(Sports) Writers in Movies

WITH apologies to the great Erica Orloff who just recently wrote about how movies depict writers, I'm about to venture in a blog slightly on the same topic.

My first take is that putting writers in movies readily allows scriptwriters to have characters who can mouth all the right words at the right place at the right moment -- which rarely ever happens in real life, even to real-life writers.

I may be trained to write under pressure about games that end past deadline but during heated discussions with the wife, I fold at crunchtime, completely at a loss for words most of the time.

Things are different in the movies, but of course.

If the male character happens to be a novelist like Paul Giamatti's in Sideways, or even somebody who just happens to sell books like Hugh Grant's in Nottinghill, there's a strong chance that despite his insecurities and stuttering he will win the girl before the credits roll.

Today, however, I'm writing about movies that portray sportswriters, which isn't very often.In Forget Paris Billy Crystal played an NBA referee whose best friend happened to be sportwriter.

I don't know back there, but here sportswriters and PBA referees hardly ever cross paths except in the hardcourt. We live in different worlds. I have sat down for a few bottles with pro players but never with the men in gray.

When Kevin Costner's character scored eight in a single hole in Tin Cup, the person who talked to him in the bar was a sportswriter. Now there's some truth in there, because we tend to gravitate to beer joints after a day of coverage.

The closest a sportswriter could get to becoming the lead character was Dermot Mulroney's in My Best Friend's Wedding. I sort of identified with him because his love interest played by Julia Roberts was a food writer, and Vangie is our newspaper's top food writer.

Only in the movie, the sportswriter chose to end up with a sports mogul's daughter played by Cameron Diaz. Again that premise is not remotely possible here because sportswriters don't tread the same grounds as those in the upper crust of society except on rare occasions like a coverage of a polo event in Forbes Park.

Again, they only do happen in the movies.