Tag Archives: John McEnroe

The look

I’m attending the US Open tonight.  Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic are slated to play (not each other) on center court at Arthur Ashe stadium.

It’s always a thrill to watch the top seeds LIVE under the lights.

But if you’ve caught any of the tournament coverage to date, you may have noticed a bizarre preoccupation on behalf of the announcers.  Not on stats or seeds or rivalries or revenge.

This year, it’s all about ‘what you’re wearing.’

John and Patrick McEnroe have anointed themselves the unofficial Joan and Melissa Rivers of ESPN2.  They’ve been doling out fashion advice to male and female tennis players pretty much every match.

Nadia Petrova’s striped tennis dress was deemed ‘too loud; she really needs to seek out some help.’  They seemed to find her outfit a bigger problem than her defeat to Andrea Petkovic. I’ll admit — the stripes aren’t my favorite, either.  But going on and on about her outfit seemed a bit like rubbing salt in the womb after she lost in a three-set tiebreaker.

Rafa Nadal’s neon tennis shoes were ‘a risk, but a good one.’  They did match his outfit, which I thought was cool since there wasn’t a stitch of white on him.  But his match with Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia was surprisingly competitive — I would have liked to have heard a bit more about this relative unknown.

Even in Andy Roddick’s late night upset by Janko Tipsarevic, there was as much talk about the many tats that Tipsarevic was ‘wearing’ as the lack of energy in Roddick’s game.

I know this is a change of pace for me.  Here I am asking for depth when shallowness is being offered.

But we’re talking John McEnroe here — the snarliest man in sports telling people how to dress and shape their image on the court.  Granted, both his look and personality have improved with age, but I don’t think anyone thinks of him as a style icon.

As we say in the country, ‘it’s hard to escape your raising.’

Run to NYC

Living in New York City, I see celebrities fairly often.

Sometimes they are simply walking down the street in my neighborhood.  Jerry Seinfeld, John McEnroe, and Kevin Bacon live within 2-3 blocks of me, so it’s not uncommon to see them with their kids.

Other times I see celebrities in the Times Square area in a bar or restaurant. I saw Daniel Radcliffe of “Harry Potter” fame get carded at a bar — by my friend Lucas, who was bartending — one of my favorite New York moments.  And, of course, I have seen them from time to time when I do extra work on a movie or TV show.

But this week, I have discovered a new venue for celebrity sightings, and I wanted to pass this along to anyone coming to Manhattan for a visit.

A great place to see celebrities in NYC?  The horse path in Central Park between 7-8am.

The past two mornings, the weather has been cool and brisk, and Rory Dog and I have been up early with all the other dogs and their people in the park.  On Thursday morning, I saw a group of four runners go by, and one of them — I’m darn certain — was actor James McAvoy, who starred in “The Last King of Scotland,” “Atonement,” “Becoming Jane,” and “Wanted.”

I’m guessing the other runners were a combination of trainers/bodyguards in case a fan like me decided to take chase.

I don’t know that I would thought much about it except this morning, as Rory and I were walking along in the sunshine, I noticed another group of four runners similarly dressed coming towards me, and I wondered if it might be McAvoy again.  But when I looked closer, I realized one of the runners was Adrien Brody, who won an Oscar for “The Piano.”

Maybe both actors are staying at the same hotel or working with the same gym;  I don’t know.  But they are sending the celeb’s out in the park on the Upper West Side for their early morning runs.

Just so you know.  In case ya wanna take a gander.

That’s New York City.  Always something to see.