Last week’s Famous People feature noted that the Maple Leafs hockey team had Macs in their media boxes. In the course of their sweep of the Ottawa Senators, the Ottawa Citizen newspaper’s sports section had a big photo of glum-looking hockey players reviewing footage of their last loss, in preparation for what turned out to be the final game of the series, according to MacCentral reader David Reevely
“It was shot head-on; the photographer must have been right above the screen or screens they were watching,” he told MacCentral. “On the big table they were sitting were three laptops hooked up to a lot of wires. Two of them were clearly PowerBooks, either Lombards or Pismos. The third looked like a ThinkPad. As far as I know, it hasn’t yet been blamed for the team’s rotten play.”
Last week Ken Kay bumped into Sinbad, a well-known Mac fan, at the local CompUSA store in Augusta, GA. Kay said the actor-comedian “bought some stuff after signing autographs and having the staff take pictures of him.”
Alice Randall, the controversial Nashville-based author of the recently banned book, “The Wind Done Gone,” uses a PowerBook Lombard to write all of her novels, screenplays, and songs, according to Rick Ewing. He should know as he’s her brother-in-law.
“I configured the laptop myself,” he said.
Will Bramhill heard “on the grapevine” that the BBC 6 o’clock news team is now using £6,000 made-to-order Titanium PowerBooks for its roving reporters working on early evening bulletins. However, we haven’t yet confirmed this.
Music
On April 25, Larry Walsh and his wife attended the Johnatha Brooke and Kim Richey concert in Pittsburgh, PA. The soundman was using a Titanium PowerBook to record the show digitally.
“He was very protective of his equipment and would not get into the particulars of his hardware or software,” Walsh said. “One thing was clear: the bright, right side up Apple logo on the back of the screen could be seen from everywhere in the dark club.”
The group Plaid is now on tour and has two TiPBs with them, according to TJ Marbois. He said they’re using the portables with Logic Audio. If you’re unfamiliar with Plaid, they’ve written music for Bjork and are very well respected in the dance music arena. The group is signed to Warp Records.
TV
In the TV show “Will and Grace,” the character Jack does his writing on an iBook, reported John Frederick. Drew Carey almost always has an iBook or iMac appear on his self-titled show. And if you look on David Spade’s desk on NBC’s “Just Shoot Me” sitcom, you’ll see an iBook (sans Apple Logo) and an Apple flat panel display in his boss’s office, noted Jim Winters
MTV’s “Undressed” is choc full of iMacs and iBooks. Just about every episode has a Mac or two in it.
A Titanium PowerBook was seen on the April 27 episode of Fox’s “The Lone Gunman.”
The staff and the hosts of Nickelodeon programs in Latin America show and work with all G3 CPUs and Apple monitors, said Pablo Fusanelli.
The laptops used on the canceled “Pretender” were almost always PowerBook G3s, noted Justin “Tuck” Cordesman.
A TV ad for the Bose Wave Radio shows a Centris in a kitchen area near the Bose radio, reported Paul Barr.
Movies
In the thriller, “What Lies Beneath,” there’s at least one PowerBook G3 to be seen, according to Brendan Porter, who has also spotted Apple products in the recent movies, “Tomcats” and “Along Came a Spider,” as well as an All-in-One Mac on the not-new remake of “Flubber” (the one with Robin Williams).
Keith Fletcher recently saw “Town & Country” (with Goldie Hawn, Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton) and said it prominently features PowerBooks throughout.
Speaking of new films, “Bridget Jones’ Diary” shows lots of iMacs and 15-inch Apple Studio Displays on Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant’s characters’ desks.
“Not surprisingly, both work for a London publishing house in the movie,” said Richard Tamesis.
(If you’ve sent us an item for our Famous People column, please be patient. It will appear, but we’ve been swamped with entries. If you know of a famous person using the Mac, send it to Yours Truly at dsellers@maccentral.com. If you want credit for your “Mac spotting,” be sure to include your full name.)