Hack

Last night's opening at the Walnut Street Theater was formally described as a "world premiere. " This would suggest that Dumas, the historical comedy by John MacNicholas, is a new play. Maybe that's part of the joke, because it is hard to find anything new in the work. MacNicholas is a professor of English at the University of South Carolina. What he has given the world in this premiere is a confused piece of academic hack work that borrows inspiration from several sources.

If you saw Tiger Woods' post-Masters TV interview from the Butler Cabin last Sunday, you saw the young titan talk about something near and dear to golfers everywhere. His "A-game. " His 12-stroke victory, he told CBS's Jim Nance, was the first time as a pro that he really had his A-game clicking - well, except for his front-nine 40 in the first round. Ah, the A-game. What golfer alive - regardless of whether he or she is Tiger Woods, a 15-handicapper or the worst weekend hack - doesn't have an A-game, a B-game and a I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it game?

When baseball is played with panache, it looks something like this: The leadoff man triggers the winning rally. The young second baseman whacks a clutch hit in the eighth. The young third baseman powers a ball into the bullpen. The young starter smothers the opposition until the eighth. And the closer picks up another save. So it went yesterday, as the Phillies downed the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2, in a victory that moved reliever Mitch Williams to declare, "The whole attitude of the team has changed in the second half.

When cameraman Garrett Brown chased Sylvester Stallone up the Art Museum stairs in 1975 to bag the signature shot of Rocky (1976), Philadelphia was not on Hollywood's radar. "We hadn't a clue how to host a movie," recalls Brown, a longtime resident of Society Hill. Directors complained of city ineptitude. There was no agency to scout locations, issue permits, or announce that electricians were needed. "Filming here was eccentric and inconsistent until Sharon came along and sorted us out. " That would be Sharon Pinkenson, since 1992 the executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, which is celebrating its silver anniversary.

Even when he makes a simple caper movie, actor/environmentalist Robert Redford cannot resist plugging his favorite causes. In "Sneakers," he plays security expert Martin Bishop, who cut his teeth in college by tapping into the computers of the Republican National Committee and AT&T, and transferring funds to whale-saving organizations and the like. The successful company Bishop founded, along with a former CIA agent (Sidney Poitier), employs a half-dozen borderline-criminal geniuses who are experts in computer hacking, electronic surveillance and audio technology.

ARLINGTON, Texas - His friends in this city between Dallas and Fort Worth, a hybrid of North Texas' boom-and-bust history, talk often of Hunter Pence's assets, a Boy Scout litany of humility, intelligence, determination, strength, and loyalty. But as they also make clear, the story of the newest Phillies favorite is also noteworthy for what he didn't have - the advantages money can buy a baseball prospect. Pence's father, Howard, whose own athletic ambitions were thwarted by polio, supported his family ably, but for the consultant in the wildly fluctuating oil business, some times were better than others.

One of Bill Clinton's best buds, James Carville, is gearing up a p.r. campaign to call independent counsel Kenneth Starr a political hack who's just out to get the Clintons. But this caricature of Mr. Starr, a distinguished attorney with Republican connections, is belied by the fact that Attorney General Janet Reno keeps expanding his authority as new allegations come to light. Clearly, the political hack in this tangle is Mr. Carville, "the Ragin' Cajun" who managed the 1992 Clinton campaign.

The Borough Council voted, 4-0, last night to change a 30-year-old ordinance that barred immigrants who are not yet U.S. citizens from driving taxis. Officials said the restriction, which has not been consistently enforced since it became law in 1969, was a relic of a less tolerant period in the borough's past. Without debate or dissent, the council amended the ordinance, which has been called unconstitutional by the American Civil Liberties Union, to make all legal immigrants eligible for taxi drivers' licenses.

LONDON - Britain's Supreme Court took a step toward exposing the names at the heart of Britain's phone-hacking scandal Wednesday, ruling that a private investigator convicted of eavesdropping for a Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid must reveal who ordered him to do it. Meanwhile, a police investigation into press wrongdoing triggered by the hacking revelations expanded beyond Murdoch's media empire with the arrest of a former reporter from the rival Mirror...

WANTED: 150 men and women to serve as ambassadors of the City of Brotherly Love. This high-profile career is ideal for candidates capable of non-lethal social interaction with tourists, Republicans and drunks, and who possess a marginal fluency in English and a working knowledge of local landmarks and traffic laws. Applicants must enjoy travel and demonstrate ability to read a map. Salary: $1.80 plus 30 cents per 1/6th mile, plus tips. Would-be Philadelphia ambassadors, a/k/a cabbies, can make their application to the state Public Utility Commission starting today.