Showdown on Holden Field

By Richard Mineards   |   February 15, 2022
The San Clemente Breakers won their division and a grand slam at the Showdown Series (photo by Priscilla)

The lush fields of the Santa Barbara Polo Club were filled with competitors of a very different kind when high school age lacrosse players descended on the Carpinteria equestrian facility for a two-day Showdown Series organized by Cal Coast Sports Ventures.

The popular annual event, which was last held two years ago because of the pandemic, showcased 36 teams, each with 35 members, playing on eight fields divided from the club’s hallowed Holden Field featuring particularly springy Bermuda grass imported from Argentina by the club in 1927.

“It makes it the ideal location to play the game,” gushed tournament director Paul Ramsey. “It’s also fantastic to be back after the enforced layoff. And it couldn’t be the more perfect day.”

In due course a similar event for college players, the Santa Barbara Shootout, will be staged.

The San Marcos High lacrosse team won 2nd place (photo by Priscilla)

Great Scott, What a Recast

It’s one of the greatest recastings in Hollywood history.

Montecito actor Michael J. Fox will forever be known for his roles in the 1985 hit movie Back to the Future and its sequels.

But he was not originally cast to play the Marty McFly role.

Eric Stoltz was the first choice, but he was suddenly replaced after just a few weeks of shooting with Christopher Lloyd, also a resident of our rarefied enclave, who played eccentric inventor Emmett Brown, “worried” at the move.

“I had no idea a change was coming,” the 83-year-old actor tells GQ magazine.

“One night we were shooting the mall sequences and were asked to come to one of the trailers at one o’clock in the morning. Steven Spielberg was there and made an announcement of the change. They just decided they needed someone with a comic flair.”

But Lloyd’s main concern was whether he’d have the same energy with his character while shooting the scenes again with a new actor,

“I was worried about it, but it worked out,” he added. “We had a chemistry which lasted the whole time.”

The twosome became one of the most famous duos in movie history.

The Reign Continues

Carpinteria actor Kevin Costner, 67, is one happy camper.

The Oscar winner’s cowboy TV series Yellowstone has been officially renewed for a fifth season on the Paramount Network.

It comes after the hit show had 15 million viewers tuning in to watch the season four finale earlier this year, making it the most watched show on TV since 2017.

It also received its first Screen Actors Guild award nomination this year, going up against the likes of HBO’s family drama Succession.

Model Behavior 

Former Montecito Union School student Gigi Hadid is replacing British model-designer Alexa Chung on the second season of Netflix’s Next In Fashion.

The supermodel, 26, will co-host the next series alongside Queer Eye’s Tan France, 38, who presented the first season alongside Chung, also 38.

The show sees a group of innovative designers go head-to-head to become the next big name in the industry, with a $250,000 cash prize and the chance to debut their collection with Net-a-Porter.

Goop Guide Strikes Again

With Valentine’s Day looming large, Montecito actress Gwyneth Paltrow has just revealed her Goop gift guide for the occasion, and it will undoubtedly make you blush.

The Oscar winner’s guide features not one, but 40 different vibrators for both couples and singles on February 14.

The 49-year-old wellness guru and her team went all out curating this year’s list for “lovers and skeptics,” including a mixture of extravagant, ridiculous, and kinky gifts that Goop has become to be known for.

As well as the selection of good vibrations, the most over-the-top gift by far is the Moet & Chandon vending machine costing $38,000, but without even one bottle of bubbly!

Sightings 

TV producer Christopher Lloyd imbibing at the Manor Bar at the Rosewood Miramar… TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres shopping at the Montecito Country Mart… Actor Ashton Kutcher, wife Mila Kunis, and children at Toro Canyon Park.

Pip! Pip! Be safe, wear a mask when needed, and get vaccinated. 

 

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