WORLD TOP SPORTS

During the Fox broadcast of "Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special" Dec. 7, special guest Dolly Parton stated she was at work creating a new musical based on her life. “I’ve been working on my life story as a musical,” Parton told Underwood. When Underwood asked the country legend who might get to play her, she replied, “I think Kristin Chenoweth would be real good.” Chenoweth was a special guest on the program and made her desire to sing with Dolly known in several comedy bits. “But seriously, I’m hoping that she might possibly do that when I get finished,” Parton said. Toward the end of their chat, which led into “I Will Always Love You,” Parton added that she hadn’t made up her mind and told Underwood that with enough padding on top, she could also fill her boots.

Dollywood has won 15 Big E Awards in the past four years, more than any other theme park in the world. The Heartbeat Award was presented on Nov. 18 during the International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions Expo’s annual Big E Entertainment Awards ceremony in Las Vegas. Dollywood Entertainment Director Paul T. Couch accepted the award, on behalf of Parton and Dollywood. The Big E Awards recognize the best theme park shows in the world. “Sha-Kon-O-Hey! tells the story of folks like me who grew up in the Smoky Mountains,” Parton said. “I was truly honored to tell our story through my heartfelt words and music, and I’m just tickled that IAAPA chose to honor us with its prestigious Heartbeat Award. My heart sure beat a little faster when I heard the good news!” “No one can touch the hearts of an audience better than Dolly,” Couch said. “Her words and music allowed the spirit of our story to soar as high as the Great Smoky Mountains.” Sha-Kon-O-Hey! features eight original songs written by Parton and tells the story of the last family leaving the area that would become Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Couch developed the concept and storyline along with Chicago-based writer David Bell who wrote the musical’s script. Sha-Kon-O-Hey! returns in May 2010 for Dollywood’s 25^th anniversary season. Dollywood won three additional Big E Awards this year. Creature Adventures starring the Kratt Brothers, which premiered in 2008 and headlined the park’s annual KidsFest event for two consecutive years, won Best Live Edutainment Show. Park performer Gabriel Myers from Dreamland Drive-In won Best Male Performer. Dollywood’s Gem Tones, an a capella group that performs ’50s and ‘60s music, won honorable mention as Best Atmosphere/Street Performer. This year’s win marks Dollywood’s fourth consecutive Heartbeat Award. Dollywood’s previous Heartbeat Award winners are Dreamland Drive-In (2008 & 2006) and The Great American Country Show (2007). IAAPA is the largest international trade association for permanently situated amusement facilities worldwide. The organization represents more than 4,500 facility, supplier, and individual members from more than 90 countries.

Police in Bloomington, Minnesota arrested a man on Monday for throwing a tomato at Sarah Palin during her book tour appearance at the Mall of America. The former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential was not hit, but tomato fragments struck two police officers. The tomato flung from the second level balcony hit the stage and missed Palin by 10 feet, according to WCCO-TV. People on the balcony helped the police apprehend the suspect. ”Police identified him as 33-year-old Jeremy Paul Olson from St. Paul, but they think he also goes by the name Jeremiah Wobbe,” reported WCCO-TV. “Police said he was arrested and booked on assault and disorderly conduct charges. Officers added that when they arrested him, they found two more tomatoes he'd been carrying.”
“She''s done a lot to draw attention to herself that''s positive,” Politico quoted Santorum, as saying. "She has done some things that, you know, certainly are going to cause her to have to do some explaining if she runs for president,” he added. During an interview on ABC’s “Top Line”, Santorum said: “But right now I think she''s on a roll, she''s having a good time, she''s having an impact. “If you''re sitting here out of office, the thing you want to do is have an impact on the direction of the country right now, if you''re not governing things. And she''s having an impact,” he continued. On his own 2012 presidential ambitions, Santorum said that he’s “absolutely taking a look” at building a presidential campaign. “But look, I''m doing it in the context that right now, there very important matters and I want to weigh into those matters as to what the Republican Party stands for in 2010,” he said. "I think I''ve been very clear that, you know, we need to stand foursquare on the traditional values,” he added.

On a wind-tossed desert night, the dream of space pioneers Richard Branson and Burt Rutan to bring space flight to everyone -- at least everyone who can afford it -- drew closer to reality when the pair unveiled the world's first commercial passenger spacecraft. To the strings of an ethereal soundtrack, as dreamlike purple lights played across the runway, the VSS Enterprise rolled into view at the Mojave Air and Space Port, about 95 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Despite the bracing wind-chill factor, hundreds of people who had flown in from around the world to view the craft burst into cheers and applause. "Isn't that the sexiest spaceship ever?" shouted shaggy-haired British billionaire Branson. Mock-ups of the design had been released earlier, but this was the first public glimpse of the much-anticipated craft. The crowd that gathered for the event, which recalled the trippy music and dancing lights in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," could hardly have agreed more. But then about 300 of them had already paid $200,000 each to be among Branson and Rutan's first paying passengers on Virgin Galactic. Referred to by Branson as future astronauts, they included Mario Ferrera, 41, a Portuguese businessman who was one of the first to sign up with the company five years ago.

Burt Rutan sain that, "I want to be the first Portuguese to go to space," L.A. resident Natasha Pavlovich, 31, a native of Serbia, was also one of the earliest ticket holders. Like Ferrara, she wanted to bring pride to her native country, adding that she bought her ticket on credit and with the help of family. "Serbs have gotten a bad name in the press," she said. "I want to uplift all Serbs." In 2004, Rutan's first craft became the first private spaceship to reach the edge of space, claiming the $10-million Ansari X Prize in the process. Following that feat, Branson, the founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Records, approached Rutan, an aerospace designer, tinkerer and visionary -- with a plan to build a passenger space plane. In the ensuing years, Rutan and his company, Scaled Composites, have worked on the project in the Mojave Desert amid an atmosphere of secrecy more befitting a new weapons system than a transportation vehicle. Work on the VSS (for Virgin Space Ship) Enterprise has been marked by delay and tragedy. In 2007, three of Rutan's employees were killed and three seriously injured in an engine-test failure in Mojave. But, according to Rutan, Branson never lost his enthusiasm for the project. "I'm grateful to Richard for sticking with us," he said. Calling to mind Lou Gehrig's famous speech at Yankee Stadium, Rutan said: "I'm the luckiest man in the tent." At the unveiling, the spacecraft was attached to its carrier plane. The plane will carry the spacecraft and its six passengers and two pilots to an altitude of 50,000 feet before releasing it. From there, a rocket motor will carry the craft the rest of the way to the edge of space -- about 325,000 feet, or 60 miles, from Earth. Passengers will be able not only to see the curvature of their planet but to experience weightlessness. Rutan gave no specific date for the first passenger flights, but officials said Virgin Galactic hopes to begin testing early next year, with the first flights in 2011. Among the dignitaries in attendance were Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who bantered with each other as though they were on the rubber-chicken circuit. The craft was built in Schwarzenegger's state, but it will conduct its operations from Richardson's state, from a base outside Las Cruces called Spaceport America. Noting that passengers will have four minutes of weightlessness, Schwarzenegger joked: "No one is more happy than Gov. Richardson about that." The more rotund Richardson laughed as hard as anyone, but then needled Schwarzenegger later: "Governor, you should join me in going to space, but I want you to go first." Branson said the name "Enterprise" was chosen both to honor the British and American navy ships that have borne the name and to evoke the famed, fictional "Star Trek" spacecraft. When the event concluded, guests toasted each other with champagne, while outside stood a full-sized carved-ice statue of an Apollo astronaut.