Neither former U.S. Open winner Scott Simpson nor comedian Bill Murray will play in the tournament this year.

They’ve missed a few years because of scheduling conflicts. But since their initial pairing in 1993, Simpson and Murray have built a strong friendship while playing together in the AT&T and Wal-Mart First Tee Open.

The tandem, which to some seemed like golf’s version of The Odd Couple, often attracted some of the tournament’s largest crowds.

Murray is filming a movie; Simpson, who will turn 53 in September, is now in his third full season on the Champions Tour.

“Scott is not coming back,” said Ollie Nutt, AT&T tournament director. “It’s the way it happens through the years. Because of the length of the courses … it just limits their (older players’) abilities to compete.”

Murray’s colorful, often non-coordinated attire, on-course antics and connection to the movie “Caddyshack” etched him in tournament lore. He discussed with Nutt the possibility of playing if his filming schedule changed, which left a pairing challenge for Nutt.

Nutt spoke with Jeff Sluman, 50, who has also teamed with Murray in the tournament — just in case.

“Jeff said, ‘I plan to see you once a year — in September,’” said Nutt, detailing Sluman’s reference to playing only at Pebble Beach during the First Tee Open.

Murray and
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Nutt also had discussions about other potential pro partners.

“He (Murray) was asking about a couple of young guys … like Anthony Kim,” said Nutt. “So he is thinking about guys who he would like to play with.”

Despite seemingly different lifestyles and personalities, the Simpson-Murray team meshed.

Murray wore funny hats, baggy shorts, engaged the gallery and sometimes drank wine out of the bottle on the practice putting green at Pebble Beach. Simpson was often reserved and attends weekly faith meetings on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour.

Simpson’s departure from the AT&T was nearly certain last fall. While defending his 2006 First Tee Open title, the 1987 U.S. Open winner and seven-time PGA Tour winner hedged when asked about his tournament future.

“I don’t know. Maybe, we’ll see,” he said.

Simpson can recite many comedic exchanges with Murray, but their relationship was solidified early.

“I told him the first year, ‘Bill, if you’d like to play with someone else, go ahead; it’s OK,’ ” Simpson recalled. “Bill looked at me and said, ‘No, we gotta go win this thing.’ ”

Simpson and Murray finished as high as a fourth-place tie in pro-am division (2004). But they never got close to the title.

Simpson and Murray began their pro-am pairing during one of the tournament’s unusual years. Australian PGA Tour rookie Brett Ogle became the second of only three foreign-born tournament winners.

The same year, Murray attracted attention when he pulled an elderly woman into a sand trap at Pebble Beach. The woman fell down. The overt laughter was countered by less-than-glowing reactions from then PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman and a few players, including Tom Watson. Murray was unsure he would return to the tournament.

Simpson, whose tie for 38th place that year was 10 places higher than the previous year, told Murray it was the most fun he’d had playing golf.

Long before he met Murray, Simpson was a PGA Tour veteran. He turned pro in 1977 and first played in the AT&T in 1979. Simpson was never in contention for the title but finished as high as 15th.

Simpson and Murray also played together a shared-pro situation when the nearly 51-year-old pro was en route to the 2006 First Tee Open title.

While in the gallery for the final round, Murray and Simpson exchanged a healthy share of banter during the waning holes.

Despite the comedic exchanges, Simpson finished with a birdie and emerged from a three-way tie en route to his win at 12-under 204.

Last year, his 30th pro season, Simpson finished 24th on the Champions Tour money list and may have completed his PGA Tour career with one season tournament appearance, the AT&T. He missed the cut.

Juno’s Jason Bateman tells Kristin that creators Ron Howard and Mitch Hurwitz
are pursuing the project and that the entire Bluth clan is on board. Here’s the quote he gave her.

“I can confirm that a round of sniffing has started,� Bateman says. “Any talk is targeting a poststrike situation, of course. I think, as always, that it’s a question of whether the people with the money are willing to give our leader, Mitch Hurwitz, what he deserves for his participation. And I can speak for the cast when I say our fingers are crossed.�

What’s more, the report adds, Jeffrey Tambor went on satellite radio and gave the project his approval.

In terms of Arrested Development, I think I have good news. I think we’re going to make a movie, he tells the Ron & Fez show. I talked to Ron Howard the other day and he asked me. He sortof hinted around that there’s a real push to get a movie made, of course after the strike, and was I on board. And I said without pausing that I would love to do that and I know Jason’s on board too.

Certainly Batemen’s and Michael Cera’s Juno credits, along with Cera’s smash Superbad, should help the project along. Portia di Rossi was guesting on Nip/Tuck last I heard, but that shouldn’t get in the way. And Will Arnett will have a little more free time than he thought now that he’s no longer the voice of KITT in the Knight Rider remake.

If this happen, it would be the greatest thing since GOB made that yacht disappear.

Or, more to the point, India’s top court yesterday dismissed a warrant against the Pound Ridge resident, whose allegedly illegal kiss in New Delhi 11 months ago today caused an international stir.

Gere, as you may recall, kissed Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at a public AIDS awareness event in New Delhi on April 15.

The Associated Press quoted Anil Grover, an attorney for Shetty after the Supreme Court proceedings:

Gere is allowed to come and leave. He can’t be arrested.

Gere’s publicist, Alan Nierob, told AP the actor would not comment on the matter.

(AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

Quoth the former Ms. Van Halen about the director and CBS Orchestra band leader:

People knew about them, but I guess they’ve forgotten because it’s been 25 or 30 years. But it was all in the papers back then. Yeah, I dated them. No biggie.

I’d argue that dating one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed directors and TV’s current late-night band icon back in the day is a big deal, but by comparison it’s small potatoes compared to the seemingly angelic actress’ admissions of cocaine use and an extramarital affair. So, she might have a point.

(AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

It turned into a Suburbarazzi goldmine when South Nyack resident Rosie O’Donnell emerged from backstage to try to help contestants to win the big prize. She looked great, jelled with contestants and quickly became a crowd favorite on-camera and off.

And although she didn’t get to host “The Price Is Right,” she proved Sunday that she more than holds her own as a game show celebrity panelist. Skateboarder Tony Hawk was the other celebrity clue-giver for the taping I viewed.

There’s so much more I want to say about what I saw, but because I signed my life away upon witnessing the taping, I’m probably not at liberty to disclose much more until that episode airs.

So why am I comfortable disclosing even this much information? Rosie documented this much on her blog yesterday:

today i shot million dollar password
hosted by regis – who is just the best
the set is HUGE
like millionaire/deal-no deal/1vs100 HUGE
this aint the old password
4 sure

it’s on CBS
in may
fun fun fun

You’d never be able to discern it, but if you watch Rosie’s video in the same post, I’m a maroon blur in the extreme lower-left of the audience at the 1-minute, 24 second mark. I swear.

Oh, and as a game show enthusiast, I really like the new “Password” format. True enough to the original(s), but more exciting.

More details about Rosie’s contributions to the show—and another local connection—after the episode airs, I promise!

(AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

• “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” to be directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Scarsdale native Aaron Sorkin (right), was supposed to start shooting in April, but has now been put on hold. It looks like it won’t begin filming now until summer and fall, and Spielberg and Sorkin are planning to use the additional time to tighten their script. With a potentially blockbuster cast (among the names rumored on IMDB: Will Smith, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kevin Spacey, Colin Hanks, and Jeff Bridges), it’ll be interesting to see if the actors will still be available months and months down the road.

• “Justice League of America,” was once rumored to have Pelham’s Joseph Cross (right), of “Running with Scissors” fame, as one of its Hall of Justice superheros. And while the entire cast is still up in the air, the Variety account says that, despite delays, Warner Bros. is still trying desperately to begin shooting in mid-July, hoping for a summer ‘09 release. Alas, that script needs work, too, and isn’t due to be finished for over a month.

• “Angels and Demons,” Ron Howard’s “Da Vinci Code” prequel, appears to be the only film with a rock-solid plan. Shooting, which was supposed to begin before the strike, is now set to commence in Rome on June 5. Howard, who lives in Greenwich, “will spend three weeks shooting all of the film’s exterior scenes,” says Variety. “The rest of the film will be shot on Sony soundstages, where sets will wait, if necessary, until an actor’s strike is over. That allowed Sony to somewhat contain the costs to halt and re-start the picture.”

“Film greenlights in limbo” [Variety]

“I’m going to wait until after the album comes out because I don’t want everything on YouTube. I don’t think we’ll really be able to add more than three new songs to the set anyway. Everybody wants to hear certain songs from certain records. It’s hard figuring out what to drop.”

As promised, it doesn’t look like he’s rocking any new tunes—instead, the clip just shows his guitar smoking. Literally. For those looking forward to the new Frehley solo album, there is one tantalizing tidbit, though: Former Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist Slash is due to play on it, too. Now, if only we could track down that drummer from Poison, we might just have the makings of a pretty decent band. Either that or the next cast of “The Surreal Life.”

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Also, you may have seen Vanessa Williams on the Barbara Walters Oscar special a week ago. During it, she confirmed a whole slew of rumors about her personal life. Which brings us to this week’s quiz: Can you guess which of the following she did NOT cop to?

A. Using Botox
B. Being the victim of racism while growing up in Millwood
C. Living with her 2 ex-husbands in Chappaqua simultaneously
D. Being an a Barack Obama booster

The answer is at the end of the video and after the break.

Answer: D. While she said she was thrilled for Barack, she said she was also a big fan of her neighbor, Hillary. Ultimately, she didn’t choose to endorse either.

• It gets to debut tonight after “American Idol,” just about the cushiest timeslot in all of television.

• The pilot was directed by Bedford’s Lasse Hallstrom—he of “Hoax,” “Cider House Rules,” and “Chocolat” fame.

• It has a half-decent premise: The protagonist, John Amsterdam, was a Dutch soldier who, in 1694, was blessed by a Native American with the gift of immortality. Or rather, immortality until he finds his one true love. With undertones of “Groundhog Day,” “NYPD Blue” (Amsterdam is now an NYPD cop in present day), and “Highlander,” I really should like this show, but …

There are also a few things working against it:

• The show has been bumped from the FOX lineup time and again.

• The NY Times panned it.

• The storyline appears to have been stolen (at least in part) from Pete Hammil’s 2002 novel, “Forever.”

• OK, and I take back that comment about “Highlander”—that really is more a strike against it.

Still, I’ve decided to tune in tonight for one simple reason: My colleagues over at Remote Access have given the time-bending show their stamp of approval (and even, on their post, drawn comments from real-life immortals!). Among the things Georgette Gouveia had to say in her endorsement:

“For us history buffs, the city’s tragic yet transcendent story is as compelling as its skyline. A commercial football tossed back and forth by the Dutch and the British for years, the city rose on the back of slavery, was captured by the British during the Revolution, flirted with secession in the Civil War and endured riots, fires and even bombings long before 9/11 — its darkest and in many ways, finest hour. It will be interesting to see if the show can incorporate this history in dramatically viable ways.”

(image: Julie Dennis-Brothers/FOX)

And next week it’s getting yet another, from, of all groups, the National Association of Theater Owners. As Variety reports, Lee and his longtime producing partner James Schamus are being recognized for allowing their film to be released with an NC-17 rating (rather than, say, slashing some scenes to appease the MPAA and get an R). The two are getting the “Freedom of Expression Award” at the annual ShoWest conference in Vegas.

The message seems to be that movie theaters want studios to start using the NC-17 rating. Of course, studios, for their part, think that’s just plain crazy. Nothing can kill a movie’s box office—or number of screens—faster than an NC-17. And when you consider that Lee’s movie made only $4.6 million domestically, can you really blame them?

Still, Lee—a Larchmont resident—deserves credit for having the courage not to mutilate his movie to appease the censors. Let’s just hope that the movie theaters, in addition to applauding the move, start devoting more of their screens to actually showing NC-17 work.

Yes, it’s true: Rosie O must be going through some kind of Joy Bahar withdrawl. Why else would she choose to team up with the equally annoying yenta, Fran Drescher, for a sitcom about three best friends.

O’Donnell, who lives in South Nyack, confirmed that she’s working on the new show via her blog. All of which set of a deluge of comments on “Ask Ro”:

“Ro, is it true you and Fran are going to do a sitcom or are you just teasing us?” one wrote.

“True,” said Rosie.

“OMG. . . . you and Fran are going to be the new Lucy and Ethel! I am about to bust at the thought of it,” wrote another fan.

O’Donnell’s reply: “Honey, sign me up.”

So with that, I’m prepared to declare that the Rosie renaissance has officially jumped the shark. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

“O’Donnell, Drescher may star in new sitcom” [Los Angeles Times]

(AP Photos) 

According to the Herald Sun, Pacino was supposed to film his “brief but extremely important role” at London’s Pinewood Studios in April or May, with the movie scheduled to come out in November 2008.

Alas, Access Hollywood had to go fact-check the rumor. Turns out it’s not true at all. According to the studio, Pacino is not attached to the project.

(AP Photo / Chris Pizzello)

And when savvy politicians have appeared to be in on the joke, even better.

Prior to Saturday in this abridged season, we’d already seen Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee on “SNL” to lampoon the race for the presidency. During Saturday’s Weekend Update segment, Rudy Giuliani jokingly blamed his previous “SNL” hosting duties for his unsuccessful campaign. And the favorite to claim the GOP presidential nomination, John McCain, has also served as host in a previous season.

Appearing in the opening segment of Saturday’s show was Chappaqua resident Hillary Clinton, who delivered the show’s signature “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” with a wide smile while standing next to cast member Amy Poehler.

Poehler, dressed in a similar coat and pearls, had just impersonated Clinton during a send-up of the most recent Democratic debate (pictured atop this post). When Clinton said she “adored” Poehler’s impersonation of her, the cast member joined her on stage and cackled maniacally when the presidential hopeful demanded her earrings back.

“Do I really laugh like that?” said Clinton, who then appeared to acknowledge that as truth as she and Poehler trailed off in a synchronized mumble.

(AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato; Video created by/courtesy of NBC.com)

I understand the desire to earn a few game show bucks. But honesty, did she really think that after peppering her with a series of hard-hitting polygraphed questions, they were going to hold back, to just ask the softball ones like, “As an employee of a hair salon, have you ever told somebody you liked their hair style when you didn’t?”

In order to get to the $100,000 mark on the show, Cleri was asked by her ex-boyfriend if she wishes she’d married him, and she said “yes.” Then the next question: “Are you a good person?” She answered “yes” and, of course, the lie detector disagreed strongly.

In other words, she probably ruined her marriage and all she got for it was a meesley $0.00. And remember, she knew every single one of the questions that were coming (given to her during the initial polygraph). She could have just as easily walked away after the question preceding the $100,000 one, cashing out and sparing her marriage.

From the sound of Amy Padnani’s report on LoHud, I’m not the only person who finds participation in a show like this baffling. “Think about it first,” said Laura Duran at Bunbury’s Coffee Shop. “Do you really mean it when you say you want to get married?” Gerardo Madera added, “In the end, it’s not even worth it. Some lies are just better left unsaid.”

UPDATE: Just saw the couple on Access Hollywood. Apparently they invited the show’s TV cameras into their Piermont home to give their side of the story.

Question: “Are you guys in therapy?”

Lauren Cleri: “We probably should be.”

”’Truth’ hurts for Piermont couple on reality show” [LoHud.com]

Complete episode of “Moment of Truth” from Feb. 25 [Fox TV]

First, The Journal News broke a story that rapper Lucky Me (below, right), aka “Mr. I Love New City,” aka Stephen Redmond, aka Daven Brown, was charged with felony count of cocaine possession. The arrest, which took place last Friday, Feb 18, was at 18 Francis Place in Central Nyack. Bail for Brown or Lucky Me or whatever he’s calling himself these days was set at $50,000.

Second, the other musical wordsmith known as Fire (below, left) has set our Rockland Magazine inbox on—well, fire. In the March issue, which just came out, we did a short piece comparing Fire and Lucky Me. After the break, find out what the public had to say.

The Fire/Lucky Me story (I’ll post a link when it’s live on the site) was inspired, in part, by one of this blog’s most commented on posts of 2007 (a preview of our Suburbarazzi People of the Year), which drew plenty of smack talk from the two rappers, not to mention their fans. Though they didn’t make our blog’s top 25, the comment back-and-forth inspired a few follow-up posts, as well as the print package.

Anyway, our magazine readers were none too pleased. One, a manager at a Nyack club, said that Fire was a “is a trouble making, drug-dealing, weapon carrying thug” and that he’d been banned from her establishment. “I won’t begin to recount all of the revolting things he has shouted at me and called me,” she wrote. Another reader suggested that the piece should be read as a cautionary notice to parents. Since we pointed out that Fire hangs out at the Palisades Center McDonald’s, the reader said kids should be discouraged from going there.

No word yet on how Mickey D’s feels about all this, but clearly, Rockland’s rap rep took a serious hit today. Where’s Saigon when you need him?

“Rapper who spoke of cocaine use in New City charged with possessing the drug” [LoHud.com]

(Fire photo, left, courtesy Fire; Lucky Me photo, right, The Journal News)

Yes, Panettiere (a Palisades native) will join Wang (who weekends in Pound Ridge) as a spokesperson for department store’s clothing. While Wang shills for her own line of discount sportswear, intimate apparel, handbags, leather accessories, jewelry, footwear, linens and towels, Panettiere will be the face of Candies—a line which has previously been fronted by the likes of Fergie, Hilary Duff, Lizzie McGuire, and Destinys Child.

Thanks to F.O.S. Amy Vernon for the tip.

“Heroes Star Gets Candies” [BuddyTV]

(Image Courtesy Iconix Brand Group, Inc.)

At the end of the video and after the break is the answer to this week’s quiz: In winning the Oscar for Short Subject Documentary, Croton native Cynthia Wade actually beat out another Lower Hudson Valley product. “Salim Babaâ€? director Francisco Bello graduated in 1998 from which local institution?

A. Hendrick Hudson High School
B. Ossining High School
C. Scarsdale High School

The answer is B) Ossining High School. If you got this right, you likely either guessed or had gym class with him!