The Dailies

Steve Greenberg
The son of Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg lasted a few years in the minors after graduating from Yale in 1970. He later became a player agent, negotiating baseball’s first-ever weight-related incentive clause for Bill Madlock in 1981. From 1990 to 1993, Greenberg rose to prominence as the deputy commissioner of Major League Baseball and the right hand man to then-commissioner Fay Vincent. These days, as part of the New York City investment firm Allen & Co., the 59-year-old is who major league owners call when they need advice on selling a franchise. He recently brokered the sales of the Braves, Brewers, and Reds and helped the Mets negotiate naming rights for their new stadium, Citi Field.

Mark of influence: In 1995, Greenberg cofounded the Classic Sports Network, which was bought by ESPN and renamed ESPN Classic. Eight years later he founded CSTV, which was sold to CBS in 2006.

Wade Liles
In the days leading up to a PGA Tour event, you’ll find Liles camped out nearby in his spartan TaylorMade equipment trailer quietly tweaking and building drivers for TaylorMade’s 80 touring pros, including John Daly, Sergio Garcia, Scott Verplank, and Justin Rose. Millions of dollars in prize money ride on each pro’s comfort with his club, so Liles is in heavy demand. He balances a club’s weight distribution with individual preference (he stores each pro’s likes and dislikes in a laptop) and can construct an entirely new driver in less than 10 minutes. His handiwork helped power Garcia and Verplank to top-five finishes at last month’s Tour championship.

Mark of influence: Eschewing their own sponsor technicians, non-TaylorMade pros have been known to sneak by Liles’ trailer in search of a club tune-up.

Dennis Poppe
When Bob Stoops is angry about a blown call or upset about a bowl assignment, he doesn’t call Myles Brand. He calls Poppe, the NCAA’s managing director for football and baseball. The three-decade NCAA vet oversees both officiating and championship series for football and baseball, and he makes it his business to know every college head coach, AD and assistant equipment manager in the country. He knows how to glad-hand the pols, too. The 59-year-old Poppe has overseen the College World Series since its days in obscurity. Now that it has gone prime time, he’s been in talks with the city of Omaha to build the popular event fancy new digs.

Mark of influence: For better or worse, Poppe helped bring both the BCS and instant replay to college football.

Jessica Biel may be one of the world’s sexiest actresses, but for the millions of men who want to steal her from Justin Timberlake, their best bet is to bring “SexyBack” with a bit of buffoonery behind closed doors.

“A relationship with someone who is funny-sexy is way more fun,” the starlet recently told FOX. “Sexy-sexy can be sort of boring; I much prefer people who can make fun of themselves and not take themselves too seriously, someone who can be ridiculous. That’s the most attractive thing.”

So does that mean our JT became skilled at slapstick to snag his “Senorita”?

Who knows, but one thing is for sure: It does take more than banter to get Biel bare, even in a movie or photo shoot.

Keep reading…

No Little Longorias: Eva Banned From Babies but Still Plays ‘Parent’ for Charity

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker may be riding the wave of hitched happiness, but apparently any plans to start a family have been flagged with a “no bambinos” decree from her “Desperate” director.

According to Britain’s Sun newspaper, Eva and her basketball beau will have to wait another season or two before she can burgeon her belly with a baby, as the show’s creator Marc Cherry doesn’t want the plot to be poisoned by a pregnancy from its leading lady.

“Marc’s not kidding, because he maps the year out and really knows the story line. When Marcia [Cross who plays Bree] became pregnant it was unexpected, and it was hard for him to write around,” Longoria told the paper.

“Tony and I are excited about starting a family, but because Marc has forbidden me to get pregnant this year, we’re gonna spend time as a married couple and build a solid foundation together before we bring our child into the world.”

But that still won’t stop Eva from being a motivating “mom” this Thursday when she when steals the spotlight as host of the PADRES Contra El Cáncer (Parents Against Cancer) fund-raising gala at The Lot in West Hollywood.

Pop Tarts has learned that the Tinseltown tiny and her team of “Desperate” divas including Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Nicollette Sheridan will put their “reel” life differences aside for the night in order to make “real” differences in the lives of many less-fortunate others.

But we’ve heard that Teri Hatcher won’t be high-tailing it to the glamorous gala. Is she a little hot-headed that she’s not the headliner? To find out why, stay tuned. …

Scott Baio may have launched his star-studded career as a teen on “Happy Days,” but now that he is “45 and single,” it seems the newly minted reality star has become bitter.

Baio won a FOX Really Award for “Favorite Non-Competition Program,” but the former cousin of the Fonz was less than impressed when Pop Tarts caught up with him backstage at swanky Boulevard 3 immediately after his win.

Apparently, all he had to do was “show up” to take the sought-after trophy and couldn’t care less about making a winning speech.

Why so snappy, Scotty?

Keep reading…

Star-studded sweetheart Reese Witherspoon is almost always seen smiling, but when it comes to the future safety of her children, the single mom gets somewhat scared.

“I think it’s definitely a scary world to be raising a young family — we live in a very frightening world and a fear-based culture where we judge people by the way they look,” the star told FOX at Wednesday’s red-carpet premiere of Gavin Hood’s new thriller “Rendition.”

“We misunderstand what particular people’s intentions are because of their religion. So if I can do any part to help sort of illuminate the negative or the positive sides of either side of an argument, I think that’s a great thing to be a part of.”

And surprisingly, Reese found slumming on set with a certain co-star a rather “raunchy” experience — and we’re not talking about “acting up” alongside her on-again/off-again romantic interest Jake Gyllenhaal.

Keep reading…

Milla Jovovich has spent many years making millions from her itty-bitty bod, but now that the former face of L’Oreal has moved into the final month of pregnancy, she has been battling the blues associated with packing extra pounds.

“I feel like I swallowed a beach ball,” the Ukraine-born beauty told FOX. “It is not easy, let me tell you. I’ve gained like 65 pounds in the last four months. I mean, be prepared.”

And even though the almost nine-month journey for Jovovich has been “intense” yet “amazing” so far, she has a simple suggestion for future moms who don’t think they could wear the excess weight.

“You might want to adopt,” said the retired runway royal, who recently released the third installment of the action flick “Resident Evil.”

Milla, 2004′s highest paid model, even believes she would have been more mentally equipped at age 16 for the lumps and bumps having a baby brings. But once she hit the hottest of the hot list, the pressure of perfection has made her aware of every dot and dimple.

Keep reading…

Mark Wahlberg might play a polished policeman in “We Own the Night,” but the Boston-born actor has confessed to some chronic criminal behavior in his younger years.

“I had so many brushes with the law growing up in an Irish community in Boston and being the youngest of nine,” he told FOX. “I started breaking the law at a young age; I had a complete disregard for authority. But all the experience I had punching and being arrested innumerable times has proved valuable to my acting career.”

But given Wahlberg’s familiarity with bad behavior, he is making sure to shield his own children from the hazards of Hollywood and doesn’t even intend to send them out to school.

“The only thing I can really do is isolate them and try to keep them away from TV and society,” said the protective parent of Ella, 4 and Michael, 1. “I will most probably home school them as well. But above everything I will try to just guide and protect them as much as I can. I want to be with my kids every step of the way.”

“If” anything, time has taught Janet Jackson that matrimony is messy and sensuality is much simpler without a signature.

After two marriages and two divorces, the 41-year-old longtime lover of record producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri doesn’t desire another diamond.

“In this day and age, I feel we don’t need that piece of paper. For myself I don’t need that to validate what I have with someone,” Janet told FOX at the premiere of her new movie “Why Did I Get Married?” last Thursday. “It’s about a spiritual commitment and finding your soul mate and really exchanging vows with one another, and I think that’s enough for me at least.”

And even though the music mogul doesn’t want any nuptials, she still has a strong objection to “open relationships.”

“No way, not for me,” she said. “Why get involved in a relationship if you want to mess around with other people? It doesn’t make sense.”

And while Janet did divulge that she is back in the studio putting together some new songs for her own album, Pop Tarts has also heard murmurs that the suddenly svelte star and her singing siblings are all fine-tuning tracks with her bro Michael Jackson, who is supposedly set to make a musical comeback.

There are two things we know for sure about Lindsay Lohan: She’s not too skilled at staying single, and she knows how too run “rings” around her romantic interests.

The “Mean Girl” looks set to get back on a positive track after leaving a Utah rehab facility last weekend. Plus, she even met a man out of the star-studded spotlight to offer her some seductive support.

Li-Lo told OK! Magazine that just before her check-in at Cirque Lodge, she hit “rock bottom.” But it seems lucky Linds left the lodge sporting a sparkling stone on her ring finger.

“Yes I am seeing someone — I’m just taking it day by day,” said the screen star.

Apparently, his name his Riley Giles and he’s a Californian snowboarder … but let’s hope he doesn’t let Lohan take the downhill slide.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But did the creator of the comic strip “Funky Winkerbean” take the “awareness” part too far?

Yes and no, say some.

The decision by cartoonist Tim Batiuk to have Lisa Moore, the cartoon strip’s wife, mother and lawyer, succumb to breast cancer last week has sparked both praise and anger, ABC News reports.

“People have been incredibly kind and generous,” cartoonist Tim Batiuk told ABC News, adding that hundreds of fans have e-mailed him about the story line.

But others are unhappy. “You are a man who seems to be without any idea of the pain (you) are inflicting,” wrote one grandmother on TheCancerBlog.com. “You do not have the right to put this horror in a family newspaper.”

Dawn Herb could face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300 (euro212).

“It doesn’t make any sense. I was in my house. It’s not like I was outside or drunk,” Herb told The Times-Tribune of Scranton. “The toilet was overflowing and leaking down into the kitchen and I was yelling (for my daughter) to get the mop.”

Herb does not recall exactly what she said, but she admitted letting more than a few bad words fly near an open bathroom window Thursday night.

Her next-door neighbor, a city police officer who was off-duty at the time, asked her to keep it down, police said. When she continued, the officer called police.

Mary Catherine Roper, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Philadelphia, took issue with the citation.

“You can’t prosecute somebody for swearing at a cop or a toilet,” she said.

The mother of missing British 4-year-old Madeleine McCann believes she’s being persecuted because of her looks, and thinks that if she “had a bigger bosom and looked more maternal, people would be more sympathetic,” a London newspaper reported Tuesday.

The parents of Kate McCann, in a remarkable interview in the Liverpool Daily Post, said their daughter “feels persecuted, not by the general public who have been extremely supportive, but by some sections of the media.”

“Kate is a very sensitive, caring person and one of the most maternal people I know — she puts me to shame,” Madeleine’s grandmother, Susan Healy, told the newspaper.

Madeleine was 3 when she disappeared May 3 from her parents’ hotel room in the resort city of Algarve, Portugal, while the couple dined at a nearby restaurant. The investigation initially focused on a possible kidnapping, with numerous reported sightings throughout Europe, none of which turned up positive.

Portuguese police early last month turned their investigation toward the couple, naming both Kate McCann and her husband Gerry as official suspects. Without sufficient evidence to charge or hold them, the couple was allowed to return to England.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney says he was determined to maintain his dignity during his divorce from former model Heather Mills, according to an interview due to be published Tuesday.

The 65-year-old singer-songwriter vowed not to talk about the separation, telling Radio Times Magazine the experience was “a very painful thing.”

“As Winston Churchill once said, ‘If you’re going through hell, keep going!’” McCartney told the magazine. “The only solution is to remain dignified. If I don’t keep a silence about it, I lose this idea of being dignified.”

McCartney’s divorce has become the most sensational marital breakup in Britain since Prince Charles and Princess Diana parted ways more than a decade ago, and the divorce is widely expected to be Britain’s most expensive. McCartney and Mills announced in May of last year that they were splitting after four years of marriage.

Journalists thronged Britain’s Royal Courts of Justice Thursday when the pair appeared before a judge amid reports that they were close to a settlement.

“It’s been a difficult time,” McCartney told the magazine. “But music is a great healer. Music is the therapy for me. In fact, going through difficulties has only concentrated my desire to make good music.”

McCartney also spoke of his admiration for the British monarch, calling Queen Elizabeth II a “babe.”

“I’ve got a lot of time for the queen. She’s fun, she’s funny, she’s amazing,” he said. “The queen’s a babe!”

“I know what fame is. But she knows what real fame is.”