Cameos Galore in Shelton’s Boxing Ode

Look for the following celebrity cameos ringside in Ron Shelton’s boxing-themed drama “Play It to the Bone,” which opens Saturday: Kevin Costner, Wesley Snipes, James Woods, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Drew Carey, Jennifer Tilly, Tony Curtis and, at a post-fight party, former Clinton paramour Gennifer Flowers. Also in the film, as sportswriters of course, are Times sports editor Bill Dywre, columnist Randy Harvey and reporter Steve Springer. The film is dedicated to the late Times columnist Allan Malamud, a friend of Shelton, whom the director describes as “a huge man with bad hair and a big heart.”

SEXIST SQUAD?: You wouldn’t necessarily expect a raft of female characters in a gridiron drama, but there’s no shortage of them in Oliver Stone’s latest, “Any Given Sunday.” The problem? Even the most sympathetic female character, Lela Rochon, is a bit of a harridan. The others include an alcohol and drug addict (Ann-Margret), a cast-iron witch (Cameron Diaz), a hooker (Elizabeth Berkley) and even a husband abuser (Lauren Holly).

ON DONDER: The powers that be at Miramax changed the title of the upcoming John Frankenheimer thriller “Reindeer Games” to the bland-sounding “Deception” . . . for about one minute. Luckily, clear heads prevailed, and the boring one-word title has been changed back to the original “Reindeer Games.” The film, which stars Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise and Charlize Theron, will open in February.

MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES: Amid Hollywood’s year-end hoopla, a film you’ve probably never heard of--”The Mysteries of Egypt”--has slipped into the top 20 at the weekly box office, coming in last weekend at No. 19, one spot below Barry Levinson’s critically acclaimed “Liberty Heights.” The large-format film, the first such effort from National Geographic, is a mere 40 minutes and narrated by Omar Sharif, who plays a character explaining to his granddaughter the origin of the pyramids and the 1922 discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen by British archeologist Howard Carter. The film, currently playing at 23 theaters nationwide and has grossed $25.9 million thus far, will open Jan. 28 at the California Science Center’s Imax Theater in Exposition Park.