The Mashup: Where sports and pop culture collide
Congrats, Jayhawks.
Mario Chalmers will be a hero in Lawrence for the rest of his life.
Rising
•The Royals: They’re at the top of the division, and the music at Kauffman Stadium was good for a few laughs on opening day. When Joey Gathright stole second in the first inning the Ludacris song “Act a Fool” played — which was appropriate because it features the lyrics, “I’m too fast; too furious … I’m too fast for y’all.”
And when Jose Guillen stepped to the plate, the White Stripes song “Seven Nation Army” played. Some of the lyrics in that song are, “I’m goin’ to Wichita.” But Guillen better not be going to Wichita or else his signing will have been a waste of $36 million.
Holding steady
•Kobe Bryant: The Lakers are in contention for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, and Bryant is in contention for an MVP. Now he’s in a cool new shoe commercial — which you can see on YouTube — where an Aston Martin comes speeding toward him, and he jumps over it. By the way, this looks as if it was done with special effects. There’s no way Kobe stood in front of a speeding car to sell shoes.
He’s just holding steady, though. Because if those shoes cost as much as I think they’re going to cost — somewhere around $100 — then I’m not buying them. It wouldn’t matter how cool the ad looked.
• Julianne Hough: She won “Dancing with the Stars” with sports celebrities Apolo Anton Ohno and Helio Castroneves. Now she’s going to sing the national anthem at the Indy 500. Holding steady, because — as Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and a lot of others have proved — just because you can dance doesn’t mean you can sing.
Slipping
•Justin Timberlake: He was at the NCAA championship game on Monday wearing Memphis Tigers gear. Too bad.
•Terrell Owens: Over the past year, all the news about T.O. had been related to his play. He had to go and ruin it getting a role as a guest star on the upcoming TV show “Under One Roof,” which stars Flavor Flav.
Uggh.
Nothing wrong with T.O. giving acting a shot, he can’t be any worse as a football player turned actor than, say, Lawrence Taylor. But Flavor Flav? Am I the only one who wishes Flavor Flav would act as if he had sense? Or maybe he could act like a tree — and (say it with me) leave.
To reach Greg Moore send e-mail to gmoore@kcstar.com
