This seems a sure way to break into Hollywood

Text messages from press row ...

Elton Brand’s wife, Shahara, landed a cameo role in the new Werner Herzog-directed movie “Rescue Dawn,” which is no surprise considering that her husband, the entrepreneurial Clippers forward, is one of the film’s producers....

Brand might win an Oscar before he wins an NBA title....

BTW, Herzog also directed “Grizzly Man,” which was not about Pau Gasol....

Speaking of Spaniards, Rudy Fernandez of the Portland Trail Blazers, who was the 24th pick in the NBA draft last month, is the younger brother of Sparks rookie Marta Fernandez....

Mark Bartelstein said last week that free agent Derek Fisher would consider playing in Cleveland and recently the former (and future?) Lakers guard hired a new agent, replacing Bartelstein with Rob Pelinka....

Coincidence? ...

Tickets for UCLA’s game against Notre Dame on Oct. 6 at the Rose Bowl are available only through mini-plan or season-ticket packages, meaning that you’ve got to pony up for at least two other games if you want to be there to see the Irish make a rare appearance in Pasadena....

Johnny Booty could be busy calculating quarterback ratings and tallying frequent-flyer mileage this fall, what with son Jake playing high school football in Louisiana, son John David playing college ball at USC and son Josh playing pro ball in Oakland as a Raiders backup....

In a surf-and-turf stunt that could make stepping onto the sand unadvisable, the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing will host a cattle drive of about 100 steer to the Huntington Beach Pier on July 26, a cross-promotion with the OC Fair....

Tom Lasorda is scheduled to be honored today as the first inductee into the Albuquerque Baseball Hall of Fame, the ninth hall of fame to induct the yarn-spinning former Dodgers manager who guided the triple-A Albuquerque Dukes to a 92-52 record and the Pacific Coast League championship in 1972....

Steve Lavin, unable to endear himself to the UCLA family during his tenure as Bruins basketball coach, may have alienated himself anew this week -- and not just among Bruins -- with the e-mail announcement that he and fiancee Mary Jarou have canceled their lavish Laguna Beach wedding, planned for next month, and instead will be wed in a presumably smaller ceremony in Europe....

BTW, all reports to the contrary, John Wooden had respectfully declined an invitation to be Lavin’s best man....

Dodgers Manager Grady Little, who in six seasons and 162 games as a minor league catcher batted .207 with two home runs and 37 runs batted in, says most players right themselves when they experience downturns, but notes, “I was in a slump my whole playing career. That’s why I do what I do now.” ...

Forty years ago today, the Angels hosted the longest All-Star game ever played, an Anaheim Stadium marathon won by the National League, 2-1, on a 15th-inning home run by Tony Perez off Catfish Hunter....

When seven-time men’s champion Pete Sampras and four-time women’s titlist Venus Williams say they enjoy the rain delays at Wimbledon, it’s obvious they’ve never attended the waterlogged fortnight as spectators....

How odd that, 40 years apart, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods were denied major championships by the only Argentines who’ve ever won major titles, Nicklaus finishing second to Roberto de Vicenzo at the British Open in 1967 and Woods tying for second behind Angel Cabrera last month at the U.S. Open....

A son of 1991 Hollywood Gold Cup winner Marquetry out of a mare named Swimmingly, Marq Spits sports a name befitting a champion but nevertheless finished 11th in a 12-horse field Sunday at Churchill Downs....

Joan Benoit Samuelson, who will compete Sunday in the Keep L.A. Running charity 10K at Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey, has qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials every four years since winning the inaugural Olympic women’s marathon in 1984 and plans to run in the race one last time next April in Boston.

“I’m 50,” the gold medalist says, “so I’d like to run a 2:50.” ...

--

jerome.crowe@latimes.com

T.J. Simers is on vacation.