FIRST THINGS FIRST

Earlier this week Camilo Villegas mentioned that he was going to be “filming a commercial” before taking some much needed rest. Before I had even started my investigation into what commercial our beast was filming, east coast Camilo Villegas correspondent Elena had already done her homework: “A little thing about Camilo… the TV Ad he is shooting in Colombia is from one of his sponsors, Cerveza Club Colombia, which is a premium beer of one of the biggest brewery companies in the world Bavaria SAB Miller. Attached you will find the link with the video. He looks really relaxed and sexy as usual.” Indeed. I suspect this isnt the ‘new’ commercial, but certainly worthy of being added to our sporn collection. There are plenty of JL belt buckle close-ups, as well as a plethora of crawling activities. If you can take your eyes off his strong, tan arms and luscious lips, check out how our kitten stands while teeing off. Its almost as if he’s daring us to scream ‘in the hole’…

RAFAEL NADAL ‘APRENEM JUNTS’

On Monday, Rafael Nadal and his Uncle Toni attended “Aprenem Junts” (Let’s Learn Together) at the Balearic Islands Music and Dance Conservatory. Rafa was on hand to answer questions for the 600-plus kids who were invited to attend, and to teach them values such as perseverance, humility and respect. The event was in conjunction with the Iberostar Foundation, which our Rafa supports. And if you’re looking for something to cuddle-up with, Nike has these awesome Rafa inspired Mallorca T’s available- which are perfect to wear while we countdown each second until Rafa’s next court appearance at Chennai Tennis Open, (Jan 1-7th). In the meantime, feel free to drool over the Rafael Nadal Advent Calendar, which is interactive, full of photos, Rafa quotes, and suitable for any libido.

THE NBA AND FEMALE MARKETING
Years ago, when I started writing, I was desperate to find merchandise that was team specific, in any sport, and made for women. Through the years, I’ve seen various attempts by the NFL and MLB, and Ms. Milano. Now, finally, the NBA has pulled its head out of its ass and is “undertaking a push with female-specific marketing and female-specific products.” (SAC BEE).

NBA Dir of Apparel Licensing Lisa Piken said that the female market could “represent $100[M] in sales this year.” (NO shit Sherlock!) NBA VP/Advertising, Marketing Development & Integration Carol Albert: “What we saw around the playoffs was that our ratings were up 33[%] with women.” Howard-Cooper notes the league has “moved forward with design, production and sales of clothes and accessories for women, from bathing suits to dresses to pajamas to jewelry and, maybe one day, purses.” The NBA expects to launch a line of beach wear with Ocean Pacific later this season, has a joint venture with adidas for female jerseys, and NBA-themed jewelry is now on sale. Piken: “It’s one of those things where we never really marketed to women before. … If you create merchandise for them, they will buy it.” (Again, NO shit Sherlock). In any case, I’m not a big fan of the merchandise I’ve seen…so I’ll stick to oversized jerseys and cool kicks to show my team support.

SUPPORT THIS

I do like the wristbands, which are part of the NBA’s partnership with the Prostrate Cancer Foundation. The new fundraising initiative includes personal wristbands featuring NBA hotties with the player’s name, signature, uniform number and team logo on them. You can buy them here.

TOUR DE ITALIA

Let’s just move the stupid Tour De farce to Italy and call it a day. Team Discovery has added sexy Italian beast, Ivan Basso to the team with a two-year, multimillion-dollar deal. Beautiful Basso was implicated in the French-are-crying-wolf again-doping scandal before this year’s Tour de France but was later cleared by the Italian Olympic Committee. According to Sal Ruibal of USA Today, Int’l Pro Cycling Teams (IPCT) “may exclude Discovery because it signed Basso,” and while IPCT has “no direct authority to take sanctions, it has some influence in the sport. Idiots running the Tours in Denmark and Germany have already said Basso is “not invited.” Tour of Denmark Dir Jesper Worre: “Basso’s not welcome, and neither do we want Discovery to take part if they pursue this policy. Discovery has gotten themselves quite a number of minus points for signing Basso.” Discovery Team’s Lance Armstrong “Italy is a big market for [Discovery Channel] and France, too. The Tour de France is a very big event, so (Discovery Networks President) Billy Campbell was pretty adamant about signing Basso –- and winning the Tour.” And wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing…

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda
delinda@athlebrities.com