Pop Culture Hot List

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Jun 10, 2009

Pop Culture Hot List

Roger Federer

Federer certainly had a better Sunday than security at the French Open. Jimmy Jump, who has made a career out of trespassing onto the fields of various sporting events, got to spend more than 10 seconds with Federer while the No. 2-ranked player was rolling to his record-tying 14th Grand Slam title and first championship at Roland Garros.

Pacman Jones

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was reportedly considering bringing back Adam ''Pacman'' Jones after a review of game tape revealed that the troubled player graded out as the team's best cornerback last season. If Pacman was at the top of the charts, the Cowboys need a new grading system or better corners. Thankfully, Jones backed off his stance and said the Cowboys were no longer in the market for players who spent the offseason training on Pros vs. Joes 4: All Stars.

Rihanna

There doesn't seem to be much truth to the rumors that Rihanna is dating Andrew Bynum, but she was sitting courtside during the NBA Finals and cheering every time Bynum did something, which wasn't often considering he had a combined 14 points and 10 rebounds in the first two games. Then again, if Bynum is seeing Rihanna, we can totally understand the 21-year-old being distracted from the job at hand.

Charlie Murphy (Leroy Smith)

In a time when ads are failing at an all-time rate (thank goodness for TiVo and DVR), Nike's new viral campaign featuring Murphy as basketball motivational trainer Leroy Smith is the funniest thing we've seen since Murphy was telling stories about Rick James and Prince.

Snoop Dogg

How bad are things for the WNBA? NBA commissioner David Stern forgot the name of the WNBA team in Los Angeles during a news conference after the season opener. (It's the Sparks, Commish.) Maybe all the league needs is some celebrity followers, such as Snoop Dogg, a Sparks season-ticket holder who plans to be a courtside fixture like another celebrity at Lakers game. ''I'm going to be the Jack Nicholson of the L.A. Sparks,'' Snoop said.

Sponsorships

With sponsors popping up all over sports, it was only a matter of time before they took over the front of jerseys in the United States like they do in international sports. The WNBA's Sparks and Mercury now have corporate names on their uniforms, which begs the question: How long before struggling NBA teams follow suit? "It won't be in the near future," commissioner David Stern said. Then again, if the economy doesn't pick up, does anyone doubt we'll be seeing a big Payless logo on the front of Clippers jerseys?

Alex Rodriguez & Kate Hudson

Things are apparently heating up for New York's hottest rumored couple. A-Rod and Hudson reportedly hung out Sunday night at catcher Jose Molina's bachelor party in New York, and the actress has been a regular at Yankees games this season. Newsday reported that Hudson met Rodriguez at a hotel party in Miami Beach last November and has been following him on the road during the baseball season. Well, at least A-Rod showed he can be productive in the fall.

Matt Leinart

If the whole NFL quarterback thing doesn't work out for Leinart, perhaps he can try MMA. He's been training this offseason with NFL reporter Jay Glazer, who apparently moonlights as an MMA trainer. Maybe Leinart should try challenging Kurt Warner to a fight in the Octagon for the Cardinals' starting quarterback job this season.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O'Neal

Kareem recently took Shaq to task for ripping Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy on his Twitter account, saying, "Sometimes I wonder about his maturity. He doesn't need to do that. He's achieved so much. I don't know why he stoops to that." Shaq eloquently responded with this Tweet: "I'm gonna cry , yea rt, wanna kno the real its comn frm my shaqberry I'm da reporter now." Yeah, whatever he said.

Zack Morris

There haven't been many highlights on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but we have to commend the rookie talk show host for attempting to reunite the cast of Saved by the Bell. Not only did he take a big step this week in securing commitments from Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Elizabeth Berkley (c'mon, Screech and Kelly), but he also got Gosselaar to do an entire interview as Zach Morris complete with his old whitewashed outfit and bar-stool-sized cell phone.

Pop Culture Hot List