Gabby Douglas: I’m going for gold again in 2016

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Cristiano Ronaldo to be a father

On his official facebook page Cristiano wrote this: (also on his twitter)

It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy. As agreed with the baby's mother, who prefers to have her identity kept confidential, my son will be under my exclusive guardianship. No further information will be provided on this subject and I request everyone to fully respect my right to privacy (and that of the child) at least on issues as personal as these are.

The Lakers on Jimmy Kimmel

Roger Federer is on the May cover of ESPN the Magazine

ESPN included a video of the photo shoot which explains that “mini Rogers” photo we spotted in Miami.

In the digital magazine, reporter Tim Keown writes a story examining
Roger’s place in the Parthenon of top jocks. Click here to read it
(subscription required.)

So is Roger the king of athletes? Does tennis truly test an athlete’s
mettle? Of course, I’m biased, but I think Roger and tennis tick all
the boxes: endurance, speed, agility, coordination, strategy and
mental strength. Very few mainstream sports test such a range

Iverson’s Wife Leaves Him…

After years of putting up with the “putting up”, Allen Iverson’s wife Tawanna has packed her bags:

A week after the Philadelphia 76ers’ Allen Iverson announced he was leaving basketball for the rest of the season to be with his sick 4-year-old daughter, the star’s wife filed for divorce in Fulton County Superior Court.

In the divorce petition filed on Tuesday, Tawanna Iverson said her 8 ½-year-long marriage to the guard was “irretrievably broken.” In the petition, Tawanna Iverson asked for temporary and permanent custody of their five children as well as child support and alimony.

She did not ask for a specific dollar amount. The children range in ages from 17 months to 15 years.

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Future DWTS Champion on Vanity Fair

EVAN LYSACEK

Age: 24.
Country: U.S.A
Sport: Figure skating.
Placed: First.
Style points: He rolled into his photo shoot wearing Dior boots and an Hermès belt (oh, and his gold medal).
Best thing about the Olympics: “The stories. Obviously the athletes and the events and the competitions are the bones of the Olympics, but the stories and the triumphs and the victories are the soul of it, and so to be just one of those stories and those victories is something I’ll never forget.”

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Vancouver Columnist provokes controversy and discussion after medal win

Yu-Na Kim of South Korea earned her gold medal. Her free skate was excellent, flawless, and wonderful. Kim is the Olympic champion, and the judges got that result right.However, some critics on the Internet are suggesting that the judges are racists and they did not want an Asian female sweep of the Olympic medals in figure skating. I agree with this cogent assessment.

Since Joannie Rochette is a white Canadian woman, the judges made sure a white female slipped into third place to prevent an Asian sweep.Can you imagine the faces of the white Canadian public if Kim, Mao Asada, and Miki Ando won all the Olympic medals in figure skating?Does anyone honestly think the white figure skating judges would allow Asian women to sweep the medals? Can you imagine the outcry?

There is a subversive issue of racism here that needs to be explored. Black feminist bell hooks reminds us that "race matters" in her incendiary work of the same name, and in women’s figure skating, “racism” was on full display last night.

It is obvious that the white women are not dominating women’s figure skating anymore. The Asian women have taken over.The Japanese women and the Korean woman, Kim, are the best female skaters in the world. They have the artistry, jumps, athleticism, and spins.

However, the silver medallist Asada and Rochette did not skate perfectly. American Mirai Nagasu's free skate was excellent. The judges decided her skate was fourth best. Is this really fair? How can the general public take figure skating seriously when politics influences skating results?

Ando was robbed! She is the sexiest woman in figure skating, and she was treated very harshly by these judges.I thought Ando of Japan deserved the silver medal. I saw her short program and I was shocked at the low marks she received. I also watched Ando’s free skate and she was excellent, yet she ends up in fifth place. Give me a break!

Ando is a graceful, talented, and beautiful skater, yet due to politics she was knocked off of the podium. I know very few people will defend Ando, but I feel I have to.
If Rochette had skated a clean long program with no errors, then there would be nothing to dispute. But Rochette’s free skate was terrible; she was very sloppy, and her skating was not refined.

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Johnny Weir Defends Individuality at Press Conference

Johnny Weir held a press conference in Vancouver yesterday in response to controversy that has arisen in Quebec and elsewhere over remarks made by sportscasters about his persona and his costumes.

Said Weir: "I'm not somebody to cry over something or to be weak about something. I felt very defiant when I saw these comments. It wasn't these two men criticizing my skating, it was them criticizing me as a person, and that was something that really, frankly, pissed me off...I hope more kids can grow up the same way I did and more kids can feel the freedom that I feel to be themselves and to express themselves and that's the most important thing."

The skater added: "I'm always thought of the sparkly flamboyant character that wore a crown of roses...nobody knows me. I think masculinity is what you believe it to be. To me, masculinity is all my perception. I think masculinity and femininity is something that's very old fashioned. There's a whole new generation of people that aren't defined by their sex or their race or who they like to sleep with. I think as a person you know what your values are and what you believe in and I that''s the most important thing."

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Interview with Olympic bronze medalist Scotty Lago

Dalai Lama has never heard of Tiger Woods

For all the talk about buddhism and Tiger Woods, it turns out that the Dalai Lama has never heard of the golfer.

In a brief interview with The Associated Press on Saturday in his hotel suite in Beverly Hills, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader had the whole Woods' saga explained to him and then said that when it comes to adultery, "all religions have the same idea."

He said, "Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that's important. Self-discipline with awareness of consequences."

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Tiger’s Mistresses Would Like Apologies, Too

In his apology-laden press conference yesterday, Tiger Woods said he's sorry to his family, his friends, his fans, his wife, and his sponsors. But he left one group out: the ladies he cheated with. Not cool say porn star Joslyn James and Italian model Loredana Jolie Ferriolo. Both would like personal apologies and really, anything else that might help their fifteen minutes last a little longer. [NYP]

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Kobe Bryant on GQ

Behind The Scenes with Cristiano Ronaldo for Armani Jeans

Winning campaign becomes marketing mess for Gillette

When Gillette rolled out its biggest sports marketing campaign in 2007, it had what seemed to be an advertiser’s dream team: Swiss tennis champion Roger Federer, French soccer star Thierry Henry, and - perhaps the most famous of them all - American golfer Tiger Woods.

The unbeatable lineup is now giving Gillette razor burn. In September, Federer threw a temper tantrum at the US Open finals, which he lost in an upset. Then, last month, Henry set off an international furor when he illegally touched a ball with his hand to set up a winning goal in a World Cup qualifier between Ireland and France.

And now Woods has captured headlines with his mysterious Nov. 27 car crash in front of his Florida home and alleged extramarital affairs with 13 women, including a porn star and a cocktail waitress.

Gillette, the Boston-based shaving giant, has not aired a commercial featuring Woods since Nov. 29, according to Nielsen Co., which tracks TV ratings. By comparison, Gillette last year ran a 15-second spot featuring Woods 25 times be tween Nov. 29 and Dec. 7.

A celebrity endorsement “is a great thing, but the reality is you cannot possibly predict human behavior,’’ said Chris Cakebread, a Boston University advertising professor. “You could say it was the perfect storm of knucklehead athletes, all screwing up at the same time, costing Gillette a fortune in negative publicity. Thus the danger of using athletes, or entertainers, as endorsers for your brand.’’

Once a scandal breaks, advertising observers say, some companies are slow to distance themselves from their pitchmen. The brands may decide to not use that person as much in promotions, at least until the controversy fades, or they may decide not to renew the deal.

A spokesman for Gillette, a unit of Cincinnati-based consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co., said the shaving company will continue with the campaign.

“At this time, we are not making any changes to our existing marketing programs,’’ Mike Norton, a Gillette spokesman, wrote in an e-mail.

He was unavailable for phone calls and would not directly comment on Woods’s endorsement deal. “We are running our media schedule as planned.’’

Woods’s agent did not respond to Globe requests for comment. Federer’s and Henry’s agents were unavailable yesterday.

Gillette unveiled the Champions campaign in 2007 as its largest sports marketing initiative, banking on the three athletes’ global stardom to promote the its new Fusion shaving line. Woods, Federer, and Henry sported shaving cream on their faces for a news conference in the United Arab Emirates to launch the campaign, which one Boston advertising executive valued at $40 million a year.

The campaign now features other athletes too, including New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.

Gillette’s president of global grooming, Chip Bergh, said at the beginning of the campaign, the company chose Federer, Henry, and Woods for “their performance off the field, in their charitable actions, support of social causes, or their reputations as icons of true sporting values.’’

BBDO Worldwide, a New York ad firm, handles Gillette’s advertising including the Champions campaign. A spokeswoman for the agency would not comment on the campaign and referred calls to Gillette.

In the US version of the campaign’s online ads, Woods, Henry, and Federer are featured standing in sleek, black suits, with Federer holding a racquet, Woods leaning on a golf club, and Henry clutching a soccer ball. In the French version of the ad, Henry doesn’t have a ball in his hand but has his hand in his pocket. Ad observers say Gillette may be trying to avoid a backlash from fans still upset over Henry touching the soccer ball during a World Cup qualifying match.

But Norton, of Gillette, said “there have been no recent changes to the Gillette Champions website’’ and “the French version of the site has been that way since 2007.’’

Of the three inaugural athletes in the Champions campaign, Woods’s recent media frenzy may be the most damaging. So far, according to media reports, Woods’s major sponsors - which include Nike, global managing consultancy Accenture, and video game company EA Sports - are standing by him. Endorsement deals have helped put Woods at the top of Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s highest-paid athletes - for eight straight years. The magazine estimates he earns $110 million annually between endorsements and tournament prize money.

But Woods’s presence in the ad world has been noticeably diminished since his auto accident, with his commercials not appearing during major sporting events in the past two weekends. “He is a dangerous, dangerous person for a brand right now,’’ said Cakebread, the BU professor. “The guy’s reputation has spiraled right down the sewer.’’

John Fisher, a former chief executive of sneaker company Saucony who teaches sports brand marketing at Babson College, agrees, saying that before the golfer’s auto crash, “the Tiger brand was referred to as a platinum brand’’ but he has destroyed his image. “When you break trust, it’s really difficult to recover from it,’’ he said.

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Tiger Wood's Erotic Dream

Want a peek into Tiger Woods' erotic dream life?

It involves one of his alleged mistresses Rachel Uchitel -- in a menage a trois with New York Yankees Derek Jeter and Bones actor David Boreanaz.

The new issue of Us Weekly reports that NYC club manager Uchitel, 34, bragged to friends of her flings with the rich and famous -- Uchitel's conquests apparently included Woods plus Ryan Seacrest, Jeter and the married Boreanaz.

A boastful Uchitel allegedly forwarded along a bizarre, extremely private email from Woods, 33, in which he referenced her famous flings.


Woods' email, Uchitel's friend tells Us, details the athlete's "disturbing dream."

"I had a dream we were married and I was leading the tournament," Woods reportedly wrote. "I came home, excited to see you, and there you were in the bedroom getting f--ked by Derek and David [Boreanaz]. Some part of me thinks you would like that."

The married athlete then explains how wired he is from his X-rated vision of Uchitel with TV and baseball hunks. "Now I can't get back to sleep. My body is tired, but my mind is awake. Need an Ambien."

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