Sports Beat

The surf's still up in Hollywood. In the wake of Blue Crush,
which starred Kate Bosworth and Michelle Rodriguez as surfers in
Hawaii and pulled in more than $40 million at the box office,
Cameron Diaz is shooting the curl in Charlie's Angels: Full
Throttle. To prepare for her part as an undercover surfer, Diaz
took lessons with a private instructor in Malibu before filming
and then with stuntman Mike Justus on the set. "Whether she's
doing martial arts or paddling out through pounding surf, she's
fearless and friendly," says Justus. "She's point and shoot. You
point, and she applies her pro level athletic ability to get the
best shot."

He has spent decades referring to audience members as "hockey
pucks," and apparently that's enough of a resume for the
University of Arizona hockey team. The Icecats have named Don
Rickles honorary captain, meaning, among other things, that the
76-year-old comic will appear on team trading cards. Arizona
coach Leo Golembiewski first met Rickles after a show at a
Sparks, Nev., club last February and gave him an Icecats puck
and a jersey with no. 1 on it. "There were two people I always
wanted to meet," says Golembiewski. "The Pope and Don Rickles."
Rickles, a New York native who grew up rooting for the Rangers,
has never been to an Icecats game, and if an honorary captain is
meant to boost team spirits, he seemed unburdened by the
expectation when SI called him last week. Said Rickles, "Who
needs a hockey team in the desert when it's 180 degrees outside?"

Art imitating life? Uh, not exactly. In the upcoming movie The
Perfect Score, Cavaliers forward Darius Miles, 21, plays a high
school basketball player who, at the urging of his mother,
forgoes the NBA for college and takes the SATs. In real life
Miles committed to attend St. John's, but he lacked the required
entrance exam scores and went straight to the pros in the 2000
draft. The movie, which is slated for release early next year,
also features Traffic's Erika Christensen and Ghost World's
Scarlett Johansson.

If Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wants to add a team
psychologist--and in the Mavs' case it might not be a bad
idea--he might turn to Dr. Phil, the TV shrink and Dallas-area
resident who has renewed his season ticket for a fourth year.
"Now that I'm married, I just might get some advice from him,"
says Cuban, who wed longtime girlfriend Tiffany Stewart in
September.... Want to train like the Greatest? Muhammad Ali's
training camp outside Reading, Pa., where he prepared for all
his fights between 1972 and his retirement in '81, is being
auctioned by Guernsey's in New York (opening bid: $5 million).
The five-acre compound, which in recent years has been used as a
children's karate camp, includes a gym, dining hall, Ali's
private home, cabins for sparring partners, a small mosque and a
five-stall horse barn. The camp is described as being in
"move-in" condition.... Bernie Mac will be the first guest on
the Oct. 31 series premiere of Listen Up! Charles Barkley with
Ernie Johnson.... Feet of clay? Nike CEO Phil Knight has become
the majority shareholder of Vinton Studios, a Portland-based
animation shop known for its work in Claymation.

COLOR PHOTO: FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES (DIAZ) Diaz in Malibu

COLOR PHOTO: JEFF VINNICK/GETTY IMAGES/NHLI (BERTUZZI) PICTURE THIS No, Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi isn't spouting off at the ref--his Old Faithful imitation came after the skate-around that preceded last Saturday's clash with the Stars in Vancouver. But Bertuzzi had good reason to duplicate Danny Thomas's famous spit take after the game: the Canucks lost, 4-1

COLOR PHOTO: JOHN W. MCDONOUGH (KENT)

THIS WEEK'S SIGN OF THE
APOCALYPSE
Last Wednesday, ABC's The Bachelor drew a higher Nielsen rating
among adults 18-49 than Game 4 of the World Series.

THEY SAID IT
JEFF KENT

Giants second baseman, declining a pregame interview request by
a reporter from Rogers Sportsnet, a Canadian sports network: "I
talked to Canada yesterday."