CBS3 is running low on sports anchors, after parting ways with Steve Bucci. Weekender Don Bell, a logical fill-in, has to entertain house movers tomorrow and is unavailable.
Action!
Veteran actors
Peter O'Toole and Philly-bred
Jon Polito, plus young hotties
Emmanuelle Vaugier and
Ross Thomas, are part of the cast of
Baton, an independent film with an impressive $8.8 million budget, going before cameras here in August.
Baton, directed by
Jeffrey F. January (TV's
Friday Night Lights) and written by
Sam Freas, is set amid the antiwar movement of the 1960s as it tells of four Abington High runners (two white and two black, two of whom are Quakers) who win at the 1965 Penn Relays. Producers are Old City banker
Scott Kuhn and
Michael Fitzgerald, a friend from Ireland.
Andrzej Sekula, who worked on
Reservoir Dogs, will be director of photography. Thomas has the lead. O'Toole plays a Quaker who runs a peace organization in Canada, and Vaugier is his young wife. Polito will be a Franciscan friar/soccer coach. Mike Lemon Casting plans to announce a call for local actors.
The Greater Philadelphia Film Office is backing a rally Tuesday in Harrisburg to push for two state House bills offering incentives to filmmakers. Free rides are offered. See www.film.org.
Behind in her work
Sarah Schmalbach gives more than just her brain cells to Philadelphia Style mag, where she's Web editor. She's also lent her posterior. That's hers, modeling a $249 pair of Acne jeans, on the cover of the new "Best of 2007" issue. (It hit the street Thursday at a hot party at the Crystal Tea Room.) Editor-in-chief
Sarah Schaffer says she'd gone the agency route to scout a suitable tush but emerged bummed. "Not that we check out each other's behinds around here," says Schaffer, but colleagues noticed Schmalbach in a similar pair of jeans and thought she'd fill the bill. "Happy to help," Schmalbach says.
