The Beat

Subtlety has never been a hallmark of British tabloids. Take this recent headline from London's Daily Mail: THE TENNIS WORLD TOOK ME FOR A LESBIAN. BUT I'VE BEEN MARRIED, WIDOWED AND AM ABOUT TO BECOME MRS. 007. Readers who took the bait—and who in his right mind wouldn't—learned that former tennis player Pam Shriver, 39, has gotten engaged to Australian actor George Lazenby, 62, best known for playing James Bond in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Shriver, whose previous husband, lawyer Joe Shapiro, died of cancer in 1999, met Lazenby when she was a teenager during a tournament in Australia. They reconnected when mutual friends brought them together at Wimbledon in 2000. "We're at different stages of our lives," says Shriver. "But it works." Shriver says the wedding will probably be "sometime in the middle of next year."...

Hollywood, always a fast town, is about to become faster. Dennis Quaid, who stars as Jim Morris, the pitcher who reached the majors as a 35-year-old in 1999, in Disney's upcoming feature The Rookie, is developing a film project about the life of NASCAR driver Richard Petty. The movie will center on the strained relationship between Petty (right) and his father, Lee, also a stock car driver. Meanwhile, NBC has two NASCAR-themed series in the works. The first, set in the world of stock car racing, is being written and directed by Sylvester Stallone. The other project is being developed by screenwriter Gary Scott Thompson (The Fast and the Furious). It will focus on the family lives of two NASCAR drivers....

On the subject of upcoming nuptials, now that new Yankee Jason Giambi (page 46) has taken care of his career plans, he's getting his personal life in order. Giambi will wed fianc�e Kristian Rice in February, and the couple hopes to have children soon. "I'd like them to see their dad play baseball," Rice says, "instead of telling them about it." Giambi and Rice have looked into places to live on Manhattan's Upper East Side.