Sports Beat

Red Wings center Sergei Fedorov's disclosure that he and Anna Kournikova were briefly married a couple of years ago—confirming long-swirling rumors—was a revelation to at least one person. Alla Kournikova, the winless wonder's mom, told SI, "It's a surprise to me. I don't know anything about it." Alla, who splits her time between Miami and Moscow, says she still has a place in her heart for the Russian Rocket. "I love them both very much," she says. "I would love to see him and her happy together, but what can I do?" That's not to say she disapproved of Anna's next beau, Enrique Iglesias, who met the tennis pinup when she acted in his Escape video late in 2001. Says Alla, "Enrique's a real nice guy. Gentle, among many, many other things."

?People who showed up at Manhattan's Ed Sullivan Theater for the Feb. 27 taping of The Late Show must have all had the same thought: You have got to be kidding me! Instead of David Letterman, who was out with an eye infection, they got John McEnroe. The 44-year-old tennis bad boy delivered a monologue, noting that Letterman's eye problem "qualifies him to be an umpire on the tennis tour." While there were periods of dead air, McEnroe acquitted himself well, even showing a Lettermanesque side when he turned to oft-married guest Tom Arnold and said, "Aren't you the male Liz Taylor?"

?After a successful off-Broadway run last fall, playwright Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out has opened on the Great White Way to glowing reviews. The play, which was partly inspired by then Braves pitcher John Rocker's inflammatory remarks to SI, tells the story of a racially mixed ballplayer who reveals he's gay. The baseball environment feels authentic, partly because director Joe Mantello brought in ex-major leaguer Keith Hernandez to coach the cast during rehearsals last year.

? Robert Wuhl, the titular ten-percent man on HBO's Arli$$, has signed to cowrite and direct an HBO movie about last October's Pick Six scam, in which three former frat brothers tried to fleece the betting community for $3 million. "To me it's about growing up," says Wuhl, who hopes the film will be ready by year's end. "This is about three 29-year-old buddies who thought they could get away with it. They didn't know how the world works."...

Speaking of ponies, sneaker-maker Pony is using adult-film stars such as Jenna Jameson in its ads. "When I grew up in the '80s in Paris, models were the ultimate feminine ideal," said Come Chantrel, a Pony rep. "For the 20-year-old kid, porn stars have kind of replaced what models used to represent."...

Meanwhile Nike is paying 24-year-old Grace Park, who was sixth on the LPGA money list last year, $1.8 million over four years to become the first LPGA tour player signed to use Nike clubs....

An unforgettable part of filming How to Lose a Gay in 10 Days? Costar Matthew McConaughey picks the scene in which he and Kate Hudson are at an NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden. After filming the pair shot hoops on the Garden court. "You just kept thinking about all the people who've been on that floor," says McConaughey....

NASCAR Busch series driver Stanton Barrett doesn't get to relax at his day job. As a stuntman in the box office hit Cradle 2 the Grave (starring DMX and Jet Li), last summer Barrett, 30, broke several bones in his feet doing motorcycle work, then drove in a 300-mile race a week and a half later. Barrett—who drives for Roush Racing—is also a stuntman in Gods and General with Robert Duvall. "In that one I was mainly just blowing up," he says.