St. Petersburg Times Online: Business

Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Sideshow: Gumbel, Marino go from cleats to gumshoes

By SHARON FINK, Times Staff Writer
Published October 9, 2005

It's not too late to get a copy of the special-edition cover of the latest TV Guide with Greg Gumbel and Dan Marino recreating a 1985 Miami Vice cover with Philip Michael Thomas and Don Johnson.

"Don used to watch our practices," said Marino, who was in the Dolphins quarterback phase of his career at that time. "I never had the chance to throw Sonny Crockett a pass. Then again, he never had to bust me, either."

That's almost poetic compared with Gumbel's reaction.

"When they first told me about it, I was all psyched because I saw the (original) picture, and they had guns," he told Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal. "And I said, "Can I bring my own?' "

ENOUGH ABOUT THAT GOLF STUFF: Michelle Wie not only could be the next Tiger Woods, she could be the next Serena Williams. And Kate Hudson. Even Justin Timberlake.

Wie has signed with venerable Hollywood management agency William Morris, which has among its few sports clients Williams, who squeezes in tennis when she's not acting, starring in a reality TV show, designing clothes and hawking cosmetics.

Also part of the appeal for Wie: "My agent says he might be able to arrange for me to meet Brad Pitt!" she told Forbes magazine.

Wie has hired Timberlake's image consultant to help her remake herself. "My homework assignment is ripping pictures out of Us Weekly - you know, to figure out what my style is going to be," she said. "You know Kate Hudson? I love her look."

Wie has a few ideas of what her new style on the course should be. She wants to get rid of the baseball hats and wear newsboy caps, like Jennifer Lopez. She wants sponsor Nike to design hip minidresses for her, and is considering a golfing cowboy boot.

"How cool is that?" she said.

WHO NEEDS A LIFE? Not you. That's why in less than a minute you'll be headed to www.mobileespn.com to get in on the limited early holiday sales of ESPN's new cell phone.

No word on whether it rings with the SportsCenter theme, but it can give you scores, headlines, Gamecast live representation of games, video clips, highlights, commentary, analysis, sports alerts and fantasy updates.

"We've all had that Saturday afternoon commitment that kept us from the big game," ESPN Mobile honcho Manish Jha told the Hollywood Reporter. "We are positioning the service and our marketing around the idea that life will never get in the way of sports again."

The phone goes into wide release Feb.5.

BEHIND EVERY JUICED MAN IS A WOMAN WHO DID THE JUICING: How can Congress be against steroids when they promote strong marriages - sometimes.

In her new book, Juicy: Confessions of a Former Baseball Wife, Jose Canseco's second ex-wife, Jessica, says she delivered Jose's first steroid injection and the routine that developed brought them closer.

Then again, the Associated Press says in a review of the book (we're not going to spend money on it), she writes that Jose also cheated on her and was insensitive in bed.

Sharon Fink can be reached at 727 893-8525 or fink@sptimes.com

© Copyright, St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.