper said there are few quality scripts out there. "Everybody's writing in a state of fear," he said.ENCORE Don't be surprised if the Goo Goo Dolls play a gig at the Republican National Convention, too. The band from Buffalo, which performed at a chichi corporate-sponsored shindig for Kerry last week, has accepted big money to play at the other party's party in New York. But frontman John Rzeznik swears the band will contribute the dough to the Dems. "We're like Castro's secret army," he said.
COMING ATTRACTIONS Now that the FleetCenter has been emptied of delegates, what's next? The Jewish Olympics. Seriously. Billed as the largest organized sports program for Jewish teens in the world, the Jewish Community Centers' Maccabi Games takes over the FleetCenter Aug. 15. That's followed by the artist formerly known as a glyph. Prince plays three shows at the Fleet Aug. 17, 18, and 19.
SIGHTINGS Actress Liv Ullmann and her ex, Boston Park Plaza owner Donald Saunders, were in Gloucester to see Israel Horovitz's new play. . . . Whoopi Goldberg stopped and shopped at Gloucester's new Super Stop & Shop. . . . Congressman Bill Delahunt dined at the Starlight on Nantucket. . . . Cheers owner Tom Kershaw was also on the island.
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