ANTE UP No danger of Curt Schilling embarking on a career as a card shark.
Appearing last night on Bravo's ''Celebrity Poker Showdown," the Sox ace showed himself to be a decent, if not great gambler. Squaring off against actresses Catherine O'Hara and Sara Rue and ''Everybody Loves Raymond" stars Ray Romano and Brad Garrett, our hobbled hero played well enough not to win. But wearing a 2004 World Champions hat, Schilling did manage to get Romano and Garrett's goat with a few choice digs at the Yanks. (Both are Bronx Bomber fans.) So who won? Sadly, Garrett. But Schill did raise some dough for The SHADE Foundation, the skin-cancer awareness charity started by his wife, Shonda.
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GUEST LIST The sponsors are all on board. Now the Massachusetts Film Bureau just needs a few celebs to show up at its annual Massachusetts Movie Awards Gala on Oscar night. This year's party is at the Four Seasons Hotel. Confirmed guests include Dorchester native Neal McDonough of ''Medical Investigation" fame, actor Ken Howard, and Robert David Hall of ''CSI." Film Bureau boss Robin Dawson said there's a chance, however slim, that Marlborough native and ''Desperate Housewives" star Marcia Cross may attend, and she's waiting to hear from Matt Damon and Cohasset's own Kate Bosworth.
BOXED IN One of 16 contestants on ''The Contender," Peter Manfredo Jr. of Providence, found himself stuck at the Los Angeles airport after a weekend of publicity -- the blizzard keeping all Boston-bound flights on the West Coast. Manfredo, who tried out in Brockton for the unscripted drama, had met NBC senior press manager Kahlil Olmstead, former chief of the Boston Film Bureau (and West Roxbury High grad). Manfredo gave Olmstead a holler from the airport lamenting that not only was he stuck in LA, but that he would miss the Patriots taking on the Steelers. So Olmstead arranged for Manfredo to catch the game at the home of his boss, Rebecca Marks, executive vice president of NBC Universal, who hails from Rockport. (Marks is the sister of Massachusetts Film Bureau honcho Robin Dawson.) The three displaced New Englanders cheered for their beloved team, but Marks missed part of the game to tend to the network's response to Johnny Carson's death. As with any of the reality shows, everyone's mum on how Manfredo does when the show premieres on NBC March 7. The show, which counts Mark Burnett, Sylvester Stallone, and Jeffrey Katzenberg among its executive producers, is hosted by former world champion boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.
DIRECT TO VIDEO In the unlikely event a movie is ever made of his life, Pats linebacker Willie McGinest tells ESPN the Magazine it should be called ''The Big Mac Attack" and star Samuel L. Jackson. And who would play Tom Brady? ''I'm not gonna say Tom Cruise, because Brady's not that good-looking. Ben Stiller, maybe," says McGinest. What about Bill Belichick? ''Kevin Spacey . . . Coach has that same sense of mystery. He's like a weird scientist, dissecting all the teams."
PASSION Talk about timing. Just as Lisbeth Scott's new CD shipped to stores yesterday, the New England Conservatory of Music grad was celebrating an Oscar nomination for ''The Passion of the Christ" soundtrack. Scott, who lives on the Left Coast these days, not only sings on the stirring score, she also co-wrote the lyrics for Mel Gibson's controversial film. (Her words, of course, had to be translated into Aramaic.) Scott's new CD is called ''Passionate Voice."
PROMISE NOW, PAY LATER In her haste to announce that Barry Newman has created an endowment ''totaling $1.5 million" at his alma mater, Boston Latin School, the actor's LA-based publicist, Carlene Davis, neglected to mention that it's a bequest intention totaling $1.5 million. To date, says Mary Tamer of the Boston Latin School Association, the school's received $25,000.
CURTAIN COMES DOWN ''Gem of the Ocean," the August Wilson drama that played in Boston before moving to Broadway, will close Feb. 6 after struggling through a two-month run. The $2 million production, which stars Phylicia Rashad, will end its engagement at the Walter Kerr Theatre after 72 performances. Business for the play, which opened Dec. 6 to generally positive notices, had been steadily declining during the post-holiday weeks. Last week was particularly tough because of the blizzard. The show grossed $185,270 last week, playing to a little more than 50 percent capacity.
Source: Boston A&E
