The Beat

Last month Ben Roethlisberger told reporters that he preferred meeting women over the Internet. Consider Knicks rookie David Lee a bit more low-tech--he finds romance at bowling alleys. Two weeks ago Lee joined some teammates, snowboarder Shaun White, model Petra Nemcova, actress Chloe Sevigny (Big Love) and singer Michelle Williams for Knicks Bowl 7, a charity kegling event in Manhattan. The evening netted more than $200,000 for local after-school programs, but Lee scored as well: He landed the digits of Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Anne V, with whom he shared a lane. A week later V sported Lee's jersey while watching him score seven points in a loss to the Nuggets at Madison Square Garden, and the pair took in a Rangers home game together last Thursday.

? No, Carmelo Anthony will not be sporting Kiss makeup. But the Nuggets' leading scorer is teaming up with the band's former frontman, Gene Simmons. The two are combining with IndyCar owner Ron Hemelgarn this season to put 27-year-old IRL rookie P.J. Chesson behind the wheel of a blue-and-white ride that they're dubbing Car Melo. Anthony says he won't be taking any laps behind the wheel. Says the 6'8" NBA star, "I can't fit in no Indy car."

? Pacers backup point guard Sarunas Jasikevicius, a native of Lithuania, became engaged to former Miss World and Israeli national Linor Abergil (left), whom he met while leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to back-to-back Euroleague championships in 2004 and 2005. (The two haven't chosen a date yet.) The news made headlines in Israeli papers, but National Jewish Front chairman Baruch Marzel wasn't thinking mazel tov when he fired off a letter to the bride-to-be after the announcement. Marzel urged Abergil to dump her intended because he's not of the Jewish faith. "I have nothing against [Jasikevicius], and he may well be a wonderful, charming man," he wrote. "But I urge you in the last minute not to make this move." Jasikevicius's response to Marzel's suggestion: "It's just one guy."

? The joke is getting a bit old, but before it expires completely, the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL had a Dick Cheney Hunting Vest Night, giving away 1,000 orange vests with don't shoot, i'm human emblazoned on the back. That's almost as funny as the Las Vegas Wranglers being in the East Coast Hockey League.

? What's next: A Streetcar Named Minnie Minoso? A suburban Boston theater is reviving the 1955 Broadway musical Damn Yankees with a twist--they've replaced the Washington Senators with the Red Sox. In the 1955 original a fan makes a deal with the devil to help the now-extinct Senators defeat those damn Yanks. The updated version, which opens at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass., on April 25, swaps in a Sox fan instead.