The Beat

As anyone who has seen her Nike commercial knows, Maria Sharapova feels pretty. (Oh, so pretty.) So it's hardly surprising that Sharapova celebrated her U.S. Open title by hitting Fall Fashion Week in New York City. Along with friend and former The O.C. star Mischa Barton (below), she sat in the front row at Marc Jacobs's runway presentation. Men's Open champ Roger Federer was also feeling fashionable, and at the Oscar De La Renta show--he attended with his girlfriend, Mirka Vavrinec--he was treated as the most special person in the room. During the event the Dominican designer gave him a bouquet of red and white roses. (They were delivered by runway model Tanya Dziahileva.) Said De La Renta, "I love tennis, so I loved having Federer there."

? "Understated sporty elegance." A slogan for a new cologne? No--it is how Cynthia Carr Gardner, a stylist from Marblehead, Mass., describes the look she's fashioned for Joe Theismann and his Monday Night Football boothmates, Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser. In May, Gardner, who has dressed B.B. King, Terry Bradshaw and MNF reporter Suzy Kolber in the past, was hired to punch up the guys' on-air wardrobes. The result: a 90-piece custom-tailored Canali collection that, she says, impresses without distracting. What's the secret to making a newspaperman like Kornheiser look GQ? "With less hair you want a little more strength in colors," says Gardner, who adds that Theismann "can put a piece of burlap on, and he looks beautiful."

? Former SI columnist Bill Scheft, who's also written for The Late Show with David Letterman, the ESPYs and the Oscars, plays an umpire in the softball comedy Beer League, which stars Ralph Macchio and was directed by Saturday Night Live writer Frank Sebastiano. "I had three lines," Scheft says. "'Play ball,' 'Take your base,' and I make a gigantic 'Out!' call. They cut my fourth line, which was: 'Does this look infected?'" Scheft knows a thing or two about suds-soaked softball: His 2002 novel, The Ringer, is about a New York sandlot mercenary. Scheft's latest book, Time Won't Let Me, was named a finalist for the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor.

? ESPN is turning Jonathan Mahler's best seller, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, into an eight-part miniseries. Set against the backdrop of the 1977 Son of Sam killings and citywide New York blackouts, Burning will focus on two characters from the World Series--winning Yankees: outfielder Reggie Jackson and manager Billy Martin. Neither role has been cast.