Pop Culture Hot List

SI Staff | Nov 7, 2008

Pop Culture Hot List /

Pop Culture Hot List

Barack Obama and John McCain

It's nice that Senators Obama and McCain had their priorities in order on the heels of Election Day. After chatting about sports during halftime of "Monday Night Football," both candidates did the same for SI.com. After all, who wants to hear about economic problems when we have a college football playoff to figure out?

Will Ferrell

The greatest recruiting tool USC has outside of Lil' Romeo these days is Ferrell, who surprised players after practice in a Halloween prank orchestrated by Pete Carroll. Ferrell, dressed in a Speedo, posed as "Captain Compete" after he acted as if he was saving the lives of two stuntmen, one posing as a video staffer, who fell 40-feet from a cherry-picker adjacent to the field and another posing as a coach that caught on fire. "You've got to always compete!" Ferrell breathlessly screamed as players laughed. "You've got to compete in everything you do...because if you want to win forever, you've got to always compete!" Too bad Ferrell couldn't have given that speech before the Oregon State game.

Nicole Scherzinger

The Pussycat Doll singer looked amazing in her sultry new Nike commercial with LeBron James, but that was all fun and games. Her real boyfriend, Lewis Hamilton, won the Formula One championship on Sunday at 23, making him the youngest driver ever to win the title and putting him in position to earn an annual salary of over $100 million. Something tells me that all takes a backseat to coming home to Scherzinger.

Allen Iverson

The Pistons got "The Answer" they were looking for last season and have put themselves in position to return to the NBA Finals by adding Allen Iverson. The Nuggets, meanwhile, cut more salary and put themselves in position to be watching the playoffs from the comfort of their own homes come April.

Mike Singletary

Maybe he's not the best coach in the NFL, but he's certainly the most entertaining. Any coach that gives a halftime speech with his pants pulled down to his ankles, kicks a player off the field during a game for acting up and gives a motivational postgame press conference that would put Tony Robbins to shame can coach my team any day.

Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree

The succession of thoughts that went through my mind after Harrell (6) and Crabtree (5) connected on that last-second touchdown that gave Texas Tech an upset win over No. 1 Texas on Saturday in one of the greatest college football games ever: 1. Harrell just won the Heisman. 2. Crabtree just won the Biletnikoff...again. 3. No matter what else they do or how Texas Tech finishes the season, they'll be autographing pictures of that play and that game for the rest of their lives.

Marisa Miller

I wish I could say Marisa Miller can do no wrong. After all, when you look as amazing as she does, you can make just about anything look bad. But not even Miller could save the cringe-inducing ad she did for Remington with Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun. The dialogue and acting was comparable to anything released by Vivid or Wicked without the payoff at the end.

Cole Hamels

The Philadelphia Phillies pitcher and World Series MVP and his reality TV star wife Heidi Strobel, who was on Season 6 of "Survivor: The Amazon" and appeared in the August 2003 edition of "Playboy" magazine, were put in the back of a NYPD car while they were in New York last week. Don't worry. They weren't in trouble. They were simply being escorted through the fans and traffic after being on the "The Late Show With David Letterman." While on the show Hamels read the "Top Ten Things That Went Through Cole Hamels' Mind After Winning The World Series," dropping such zingers as "This must be how the Yankees used to feel" and "I hope John McCain will start calling me 'Cole the pitcher."

Eva Longoria

It hasn't been a good sports year for Eva Longoria. First her hubby, Tony Parker, and the Spurs lost in the Western Conference Finals to the Lakers and then her favorite baseball player, Evan Longoria, and the Tampa Bay Rays lost to the Phillies in the World Series. While there is no relation between the Longorias, she does own a Longoria No. 3 jersey and was sad to see the Rays lose. "I know, poor thing," she says. "Next year."

Sam Hornish

Despite winning the Indianapolis 500 and three IndyCar Series championships, Hornish wasn't really thought of as a celebrity to his 8-month old daughter and other children. That was until Hornish lent his voice to "Roary the Racing Car" cartoon, which airs alongside "Sesame Street," "Barney" and "Bob The Builder" on PBS. "I showed it to my friend, and their daughter is real shy, but when she saw the episode she was enamored by it," Hornish tells me. "She wanted to know everything."

Published Nov 7, 2008

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