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DOUGHERTY: Cuban the top Cub? ... and TV, movie haircuts |
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Tuesday, 09 October 2007 |
 Mike Dougherty
Since then, you may have heard of him signing Dennis Rodman to play for the Mavericks and then inviting the red-wigged, male bride-model-basketball player to live with him in his house until he got settled. (The Rodman experiment lasted only a few games, but the venture showed Cuban’s willingness to do whatever was necessary to help his team.)
You may have heard about Cuban rooting for his team from the sidelines or from the cheap seats. It’s possible that you heard of him criticizing the NBA commissioner and the league officials regularly and having paid the league numerous fines totaling well past $1 million.
Well, now Cuban has told reporters (and anyone else interested) that he may throw his cash in the pot in trying to buy the Chicago Cubs from the Tribune Co., which has announced that it will place the National League team, now 101 years away from its last World Series championship, on the block.
Cuban, the 40-something billionaire, said he is considering getting involved in the bidding for the Cubs. He said he’s waiting for the newspaper conglomerate to post the terms for the sale before making his decision.
He said that if he does wind up buying the Cubs, he won’t be anywhere near the dugout pestering the manager. He’ll be in the right-field bleachers, what he calls the best place for watching a baseball game.
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Have you noticed how movies involving branches of our military service or new prison “inductees” usually have “G.I.” haircuts on everybody but the star of the film?
Let’s see, in military references ... Frank Sinatra in “From Here to Eternity,” Elvis Presley in “G.I. Blues” Richard Gere in “An Officer and a Gentleman” and Bill Murray in “Stripes” come to mind right away.
And, plumbing the depths of prison movie files, Elvis had his hair short only on the sides when his character, Vince Everett, valiantly went to prison for killing a man with his fists while defending a woman’s honor in a bar at the beginning of “Jailhouse Rock.” It was a similar situation for Tim Robbins in “The Shawshank Redemption.”
I’m sure there are other examples in both types of movies. Likely, exceptions are available, too, but I thought it looked hokey for everyone but Murray to be sporting a buzz cut in “Stripes.” The others mentioned in the starring roles likely could have made a case that they were teen heartthrobs at the time and that a severe change in hair length would affect record sales or movie ticket sales. (As a possible example in that reasoning, does anyone remember the uproar that Mia Farrow, white-hot teen star as Allison Mackenzie on the twice-a-week prime-time soap series, “Peyton Place,” caused when she stunned everyone by having her long blonde hair cut off when she returned to work after a short, summer hiatus from shooting?
Then she married Frank Sinatra, at least 30 years her senior, seemingly to really get under the skin of the show’s producers. She was written out the show mysteriously soon after that — her character left town and never came back. A woman came to town years later, though, claiming to have the baby born to Allison.
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“Across the Universe,” a movie musical based on Beatles songs, premieres in some places on Friday. Unfortunately, Benton and Little Rock don’t appear to be among them. But the film, directed by Julie Taymor, perhaps best known for directing The Lion King on Broadway, will get to central Arkansas eventually, so watch for it. Reviews indicate that it is a feast for the eyes, ears and mind.
Mike Dougherty is city editor of the Courier. His column appears Sunday, Thursday and some days in between.
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