Hollywood ending gets thumbs down
HUMAN PRODUCT PLACEMENT Question for Major League Baseball -- Have you no shame? Why, as the Red Sox deliriously celebrated their first World Series win in 86 years Wednesday, were Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore on the field? The two stars were being filmed as our beloved BoSox marked the historic occasion with a group grope near the pitcher's mound. Confused? Appalled? We were, too, so we called Major League Baseball for an explanation. No one called back, of course, but this is what we were able to find out: The producers of "Fever Pitch," the baseball flick filmed recently at Fenway, asked for -- and were granted -- permission from the execs at MLB to film the celebration scene. (It was hastily arranged because the movie was originally about a losing franchise.) So with cameras rolling, there were Fallon and Barrymore in a fake embrace, being doused with champagne along with the real stars, our world champion Boston Red Sox. Between his Game 2 appearance in the Monster seats with Sox-fan-come-lately Tom Hanks and his turf romp with Drew, Fallon got more face time than Kevin Youkilis. By the way, "Fever Pitch" is being produced by Fox 2000, whose corporate kin carried the World Series. Coincidence?
KEEPING SCORE In town for a sold-out reading at Symphony Hall Wednesday night, essayist David Sedaris had a bit of perverse fun playing the anti-fan with a crowd anxious for World Series news. Before the Q & A started, he took a note from offstage. "They just gave me this update on your baseball game," he said, glancing back at the man who passed the note, and pausing dramatically. "He's really dead? . . . Just kidding." After Sedaris delivered the third-inning score -- Sox 3, Cardinals 0 -- the first questioner wanted to know if he is a Sox fan. Yeah, right. "I've never watched a baseball game in my life," he said, then clarified to say that he'd watched bits and pieces of TV games, just to ogle players' bodies. "But I wish you the best. I like Boston more than St. Louis. And I like socks more than cardinals."
TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE Those purveyors of punk, Green Day, watched the Sox sweep the World Series at Smith & Wollensky in Park Square. Billie Joe Armstrong and the boys -- bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool -- didn't reveal whom they were rooting for, but since their CD is called "American Idiot" and the Sox are, well, idiots, it's a no-brainer.
OWNER OCCUPIED "The Oracle of Omaha," billionaire investor Warren Buffett, slipped into town last night to check out the new Jordan's Furniture Superstore in Reading. Don't ask us why, but the complex includes an entire town made of jelly beans -- 11 million of 'em, to be exact -- and features a 40-foot-high Green Monster (just like the one at Fenway) with a likeness of Wally perched on top clutching a Yankee player. Buffett, whose secret ambition was to be a ballplayer, bought Jordan's in 1999, but Eliot and Barry Tatelman still run the joint . . . Waylaid by parade planners yesterday, Mayor Tom Menino missed most of a scheduled Boston Partners in Education event. To the delight of a group of eighth-graders, when he finally did arrive, hizzoner was holding the Sox' World Series trophy.
OCTOBER SURPRISE The Red Sox' winning ways have been a happy windfall for the Jordan Boys & Girls Club in Chelsea. Autographed bats donated before the World Series have fetched $1,000 each in an online auction. (Doesn't hurt that ALCS MVP David Ortiz signed one, and Curt Schilling signed the other.) Still available is a ball autographed by Pedro Martinez, but it'll cost you at least $580.
FOUR TIMES IS A CHARM Auburn real-estate investor Paul Giorgio has climbed Mount Everest three times, and each time done his bit to break the Curse of the Bambino. (Last year, he left a picture of the Babe's ugly mug fluttering at 29,028 feet.) Now that the Sox have it won it all, he can relax, right? Nah. Giorgio checked in yesterday to say he's going back up next spring to plant the World Championship banner, and will arrange live video so Red Sox Nation can watch on the scoreboard at Fenway Park.
