Sports: Claressa Shields, first American to win twin boxing Olympic golds in a row. Subject of next year’s movie “Flint Strong” starring Ice Cube.
Quickest male or female fighter to win three world titles, twice Individual Sportswoman of the Year, first woman to headline boxing on Showtime, Women’s Boxing Athlete of the Decade. Billie Jean King tweeted congratulations. She was set for her junior middleweight world title bout Saturday until clocked by CV’s TKO.
Promoter Dmitry Salita: “Forcing this champ to postpone that match, the progress she brought to the sport could erode. What’s the future of women’s sports if champions are kept from the spotlight?”
So, listen, if you only watch the Flintstones and don’t know who she is, not my problem.
Small-scale studio
Pronouncements: Jeffrey Katzenberg. Ran studios. Spielberg and Geffen were his DreamWorks SKG partners. But the world shrunk. Him, too. Now he runs small-screen Quibi for “quick bites.” Like Bill Murray, Chrissy Teigen, Christoph Waltz — on your phone.
The smart man says: “Movie theaters return. Businesses too. Offices will depend on what your job is, how closely packed in you are. Things must be rethought. We’ll find our way back to some version of that. Seeing people on Zoom’s not the same in a creative environment when you’re collaborating, pitching ideas, the pheromones, that ‘in the room’ chemistry just isn’t.”
So how does he look on Zoom?
A laugh, then, “Like I really truly am 69 years old.”
Reading’s rising
Literature: Enough reading bad news and binge-watching TV. Online book sales, e-books, actual books and audiobooks are up 25 percent since the lockdown.
Best-selling Nelson DeMille: “Even my backlist increased. In troubled times, people gravitate toward superheroes like in my John Corey novels. Authors work in lockdown anyway, so quarantining hasn’t changed my daytime routine.
“Far as I know, no one’s writing a novel about a pandemic. But next year, there will be lots of good stuff written during this isolation.”
Pol position
Politics: Andrew Yang. Itchy for fame or a job, the guy now wants to take Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island. Not making president, he’s scratching to be mayor. Failing that, he’ll maybe settle for alderman.
He studied at Columbia. Launched a company that, he said, “didn’t work out.” Then worked for a startup something. Then founded Venture for America, which created jobs in Baltimore (which has problems) and Detroit (which has problems) and now wants NYC, which also has problems.
Trust Mother. He’s gearing to grab City Hall — if Chirlane lets him.
Pen pal checks in
People: Scandals ago, Tama Janowitz circled every party. Her mouth was headlines. “Bratty frat pack author,” she poked us. Peed on us. Wrote “Slaves of New York” and “Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction.”
Today Tama says: “My life has not been easy for many years now. I left the city in 2012, have scarcely ever been back since.” Her handprinted letter is from a small village upstate.
New York is my religion. A devout New Yorker, I live, breathe and eat New York. And I feel for our yellow cabbies. Yes, the front seat often has a deli aroma. Their music’s from a far-off galaxy. They’re available except when it rains. Or will answer a hail with a middle finger out the window — and up. But they’re ours. Us. New Yorkers. When that industry had front-page problems, I chose to do positive stories. A fleet’s Mr. Rattner didn’t take my call. Didn’t return my call. I phoned again. Left my name. And message. And phone number. No call back.
Just saying that’s only in New York, kids, only in New York.
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