Sports Beat

Old heavyweight champs never die, they just end up in low-budget, direct-to-video movies. Take, for instance, James (Buster) Douglas, who recently finished filming Pluto's Plight, a sci-fi comedy about aliens who crash-land on Pluto. Douglas, who in 1990 handed Mike Tyson his first defeat, plays an FBI agent in the movie. "I'm like the Will Smith character in Men in Black," says the retired boxer, who was approached by filmmaker Artie Knapp in April 2001 about the role. Even though Knapp admits he went after the boxer for his name value rather than his acting skills, Douglas believes he has a future as a thespian. "There's a lot of acting in boxing," says Douglas, who cites Sidney Poitier as an influence. "You have to go into character sometimes. When you get caught with a shot, you have to make it appear that everything is cold steady." Douglas and Knapp have already started on their next project, Tomorrow People, in which Douglas will play a college professor. Well, the man did take Tyson to school....

?Speaking of broadening one's horizons, former Giant Lawrence Taylor, who was last seen playing a transvestite in the Showtime series Going to California, will voice a character in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the latest entry in the popular video game franchise. Mark Lepselter, Taylor's agent, says Taylor will play "a nasty guy who likes to destroy people." Taylor is also being considered for a role in a possible Grand Theft Auto feature. Says Lepselter, "Aligning himself with the Number 1 video game is a positive step in his career. He's showing his diversity as an entertainment talent."

? Roy Williams knows a little something about hitting it big. In April, Williams was the Cowboys' top selection in the NFL draft (the eighth pick overall), and in the next few weeks the standout safety from Oklahoma is expected to receive a multiyear deal averaging more than $2 million a year. Striking it rich runs in the family: Last month Williams's aunt Vecepia Towery won the $1 million grand prize on CBS's Survivor: Marquesas. After Towery won, Williams called her and said, "Welcome to the million-dollar club." Williams says he and Towery have compared notes about the pressures of fame, though as far as Williams is concerned, his aunt's stardom outshines his. "I go to work and do my job," says Williams. "Vecepia is different. She's a real celebrity. She won Survivor in front of millions of people, and that takes skill. Compared to that, what I'll be doing is nothing."

?Who's the hardest-working fan at the World Cup? Try Lamar Hunt, owner of the NFL's Chiefs and MLS's Kansas City Wizards and Columbus Crew. Soccer fanatic Hunt, 69, has not only been a fixture at the U.S. squad's matches, but he is also determined to watch games in all 20 World Cup stadiums in Japan and South Korea. "If I don't sleep through any alarm clocks or miss any flights, I just might make it," Hunt said on Monday from the Brazil- Belgium game in Kobe, Japan, site number 15 in his odyssey. If Hunt succeeds, it will be the third straight World Cup in which he has seen matches in every stadium.