MFA in a film flap; Pioli gives Pat answers
DELAY OF PLAY The Museum of Fine Arts' decision to push back a screening of "Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land: US Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," has Northampton filmmaker Sut Jhally crying censorship. The MFA had planned to show the movie last Saturday, but a flurry of angry e-mails made them reconsider. "They wanted us to cancel," the MFA's Susan Longhenry said. "We never considered doing that." She said the museum did change the time to make it possible for Jews who observe the Sabbath to see the movie. (It'll show Sunday at 5:30 p.m.) That doesn't please Jhally, who believes the MFA bowed to pressure by Jewish extremists, and could do so again.
TABLE TALK New WBOS morning gal Amy Brooks hosted a dinner this week for lucky listener Marc Huaman and five of his friends at the Capital Grill in Providence. Their VIP dining companion was Scott Pioli, the New England Patriots' veep for player personnel. When the subject of disgruntled defensive back Ty Law came up, Pioli offered a curt "no comment." He also played it safe on the subject of the upcoming NFL draft, saying the team is "trying to get the best players before anyone else does." Now that's news.
MUST BE ON THE ATKINS DIET In Boston to promote "Walking Tall," wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stopped in at Grill 23 for a bite to eat. With three friends and two bodyguards -- both of them wearing the requisite earpieces -- "The Rock" showed up in a convoy of black SUVs. As the entourage entered the restaurant, one of the guards, speaking into a small microphone, said, "The Rock is in the building." So what does a 6-foot-4, 270-pound guy eat? Prime rib, of course, and lots of it.
COMING ATTRACTION According to the Hollywood Reporter, among the actors set to star in a movie based on Sean Flynn's book, "3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It," are Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson, and possibly Billy Crudup. The movie, to be directed by Danny Boyle, is about the 1999 fire that killed six Worcester firefighters.
ROOM SERVICE Nothing so filling for Missy Elliott, who took up residence yesterday in the Cloud Nine penthouse suite at the Nine Zero Hotel. (She gigged last night at the FleetCenter with Alicia Keys, Beyonce, and Tamia.) We're told the plush suite was stocked with some of Missy's favorite treats including peanut M&Ms and Smart Water.
RIDE ON Six months on a bicycle? "Yeah, that's the plan," says Charlie Hamilton of Bolton, who's ditching his day job as a software engineer to bike to all 30 Major League Baseball parks this summer. "Crazy, isn't it? I came up with the idea after moping around the house, and not liking my job." While there may be easier ways to kick-start one's life than bicycling 11,000 miles, Hamilton is hoping to raise $125,000 for the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, the cycling organization that supports research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. (He's riding in honor of 15-year-old Eric Donovan of Scituate, a big Sox fan who's being treated for a cancerous tumor.) Hamilton hits the road next week, bound for Atlanta and an April 2 exhibition game between the Braves and Bosox. The trip ends Sept. 26 in Boston at a Sox-Yanks game. "I give myself about a 5 percent chance of finishing," he said.
LECTURE ON The National Endowment for the Humanities has named Harvard literature professor Helen Vendler this year's Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities. Vendler will deliver her lecture, on the relationship between the arts and the humanities, drawing on three poems of Wallace Stevens, on May 6 in Washington, D.C. The Jefferson Lecture is the government's highest honor for intellectual achievement in the humanities. Previous lecturers include novelists Saul Bellow and Toni Morrison, playwright Arthur Miller, and historians Barbara Tuchman and David McCullough. Recent lecturers include two of Vendler's fellow Harvard professors, historian Bernard Bailyn and African-American studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. The lecture carries an honorarium of $10,000.
WHAT DO YOU CALL IT? Gotta say, we're not impressed with the suggested titles for the new documentary about the 2003 Red Sox season. "Another Season"? Was it really just another season? (The lame alternatives are "Fenway Blues," "Red Sox Blues," and "This is the Year." Voting at redsox.com ends today at 11 a.m.) Readers checked in with a few ideas of their own, and we like 'em. Bob Digilio suggests "Little Relief" and, still bitter about the outcome, Michael Middleton offers "Much Ado About Nothing."
Geoff Edgers and Mark Feeney of the Globe staff contributed to this column. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.
