At 100, he's got game

By Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein  |  July 9, 2009

Roger Gentilhomme of Falmouth matched wits and racquets with Regis Philbin during an appearance yesterday on “Live! With Regis and Kelly.’’ Gentilhomme, who still plays tennis at age 100 and was profiled in the Globe last month, was on the show to watch a tape of his recent tennis match against Philbin. Roger Federer and Andy Roddick they aren’t, but Gentilhomme held his own against Reg.

Hanging with the band

Latin pop group Aventura, a bilingual boy band that has worked with Akon, Wyclef Jean, and Ludacris, brought out about 500 giddy fans to FYE Boston for a record signing yesterday. “It’s pretty big for us,’’ said an overwhelmed employee. “I’m swamped.’’

David Beckham is no fan of the Sheraton Hotel in Braintree. The soccer star, who bunked there while playing with the Los Angeles Galaxy, was apparently appalled at the accommodations. “The Sheraton Hotel . . . may be the worst Sheraton in America,’’ writes Grant Wahl, who traveled with Beckham while writing the new book “The Beckham Experiment: How the World’s Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America.’’ Accustomed to four-star accommodations, Beckham did a double-take when the team arrived at the Braintree hotel, thinking for a minute he’d been “Punk’d by Ashton Kutcher.’’ It is the kind of hotel that serves cubicle-dwellers from Syracuse in dandruff-speckled sport coats on a five-day, five-city New England business trip,’’ Wahl writes of the Sheraton. He says the hotel, located just of I-93, is “bathed in car-exhaust fumes’’ and had a “poorly lit lobby paneled in the cheap-looking wood that you might have seen on the side of a 1970s station wagon.’’ He’s shocked at “Soviet-era toilet paper’’ and the food. “The final straw was the pregame meal, which was (no lie) plates of greasy fried chicken.’’ According to Wahl, Beckham’s teammate Abel Xavier took one look at his plate and exploded: “This is not correct!’’ We tried to get the Sheraton’s general manager to weigh in yesterday, but he didn’t return our call.

Aerosmith continues to postpone concerts while Steven Tyler recovers from an undisclosed injury. Tonight’s gig in Charlotte, N.C., marks the fifth show that the Boston band has postponed because of the injury. Guitarist Joe Perry took to Twitter to address disappointed fans: “Sincere apologies out 2 all Aero Fans regarding the canceled shows. It really bums me out too - you have no idea. Pray 4 Stevens speedy return.’’ According to Rolling Stone, fans at Aerosmith’s June 29 show at Mohegan Sun reported seeing Tyler suffer some sort of leg injury. Coincidentally, Tyler’s pulled up lame just as guitarist Brad Whitford was slated to return from a head injury.

Are you completely insufferable? Boston Casting wants you. Angela Peri of Boston Casting is holding two open calls next week for a new reality show on Spike TV that is looking to showcase America’s biggest jerks and jokers. Bring a photo and bio to Boston Casting on Monday or to Red Sky at Faneuil Hall on Wednesday.

If you didn’t snag tickets to the Billy Joel/Elton John show before it sold out, you’re in business. Hundreds more tickets to Saturday’s show at Gillette Stadium will be released today at noon via Ticketmaster. Apparently production crews measured the stage, laid out sight lines, and determined that several hundred more tickets could be sold.

A tale of two Titos

No, the Tito Jackson who is running for Boston City Council is not the Tito Jackson who was in the front row at this week’s memorial service for Michael Jackson. And, no, the council candidate insists he was not trying to capitalize on MJ’s death when he kicked off his campaign right after MJ’s death. “We’re all praying for Michael’s family,’’ the candidate told us. “My website has been up for several weeks, and I pulled my papers in May, so the timing was just a coincidence.’’ One Tito Jackson was raised in Dorchester, graduated from UNH, and serves in Governor Deval Patrick’s administration. The other Tito Jackson grew up in Gary, Ind., and plays bass. But what about the candidate’s campaign platform, which is dubbed “Jackson’s 5-point plan’’? Hmm. “Yes, it’s a clever play on words,’’ said Cedric Sinclair, one of the candidate’s campaign aides. “But it was created a long time before the unfortunate passing of Mr. Jackson.’’

TD Banknorth Garden president John Wentzell yesterday displayed the five golden tickets that will be shipped to Hebert’s Candy Mansion in Shrewsbury. A la Willy Wonka, the candy maker will insert the tickets into 19,600 chocolate bars, and the bars will be handed out next week. All five lucky winners will get a behind-the-scenes tour, and one gets two season tickets to every Garden event in 2009-10.

Sean Duffy - as in, Sean the conservative guy from “The Real World: Boston’’ - announced yesterday he’s running for Congress in his home state of Wisconsin. After filming the reality television show in the Hub, Duffy went on to marry Rachel Campos - as in, Rachel the conservative girl from “Real World: San Francisco.’’ They live with their kids in Ashland, Wisc.

Read the Names blog at www.boston.com/namesblog. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.