The Beat

In May, 2K Sports, maker of NBA 2K7, announced that it had fixed a glitch in the video game, which is due in stores Sept. 25: After users complained that Steve Nash's long hair didn't "flow" properly in NBA 2K6, the graphics of the Suns guard's trademark mane were made more realistic. The game designers have more work cut out for them. Last week the NBA MVP showed up at a basketball camp in Vancouver with his head shaved (below, left). "I don't really have a rhyme or reason," he said. "I felt like taking it off." Nash should be prepared for stares from startled fans. The man who used to look like Pete Maravich on the court is now more reminiscent of Andrae Gonzalo (above, right), one of the designer finalists on season two of NBC's fashion reality show, Project Runway.

? In 26 years of acting Tom Hanks has never done a road-trip flick, but for turning 50 on July 9, Hanks gave himself a birthday present of a luxury bus tour of major league parks with his good buddies Dennis Miller and Ron Howard. "The only requisite," said Hanks, "is that you have to be a baseball fan and funny to get on the bus." The excursion kicked off at Baltimore's Camden Yards (Hanks led an O-R-I-O-L-E-S chant while there), hit Pittsburgh's PNC Park the next day and stopped at Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark on the 19th. Hanks, who sold peanuts and soda during A's games at Oakland--Alameda County Coliseum as a high schooler, wouldn't say where the trio's next stop would be, but he did seem to have his eyes set on the brand-new Busch Stadium. "Tom is so influential," Miller said, "he's arranged a St. Louis Browns game."

? It's official: The Clippers' days as a punchline franchise are over. In the movie Resurrecting the Champ, which will hit theaters next year, Josh Hartnett plays a reporter who is searching for a retired boxer. In a scene being filmed last week, the script called for Hartnett to mention how much his six-year-old son (played by Dakota Goyo) loves the Clippers--and for another character ( Alan Alda) to remark that the kid should find a less "pathetic" team to follow. But Hartnett, an NBA fan, knew the line no longer rings true: The Clips made their first playoff appearance in nine years last season and took the Suns to a seventh game in the Western Conference semifinals. Hartnett called for a rewrite--and his celluloid son is now a Trail Blazers fan.

? Will Ferrell has been a race car driver (in Talladega Nights, in theaters on Aug. 4), a soccer coach (Kicking and Screaming) and a figure skater (in Blades of Glory, to be released next year), and he's already eyeing his next sports role. Ferrell recently told The Dallas Morning News that he'd like to spend some time on the hardwood in a comedy about the American Basketball Association. "There's plenty of stuff to work with from that league," he said.