Get ready for more obnoxious name dropping as I walk down memory lane of covering the celebrity field of the Bob Hope Classic and now Humana Challenge for The Desert Sun since 2000.
IT’S NOT JACK IN A BOX: One of the biggest stars who play during my tenure here was Justin Timberlake, who was in the celebrity field twice. The first time he was here, he was part of N’Sync. He is a pretty impressive golfer, but that’s not what all the screaming girls where interested in. To try to get the girls to settle down, he promised at one of the courses that he would meet his fans by the putting green after his round. Well, when he was done, it was about 10 deep around the putting green. I heard he stayed around and signed away for every single fan.
EARLY MORNING TO LATE NIGHT: One of my favorite celebrities was Jimmy Fallon. This was after his run at Saturday Night Live, but before he started hosting Late Night. What makes him so popular is that he’s a genuinely nice guy who is trying to connect with people. But the rumors were circulating when he was at the Hope, and he said they were interesting and said no one talked to him.
YOU SAID: I remember driving into covering the Hope one year, and while fans were crossing the street in front of me, there was this one girl who looked a lot like Lisa Loeb. Later, I realized it really was her. She was dating one of the celebrities in the field, Dweezil Zappa, who is the son of Frank Zappa. And that was a treat watching many of the senior volunteers wonder out loud who would name their child Dweezil. I don’t remember much about the story, but Loeb was really sweet about it and a good sport. Loeb’s hit song “Stay” broke in 1994 and was part of the “Reality Bites” soundtrack. She became the first artist to have a No. 1 single despite not being signed to a record label.
Here’s a link to Stay. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka9mCmx9Jhs
DANIEL SIMSON DAY, WHEREABOUTS … KNOWN: One of my favorite movies is Animal House, but that came out in 1978. So most people might know Bruce McGill for any of his numerous other roles. To me, he will always be D-Day from Animal House. He played here twice, and he was always happy to play the William Tell Overture on his throat, just like D-Day in the movies. Here’s the clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfOKmr64k_I
ALICE COOPER: The best celebrity every year to work with is Alice Cooper. He always gives you a thoughtful, or at least funny, answer. One story I did on Alice that had legs was when he talked about his stage show, when his daughter came on dressed like Britney Spears. So Alice winds up getting her on the guillotine and beheads her. And Alice’s line, and I’m paraphrasing, “Like everyone else, I want to see her topless.”
DR. J ON HOWARD AND THE HAMMER: Last year, former NBA great Julius Erving had pointed remarks for Dwight Howard, who was then a disgruntled player with the Orlando Magic. “I don’t know what’s going on in Dwight’s head. He has a great situation. What does he want?” said Erving, who resides in Orlando. “I don’t think you go find a championship team to be on, you lead your team to a championship if you’re a true Hall of Famer. He might have to change his mentality.” A year earlier, Erving was in GQ as one of the coolest athletes ever. Who did Dr. J think was a cool athlete that he looked up to? Palm Springs’ Fred “The Hammer” Williamson.
