Inqlings: Eight-part BET show about Vick
Next year, BET Networks will unleash an eight-part documentary about Eagles QB Michael Vick. Vick told The Inquirer's Bob Brookover yesterday that he'd been working on the project since he was serving a year and a half in Leavenworth, Kan., for running a dogfighting ring.
Next year, BET Networks will unleash an eight-part documentary about Eagles QB Michael Vick.
Vick told The Inquirer's Bob Brookover yesterday that he'd been working on the project since he was serving a year and a half in Leavenworth, Kan., for running a dogfighting ring.
"I was blown away by his willingness to be honest about everything," said producer Brian Sher. Vick saw the Sher-produced MTV documentary Road to Redemption, which followed rapper T.I.'s year on probation before serving jail time, and called.
"We met, and I was very intrigued and compelled by his story, and I've grown to like him as a person," Sher told me. "I believed he was sincere. If I thought he was anything other than that, I wouldn't have done it."
Sher cautions that the half-hour episodes are not reality TV, but a look at Vick from his early days to the present day.
Yesterday, Vick said: "People never had a chance to know Mike Vick outside of football. They know me from the case and football, and that's not fair to me, that's not fair to my family, or fair to my fans. I want people to see what I'm all about."
Vick said his focus was on football and not TV: "I think, as the season goes on, I won't have time for it, but, hopefully, some time in 2010 we can pick up where we left off."
He said his motivation was to teach kids. "I think it's important to show our youth and our kids . . . that you face adversity, but you're not responsible for falling - you're responsible for getting up," he said. "I'm very remorseful about what happened and what I did. I just don't want other people to go down that path, and I want to repair past damages."
Among his damages is bankruptcy. Under terms of Vick's settlement, he has to repay $20 million. During bankruptcy hearings this spring, before his release from prison, his lawyers mentioned that he had agreed to a "television documentary deal" worth $600,000.
BET and Sher did not disclose terms of the deal. An Eagles rep did not return messages seeking comment.
One sad aspect of Vick's past has received reality treatment: DogTown, a show on the National Geographic Channel, did an episode on the rehab of four of Vick's pit bulls.
Talking baseball
The Phillies' spot in the playoffs dovetails nicely with the release of the fourth episode from Sam Katz and Mark Moskowitz's multimedia-history project, Philadelphia: The Great Experiment. "Base Ball: Philadelphia's Game" traces the history of baseball in town, and comes with a companion piece featuring Jimmy Rollins. See it at www.historyofphilly.com.
Cinematically speaking
Rittenhouse's Rosenbach Museum & Library, a repository of all things Maurice Sendak, will benefit from a Wednesday advance screening of Spike Jonze's film adaptation of the Sendak book Where the Wild Things Are, which opens Oct. 16. For tickets to the $100-a-head sneak at the Ritz East: 215-732-1600.
Pantano moves
Bob Pantano has relocated his Saturday Night Dance Party from Benny the Bum's in South Philly to the Adelphia at 1750 Clements Bridge Rd. in Deptford, where he entertains Thursday nights. Last weekend, Chubby Checker celebrated his birthday and sang "The Fly." The Saturday-night show, now 32 years old, airs on WOGL (98.1) and for Jersey Shore listeners on WTTH (96.1).
In the string of things
Ardmore natives Mark and Michael Ludwig performed Tuesday at the Capitol for the Dalai Lama as he received the Lantos Human Rights Prize. Program was a Mozart duo for violin (Michael) and viola (Mark). Michael Ludwig, concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic, laughed off any notions of slipping in a few bars of "Hello, Dolly."