Pop Culture Hot List

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Sep 16, 2008

Pop Culture Hot List

LeBron James

King James was brought to tears at the Toronto International Film Festival last week as he watched the world premiere of "More Than a Game," a documentary that follows he and his friends from grade school to St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. "This is the first time I've cried, in basketball or anything, since we lost that national championship game in eighth grade," he said. "This is authentic."

Chris Cooley

So Cooley likes to study his playbook while he's naked. He also likes blogging about what's in his playbook, complete with pictures. While a bit odd, they seem harmless on their own until you start taking pictures of your playbook on your naked lap, accidentally revealing something more provocative than a two-tight end set, and posting it on your blog. Cooley has apologized for the mishap.

Francisco Rodriguez

K-Rod set the major league record for saves in a season last week with 58, a number that should balloon past 65 before the end of the season. I sat down with "Nene" before he set the record and he told me, "I never really thought about it. I still don't to be honest. When I retire I just want to be thought of as one of the top three best closers in baseball history."

Charlie Weis

First Tom Brady, now Weis, if I'm Bill Belichick, I'm going to be extra careful walking on the sidelines this week. It seems like karma is finally rearing its ugly head at anyone connected with "Spygate."

Jessica Simpson

Why haven't we seen any Jessica Simpson sightings at Cowboys games since she flashed her pink Romo jersey during a loss to Philadelphia last year? Is she doing a good job of hiding or are networks not interested in showing her? Either way, Romo's girl was right in picking the Cowboys to beat the Eagles, even though they didn't exactly kick their butt as she predicted.

Michael Phelps

Aquaman didn't bring the house down with his "Saturday Night Live" debut, then again no one really thought he would. But like a good team, rallying around an inexperienced player, the rest of the cast of SNL shined. Tina Fey as Sarah Palin is the best non-"viral video" sketch the show has had in years.

Ed Hochuli

His massive guns aside, there's no excuse for missing what clearly looked like a fumble by Jay Cutler at the end of a classic game between the Broncos and Chargers. Would anyone have blamed Hochuli if he would have just done the right thing and given the ball to the Chargers? If I'm an official, I'd rather feel the consequences of that "error" rather than feeling like I essentially stole a win from a team.

Jeremy Roenick

Before EA Sports released "NHL 09" this week, they invited Jeremy Roenick for a motion capture session in Vancouver to make the game seem more realistic. While the game looks great, I still long for the pixilated version of "NHL 94" that was made famous in "Swingers" when Vince Vaugn, playing with the Chicago Blackhawks, says, "It's not so much as it's Roenick," as he's destroying the "finesse" Kings with Wayne Gretzky. "My abilities in Sega Genesis were all time," he told me. "I became friends with Vince Vaugn a few years later and he told me that he grew up in Chicago and he had to put me in the movie in someway just out of respect so I thought that was cool."

Megan Fox

Fox looks amazing on the cover of "GQ" this month and sounds even more amazing as she drops such bombs as "[expletive] Disney" and "Who's given a [expletive] since seventh grade? Not me." Yeah, good stuff.

TRL

The show that was on my television through high school and college is finally coming to an end this year. To be honest, I wasn't even aware the show was still on. I hadn't watched it since Carson Daly left, but it's too bad a new generation of kids will have to find someplace else in New York to hold their signs and squeal out shout-outs.