'Fever Pitch' VIP gala's a tough lineup to crack
GUESS LIST Since no one's returning our calls, the details are sketchy on tonight's VIP party at Avalon after the ''Fever Pitch" premiere. But word is a number of celebrity guests -- Ben Affleck, Mark Wahlberg, and Chris Cooper, to name a few -- have RSVP'd they will not attend. Meanwhile, A-list actors Matt Damon and Bill Murray, both of whom have made movies with the Farrellys, are said to be possibilities. So who'll be boogying down at the after-party benefiting the Red Sox Foundation and the Farrellys's favorite charity, the Cape Cod Center for Women? Aside from ''Fever Pitch" stars Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, ''SNL" regular Seth Meyers, Celtics stars Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, and assorted Pats and Sox players seem like good bets. The musical guest? Can't say for sure, but Barrymore's paramour is Fabrizio Moretti, the frizzy-haired drummer for The Strokes, and then there's always Steven Tyler and Aerosmith.
RETURN TO SENDER These are busy days for Patrick Lyons. The nightclub owner is hosting tonight's ''Fever Pitch" party for his friends Bobby and Peter Farrelly, and he's frantically working to get his new sports cafe at Fenway -- called Game On -- ready for the Sox' home opener. Yesterday, the bar stools finally arrived, but Lyons refused delivery because the stools were plastered with ''Made by Yankee Lovers" stickers. (That's what you get for buying furniture from an outfit in Hudson, N.Y.) Lyons demanded the stickers be removed, and sent the folks at L.B. Furniture a picture of the final out of the ALCS.
LOOKING ABBOUDIFUL Who's dressing Johnny Damon these days? On ''Today" and ''Live With Regis and Kelly," the Sox center fielder was stylin' in a brown pinstripe suit and bright orange tie. Later at his book signing, he looked sharp in a shirtless, olive-colored sweater, tan jacket, and brown pants. Turns out the cool threads were supplied by Boston native Joseph Abboud. The men's clothing company's CEO, Marty Staff, even showed up at the Barnes & Noble event to make sure Damon liked the duds, and the gang at the designer's store on Fifth Avenue opened two hours early to let the Damons shop.
LAST WRITES After more than a decade as The Boston Phoenix media critic, Dan Kennedy is leaving the alternative weekly at the end of June to begin life as a visiting professor at his alma mater, Northeastern University. A former winner of the National Press Club's Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism and author of ''Little People: Learning to See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes," Kennedy came to the Phoenix in 1991, and took over its ''Don't Quote Me" media column in 1994. ''I've had a really good run here, and I'm really going to miss it," Kennedy said of his career as a media scrutinizer. ''I think the alternative press is just an incredibly vital part of the media. I wish the Phoenix every bit of good fortune in the future."
PATRIOT-IC ACT Patriots Pro Bowler Larry Izzo and Warrick Dunn of the Atlanta Falcons are on a USO tour and will soon arrive in Afghanistan for the opening of a new USO center honoring Pat Tillman, the onetime football star who was killed in combat in Afghanistan. The NFL donated $250,000, and will name the center at Bagram Air Base near Kabul for Tillman.
NEW HIRE Meanwhile, our benevolent owners, The New York Times, announced yesterday that Byron E. (Barney) Calame, a former deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal, will succeed Daniel Okrent as the paper's public editor. Calame, 65, retired from the Journal. Working outside of the reporting and editing structure at the Times, the public editor receives and answers questions or comments from readers and the public.
Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253. 