Tom Mccarthy

Carla Belver has fretted and fussed over Tom McCarthy onstage for many years. Act II Playhouse's production of Ernest Thompson's On Golden Pond marks the fourth time the actors have been paired as husband and wife (including turns as Linda and Willy Loman in the Arden Theatre's 1996 Death of a Salesman). Considering their easy rapport, the sweet-and-sour balance of Belver's plucky Ethel and McCarthy's dyspeptic Norman Thayer, it's as though the actors have gone and made it official.

The Phillies and WPHT (1210-AM) announced a 1-year contract extension yesterday that will keep live game coverage on the station. The new agreement takes effect in February and includes exhibition, regular-season and postseason games. The current agreement was set to expire at the end of the postseason. Financial terms were not disclosed. With the beginning of the postseason, television coverage shifts to the national networks with their announcers. The Phillies' radio and TV crew - Scott Franzke, Larry Andersen, Tom McCarthy, Chris Wheeler and Gary Matthews - all will be involved in coverage on WPHT.

"The Philly Fan" is a one-man show starring veteran actor Tom McCarthy, but the Daily News can certainly be considered an uncredited co-star. Throughout the production, headlines and articles from the People Paper are displayed on a video screen to supplement McCarthy's dialogue. They include: _ A series of stories whose headlines chronicle the Phillies' epic 1964 collapse, during which they blew a 6 1/2-game lead with 12 left to play. _ The iconic photo of Tug McGraw holding the Oct. 22, 1980, edition with its "We Win!"

Nondescript perfectly describes Richard Jenkins, whose rueful face is familiar even if his name is not. He's of the Gene Hackman school, low-key and unassuming, creator of characters of secondary importance who stay with you long after you've left the movie. In The Visitor , an offbeat humanist fable gently critical of bureaucracies that dehumanize, Jenkins at long last takes the lead. And, as the 60-year-old actor has demonstrated in film after film, his quiet presence has more authority and colors than the showiest, noisiest of emotional fireworks.

The Phillies will share their whoop-de-doo with a rolling rally looping around Center City early this afternoon. On board a 33-foot trolley, bearing a city promotional slogan "With Love, Philadelphia XOXO," will be the Phanatic, ballgirls, broadcasters Tom McCarthy and Larry Anderson, as well as various officials and media notables, including ex-Phils pitcher Ricky Bottalico. They'll be stoking up fans in anticipation of the playoffs, which begin Saturday with a 5:07 p.m. game at Citizens Bank Park.

Harry Kalas always expected to be in the broadcast booth at Citizens Bank Park. It became official yesterday. The Phillies announced that Kalas had signed a three-year contract with the team. They also announced that they have named their restaurant in the park's Ashburn Alley after him. It will be called Harry the K's. "I'm really excited about opening the new ballpark," Kalas, 67, said yesterday in a teleconference. "I felt like it was going to happen. It took a little longer than I anticipated, but I really felt like it was going to happen.

"Golf is something to do while we're waiting for something to happen," says one of the characters in Golf With Alan Shepard, the play at Act II Playhouse. This is one of many amusing quips salted throughout Carter W. Lewis' piece about four elderly golfers going 18 holes while discussing their lives. The line doesn't have much significance, but it does suggest the experience of attending the play. The golf game is clearly something to watch the characters do while we're waiting for something to happen.

Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy did pregame and postgame work in the playoffs and World Series. During the games, he was able to roam the ballpark. His favorite memory from the 2008 World Series championship season came as he watched the second inning of Game 2 of the National League division series from a suite down the left-field line at Citizens Bank Park. That was the inning when Brett Myers drew a wild, nine-pitch walk against CC Sabathia, and Shane Victorino belted a grand slam.

From Chaucer's indulgence-peddling pardoner in The Canterbury Tales to the high-pressure huckstering of some of today's televangelists, the gap between what some clergymen practice and what they preach has always been rich terrain for the cynicism of satirists and the ire of moralists. It's to David Rambo's credit that he doesn't take the easy way out with another tirade in God's Man in Texas. But his thoughtful drama of the struggle for the pastoral succession at a flagship church of Southern Baptism in Houston also ultimately ducks the hard question raised by the conflict: what men of God who profess to follow the penurious example of Jesus should do with material wealth.

Never mind that Peter Dinklage is a foot or so shorter than most actors who get to star in movies these days. Dinklage - with an intense, inward gaze and a relaxed way when he shrugs off the stares and occasional abuse of passersby - is a dwarf. In The Station Agent, a quiet, beautiful little film about friendship, family, loneliness and trains, the actor commands the screen with the easy aplomb of a true star. It's the old cliche, but (like most cliches) it's true: It's impossible to imagine this picture without this actor.

Jesus Colon's impressive pitching stats continued to pile up on Tuesday as the Phelps senior missed a perfect game by a first-inning error and blanked visiting Westtown, 10-0, in a six-inning nonleague baseball game. Colon struck out 15 of the 19 batters he faced and has posted back-to-back shutouts this spring with 26 strikeouts in 11 innings and just one hit allowed. Phelps' Cale Adams went 3 for 4 with a double and three runs scored. In other nonleague action, Nick Bateman lined a two-run triple to break a sixth-inning tie and send Malvern Prep to a 9-6 triumph over visiting St. Joseph's Prep.

The Phillies will share their whoop-de-doo with a rolling rally looping around Center City early this afternoon. On board a 33-foot trolley, bearing a city promotional slogan "With Love, Philadelphia XOXO," will be the Phanatic, ballgirls, broadcasters Tom McCarthy and Larry Anderson, as well as various officials and media notables, including ex-Phils pitcher Ricky Bottalico. They'll be stoking up fans in anticipation of the playoffs, which begin Saturday with a 5:07 p.m. game at Citizens Bank Park.

There's now a show before the show at Citizens Bank Park. It started at the end of July and should continue at least through the 2013 season. Arrive early enough and you'll get to see Hunter Pence's warm-up act as he turns the ballpark into his personal launching pad. During the Phillies' 10-game road trip after they acquired Pence from Houston at the trade deadline, broadcaster Tom McCarthy kept talking about the Pence Show. "I saw it here for the first time," McCarthy said.

WRITER, ACTOR, director and former Jersey grappler Tom McCarthy had a tough time finding the right kid to play a key role in his wrestling-themed "Win Win. " He first went with professionals and found that they were way too cosmopolitan to play the small-town teen he wanted. "You meet these kids, and they are like 16 years old, and complaining about jet lag. 'Sorry man, but I just got back from Paris, and I'm a little spacey,' " recalls McCarthy, who wrote "Win Win" with high-school chum and wrestling buddy Joe Tiboni . "They are already way cooler and more assured than I ever was. Than I am now. " So he tried casting jocks.

Never mind what Thomas Wolfe says - you can go home again. It's just that in Tom McCarthy's case, it took 25 years. Win Win , the third feature written and directed by the industrious character actor, is set in New Providence, N.J., the burg where McCarthy grew up and was a varsity wrestler in high school. Conceived with Joe Toboni , his friend and New Providence High teammate, Win Win is the story of a small-town lawyer - another ace Paul Giamatti performance - who coaches the school's wrestling squad and commits an ethical lapse that impacts not only his career, but also his wife ( Amy Ryan )

Although most of the Phillies' starting positions are already set with the exception of rightfield, there are still several things that fans can look out for as Grapefruit League games begin this weekend in Clearwater, Fla. "I would try to get the spring-training roster right away," said Tom McCarthy, who returns as the Phillies' play-by-play television announcer. "There are going to be a lot of numbers and players that you may not know. " There will certainly be some new faces around Bright House Field, and with the departure of free-agent rightfielder Jayson Werth, there will be a heated position battle among outfielders Ben Francisco, John Mayberry Jr. and Domonic Brown.

GOOD NEWS for DJ Too Tuff , of the legendary Philly hip-hop act Tuff Crew . He's off probation. Too Tuff, born Joseph Hicks , was released from jail earlier this year - he was sentenced on an assault charge stemming from a fight at Silk City (5th & Spring Garden) while on parole for weed possession. Now that he's free to travel, Too Tuff can join fellow original Tuff Crew members LA Kidd , Ice Dog and Tone Love for a European tour in March, when the group will play Paris, Denmark, Wales, London and Amsterdam, performing some of their hits and new material.

"The Philly Fan" is a one-man show starring veteran actor Tom McCarthy, but the Daily News can certainly be considered an uncredited co-star. Throughout the production, headlines and articles from the People Paper are displayed on a video screen to supplement McCarthy's dialogue. They include: _ A series of stories whose headlines chronicle the Phillies' epic 1964 collapse, during which they blew a 6 1/2-game lead with 12 left to play. _ The iconic photo of Tug McGraw holding the Oct. 22, 1980, edition with its "We Win!"

THERE IS a generation of Philadelphia sports fans for whom the Phillies' recent, unprecedented run of success is the norm. The team is back in the National League Championship Series, expected to return to the World Series for a third consecutive year? Of course they are. What's the big deal? What these young Phanatics don't know is the Job-like suffering of their forebears - the middle-age and older among us whose undying devotion to the town's pro-sports franchises has been repaid with decades of psyche-scarring futility and incompetence.

Wars, famine, reality shows . . . now news that "Dirrty" girl Christina Aguilera , 29, and her music-exec hub Jordan Bratman , 33, who wed in November '05, have been separated for months. "Although Jordan and I are separated, our commitment to our [2-year-old] son Max remains as strong as ever," Christina told People on Tuesday. This follows news that the Courteney Cox - David Arquette marriage has been put on pause and Ben Harper has filed for divorce from Laura Dern . It's like celeb flu. It's catching.